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informants owing, for example, to age difference. The specific sounds of the language along with the similarities and differences of pronunciations were then
described phonologically. John W Creswell 2012: 16 explains that the literature may yield very little information about the phenomenon of the study, so the writer
needed to learn more from the participants or informants through observation. According to Erickson in Schunk 1986: 12, observation is a method of viewing
and recording the participants. In this work, the present writer observed and recorded four Nataia native speakers as they were reading Oko Utu text. In
addition, the writer also observed and recorded two Nataia girls as they were pronouncing 18 English words that contain six characteristic English phonemes
i.e., . ð, θ, ʃ, ʒ , ʧ and ʤ .
3.3. Procedures of Data Collection
The present writer picked and chose data about English phonology from various sources, especially from the works of noted phonologists such as Daniel
Jones 1938, Ladefoged 1993, Collins and Mees 2003, Stewart C Pool 1999, Aitchison 2003 and Giegerich 1992 just to mention a few. As for the
phonology of Nataia, the writer designed a narrative text of Oko Utu which contains a long monologue in the meeting of an extended family of Nataia. The
text ensures that all the phonemes of Nataia, both segmental and suprasegmental, are represented there. Then, the writer sent the text to four villages Watuwawi,
Boanio, Kotakisa and Boaroja in the north central Flores where four native speakers of the local language were asked to read it.
The pronunciations of the four native speakers were recorded separately and then sent back to Yogyakarta by voice mail. Finally, the present writer made a
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phonetic transcription of the text and identified words containing vowels and consonants of Nataia which occupy different positions initial, medial and final in
a word. To identify a vowel sound such as [ɑ], for example, the writer used a minimal set. [ɑ] in ‘ani ‘honey’ was contrasted with [ɑ] in katu ‘wrap’ and [ɑ]
in tena ‘let’. In the word ‘ani ‘honey’, [ɑ] occupies the initial position, in the word katu ‘wrap’ [ɑ] occupies the medial position, while in tena ‘let’, [ɑ] occupies
the final position. Any other vowel sounds of Nataia such as [ɪ], [e], [u], [ɔ] along with their long counterparts such as [ɪ:], [e:], [u:], and [ᴐ:] can
occupy all the three positions. Only the schwa [ə] cannot occupy the coda position.
In order to identify consonant sounds such as [s] and [t], the writer a l s o relied on a minimal pair. The sound [s] as in sogo ‘borrow’ was contrasted
with [t] as in togo [t
h
ɔgɔ] ’forge ’. A consonant sound of Nataia cannot occupy the final position of a word, because the local language is vocalic. In order
to identify other consonant sounds, the writer also relied on a minimal pair and a minimal set. A consonant sound such as [b] in bo’a ‘village’ was contrasted with
[t] as in to’a ‘generous’ and [k] as in ko’a ‘perch on’ of birds. The writer used a minimal pair as well as a minimal set to identify all the other consonant
sounds of the local language. Additionally, the present writer also tried to find out what English consonant
sounds may be difficult for Nataia speakers learning English phonology by observing and recording two Nataia girls as they were pronouncing 18 English
words. These 18 words contain six specific English sounds i.e., ʃ, θ, Ʒ, ð, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
44
dƷ, and tʃ which occupy the initial, medial, and final positions of English words.
3.4. Procedures of Data Analysis
Robert Lado 1981: 12 proposes a three-stage procedure in handling contrastive phonological data. The procedure involves:
1. Analysis of sound systems A contrastive analyst, Lado proposes, should first of all prepare a linguistic
analysis of the sound system of the language to be learned and a similar description of the language of the learner. He also recommends that the
descriptions include both segmental and non-segmental phonemes along with relevant data on the phonetic features of the phonemes, their variants and
distributions. All that Lado recommends for a good description of the sound system of
English the language to be learned was already supplied in Chapter 2. On the opposite side, all that he demands for a good description of the sound system of
Nataia language of the learner is supplied in Chapter 4. At the moment, the present writer would just like to briefly attend to each of the issues mentioned
above. The issue of phonemes along with their variants allophones, for instance, is exemplified in the following illustrative example. Both in English and Nataia,
the voiceless oral stops [p], [t], and [k] are aspirated such as in the first [p] of paper in English and the first [p] of pare ‘rice’ in Nataia. However, unlike
English which has variants such as unaspirated [p] in split and unreleased [p] in flap , Nataia does not have any variants allophones of the phoneme p. This is
because the main syllable structure of Nataia is of the CV type. Accordingly, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
45
every p in the Nataia is always the onset of a syllable and thus always aspirated. The same rule applies to the phonemes t, and k of Nataia.
Next, comes the issue of distribution. English and Nataia are very different in the distribution of their phonemes. The difference is detected most clearly in the
formation of their syllables. A syllable of Nataia is composed simply of one consonant and one vowel CV type or just one vowel V type. Take the word
mona ‘negation’ as an example. The first syllable of mona is mo- CV and the second syllable is -na which is also of CV type. On the opposite side, English
allows various types of combinations of consonants and vowels. Edward Finegan 2004: 127, provides examples of the rich combinations in such words as past
CVCC, turned CVCCC, queen CCVC, and squirts CCCVCCC. As to the suprasegmental phonemes, the two languages are also very
different. Stress in English, for instance, is to a limited extent phonemic. Stannard Allen 1954: 182 provides a long list of English words in which stress can be on
the first or on the second syllable. Examples: This article is for export only noun.
We try to ex port as much as possible verb. In the Nataia, stress which is not
phonemic can practically be assigned on just any syllable, although the general rule is that the stress is assigned on the syllable before the last penultimate stress.
2. Comparison of units Lado advises a contrastive analyst to take up each similar phoneme of
the two languages and put them side by side. By way of juxtaposition, an analyst can detect how many phonemes of the two languages are phonetically similar. The present
writer found out that theconsonant phonemesof English and Nataia are generally similar. What is specific of Nataia is that the local language has three implosive sounds, i.e.,
