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bilabial implosive β, alveolar implosive ɗ, and velar implosive ğ, plus one alveolar fricativeřand one velar fricativeɣ.On the oppositeside, English has six characteristic
sounds: two interdentals i.e., [ð] and [θ], two fricatives i.e., [ʃ] and [ʒ], and two affricates i.e., [ʤ] and [ʧ] in its inventory.
3. Location of segmental and suprasegmental problems The six characteristic English sounds: interdentals [ð] and [θ], fricatives [ʃ]
and [ʒ], and affricates [ʤ] and [ʧ] prove to pose great pronunciation problems for a Nataia speaker learning English phonology. The problem gets even worse
because stress and rhythm turn out to be another potential hurdle. The reason is that stress in Nataia is not phonemic, while in English it is to a limited extent phonemic,
i.e it can differentiate words. Rhythm poses a bigger problem because Nataia is a syllabe-timed language and English is a stress-timed language. The length of an
utterance in Nataia depends on the number of syllables, whereas the length of an utterance in English depends entirely on the number of its stressed-syllables. The
logical consequence is that a Nataia speaker finds it difficult to adapt to the rhythmic patterns of English and tend to speak the foreign language with a
syllable-timed rhythm. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
Results and Analysis are divided into three sections. Section One is concerned mainly with N a t a i a segmental phonemes: how each vowel and
consonant phoneme of the language is identified, how the vowel and consonant phonemes are distributed, how the vowel and consonant phonemes are organized,
and what phonemes of the language are considered unique. A careful and detailed identification the Nataia segmental phonemes is expected to lead to the
answer to the first research question of this thesis: What are the vowel and consonant phonemes found in Nataia?
4.1 Nataia Segmental Phonemes
Segmental phonemes comprise vowels and consonants, which for the sake of convenience, are here treated separately as follows:
4.1.1 Nataia Vowel Phonemes
The core business of a phonetician is to describe global speech sounds, including, of course, those of a small local language such as Nataia. An
inquisitive phonetician may want to know what the speech sounds of Nataia are, how they form patterns and how they adapt to changing circumstances.
Additionally, a phonetician is eager to reveal which aspects of the sounds express the meaning of what is being said. In order to get to those purposes, a phonetician
should first observe what the Nataia people are doing as they are talking and listening to speech.
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As a matter of fact, the task of a curious phonetician in this case has already been made easier. This is partly due to the presence of Oko Utu, a research text
that contains interesting pieces of linguistic information about Nataia. In terms of phonology, the text clearly echoes the pronunciations of four native speakers of
Nataia from which the vowels and consonants of the local language are brought out into the open.
Out of the recording, the present writer succeeded in tracking down all the vowel and consonant phonemes of Nataia. The tracking down was done by way of
a commutation test a minimal pair test and a minimal set test.
Table 4.1 Commutation Test of Nataia Vowels Position
Phoneme Words
Meaning
High Front Vowels
i bire
no negation e
bere flood
i mia
massage e
mea ashamed
i kia
dirty of head e
kea declare
i nia
face e
nea noprohibition
High Back Vowels
u mua
grease ᴐ
moa thirsty
u ku’a
break to pieces ᴐ
ko’a perch on of birds
u sua
open up ᴐ
soa lighten
u pua
poak at of fruit ᴐ
poa morning
Central Vowels
ɑ ana
sondaughter ə
`ena there
ɑ aka
pretend ə
`eka think
ɑ asu
dark of skin ə
`esu remove
ɑ ata
stranger ə
`eta fishy
