Research Data Data Gathering Technique

62 The first step of the data analysis technique is providing the phonemic inventory of English and Cantonese. So in this step, the writer, acting as the contrastivist had the list of all the cardinal consonants of the two contrasted languages inventoried these inventory table is an adaptation of the IPA charts, like what can be seen in the second chapter of this research. By conducting this step, the writer acquired the total number of the consonants of English and Cantonese, together with their place of articulation, manner of articulation, and whether they are voiced or voiceless. The first step involves articulatory phonetics approach. Concerning this descriptive first step, however, James 1980 says that, “it is not really part of Contrastive Analysis since for most languages a phonemic inventory will already have been made available by the phonologist. The contrastivist‟s task consists in equating phonological categories across the two languages ”. According to him, the consonants of L1 and L2 can indeed “conveniently be classified according to place and manner of articulation and placed in the appropriate cell of the IPA chart, with voicelessvoiced pairs e.g. p : b appearing in this order consistently p. 75 ”. Based on this explanation, it can be concluded that this step is still significant, necessary and feasible to be conducted in this research. The following tables illustrate the kind of table that is used in re-presenting the inventories to be analyzed. 63 Manner Plosive Nasal Fricative Place VCL VCD VCL VCD VCL VCD Bilabial p b - m - - Labio-dental - - - - f v Table 3.1 Sample of English Phonemic Inventory Table 3.1 serves as a sample of the phonemic inventory used in this research. It presents a part of English consonants list. It features five of a total of twenty four English consonants, namely: p, b, m, f, and v. Like James 1980 instructed, the consonants are classified, each according to its place and manner of articulation, together with its voicelessvoiced VCLVCD pair. From the table, it can be identified that English language has one voiceless bilabial plosive sound, which is p. It also has a voiced labio-dental fricative v, and so on. The format of the table is adapted from James 1980, p. 76, the data presented here taken from Collins and Mees 2003, p. 40, and Indriani 2005, p. 8. Manner Plosive Nasal Fricative Place VCL VCD VCL VCD VCL VCD Bilabial p p h - - m - - Labio-dental - - - - f - Table 3.2 Sample of Cantonese Phonemic Inventory Similar to its counterpart, Table 3.2 presents a part of Cantonese consonants list. It features four of a total known nineteen Cantonese cardinal consonants,