13 by Javanese accent, because Javanese is the origin of the speaker in the video, Mr.
Ir. H. Joko Widodo as the President of Indonesia. According to Thurgood 2004, Javanese accent is famously known by its „breathy voice‟ in its consonants. These
breathy voice consonants are typical of Javanese phones which are often to be heard even when they speak in other languages. Thurgood 2004 states
“Javanese breathiness has often been described in connection with a light versus a heavy
series of obstruents. The two series contrast at five places of articulation labial, dental, retroflex, palatal, and velar in terms of the absence or presence of breathy
phonation” p. 279. This statement is supported by Horne 1961, who says “the light consonants are sharp and clear, while heavy consonants have a murmured,
fuzzy quality” p. 29. Javanese breathy consonants are the voiced consonants such: b, d,
ɖ, dʒ, g, while the light consonants are p, t, ƫ, tʃ, k. However, the breathy voice can be heard more obviously in the voiced consonants. There is
burst aspiration in the pronunciation of voiced consonants such: b, d, ɖ, dʒ, g
Thurgood, 2004. Besides the breathy voice, there are also more other types of pronunciation
variations which might exist in the pronunciation of English by Javanese people. A presentation speech in APEC CEO Summit 2014 by Ir. H. Joko Widodo as the
President of Indonesia becomes the example of English pronunciation variations with Javanese accent. The brief biography of Ir. H. Joko Widodo is explained
below.
14
B. Brief Biography of President of Indonesia, Ir. H. Joko Widodo
As an evidence that the accent which is used by Joko Widodo is Javanese accent, here is the brief biography of Joko Widodo as the President of Indonesia.
Ir. H. Joko Widodo is the 7
th
President of Indonesia since October 20, 2014 until now. He is a Javanese descent who was born in Surakarta of Central Java on June
21, 1961. His father‟s origin was from Karanganyar and his grandparents were
from Boyolali. Joko Widodo spent most of his life in Central Java, especially Surakarta. He was raised in Surakarta and studied from Elementary School until
Senior High School in Surakarta too. He continued his study at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta. After he finished his studies, he became a successful
businessman in Surakarta. In 2005, he became the Mayor of Surakarta for 7 years. In 2012, he started to leave Javanese region to become the Governor of Jakarta.
Then, he was elected as President of Indonesia in 2014.
C. Findings
This section presents the findings of the research. The findings are divided into two main parts. The first finding is the pronunciation variations of consonant
sounds. The second finding is the pronunciation variations of vowel sounds.
1. Consonants
The pronunciation variations in President Joko Wido do‟s speech are part
of phonological processes and grammatical influence. The variations are able to be categorized into two types of phonological processes. They are deletion
15 deletion of certain sounds during pronunciation and assimilation the change of
sound becomes other sound. In the deletion category, some of them can be included as standard variations of English pronunciation, but there are also other
variations of sound deletions. First, there are four types of sound deletions in this finding which are listed
and explained below.
a. Sound deletion of r
The deletion of r sound is rather similar to RP or British accent, where the deletion happens when the sound r is located in the middle of word or
between 2 other sounds, or when it is located as the word final. This r deletion is different from General American or GA accent, which is part as the standard
variants of English in the Inner Circle countries. The speakers of GA still tend to pronounce the r sound at any position in word front, middle, and final of a
word. Some examples of r deletion are in the pronunciation of „first‟ which is
pronounced as f :s instead of f :rst and the word „year‟ which is pronounced as
ji :instead of j :r.
b. Sound deletion of d or t
The sound deletion of d or t is common phonological process, even in the Inner Circle countries. This sound deletion of d or t is quite often being
spoken by English speakers both native and non-native. This sound deletion of d or t is also part of standard variants of English. Connine and Pinnow 2006 have
16 also put the example of this t or d sound deletion on the theory above. Some
common t or d sound deletion in the video of Mr. Joko Widodo‟s speech are in
the words „want‟, „last‟, „plant‟ and „island‟.
c. Sound deletion of s
The sound deletion s happens in the pronunciation of a word with ending „-nce‟, just like in the word „distance‟. Instead of pronouncing it as dɪstəns, Mr.
Joko Widodo pronounced it as dɪstən. If this word is pronounced separately from
the context, it might be misunderstood as the word „distant‟ as an adjective,
instead of ‟distance‟ as a noun. Besides that, the deletion of sound s also happens
in the pronunciation of the word „six‟. For few times, Mr. Joko Widodo
pronounced it as sɪk instead of sɪks, which can be misheard like the word „sick‟
if it is spoken out of the context.
d. Sound deletion of l
The deletion of sound l happens once, on the pronunciation of the word „health‟, which is pronounced as het instead of helθ. There are no more
evidence of other words with sound l deletion as the pronunciation variation which is different from standard English.
17
e. Sound deletion of n
Sound deletion n also happens once, like sound deletion l. It happens in the
pronunciation of the word „government‟, which was pronounced as gafəmən, instead of g
ʌvərnmənt. The sound n in the middle of the word is deleted.
Besides the sounds deletion of consonants, there are also sounds change that can be found in the video. In linguistics, the change of sound into another
similar sound is called as assimilation, which is part of phonological process. Those sounds change can be listed below.
Tabel 2.3 Findings of English Consonants Change
Standard English Pronunciation English Pronunciation Variations
by Mr. Joko Widodo ɹ
r θ
t ʃ
s v
f z
d ʒ
f. Sound change of ɹ becomes r
English native speakers in the Inner Circle countries, including standard English RP speakers, tend to pronounce the sound r as
ɹ, without strong vibration of the tongue. Bu
t in the video of President Joko Widodo‟s speech, the sound r is literally pronounced as r, with strong vibration of the tongue. In
some words, President pronounced the sound r with obvious vibration, but
18 sometimes he deleted the sound r. This is the reason the sound r is written in
both the list of sound deletion and also the list of sound change. Some examples where the sound r is pronounced with obvious vibration are in the words „your‟,
„refrigerators‟, „fertilizers‟, and „enterprise‟.
g. Sound change of θ becomes t
The first example of assimilation as the phonological process is the sound change of θ becomes t. The sounds θ does not exist in Javanese. Therefore,
they are pronounced to the most similar sound: t. It happens in the pronunciation of the word „thank‟ from „thank you‟. Mr. Joko Widodo pronounced it as t ŋkju,
instead of θæŋkju:. This sound change also happen in the pronunciation of the word „thousand‟, which was pronounced as t usən, instead of θaʊznd.
h. Sound change of ʃ becomes s
The sound ʃ does not exist in Javanese language. Therefore, it is
pronounced to the most similar sound s. In the speech video, it happens in the pronunciation of
„fisherman‟, which is pronounced as fisərmen, instead of f
ɪʃəmən. It also can be heard obviously in the word „show‟, which is pronounced as so, instead of
ʃoʊ.
i. Sound change of v becomes f
19 In both Javanese and Indonesian, the sounds v is always pronounced
voiceless as f. The voiced sound v is very uncommon in Javanese accent. It can be heard during Mr. Joko Widodo‟s speech, when he pronounced words
which consist the sound v, he pronounced them as voiceless sound f. For example, in the pronunciation of the word „vessel‟, instead of pronouncing it as
ves əl, Mr. Joko Widodo pronounced it as fesəl. However, this sound change of
v into f does not always happen that way during Mr. Joko Widodo‟s speech.
For example, when he pronounced the word „seven‟, he was still able to pronounce it as s v
ən, with the voiced sound v still can be heard.
j. Sound change of z becomes dʒ
The sound change of z becomes d ʒ happens in the pronunciation of the
word „zone‟. President Joko Widodo pronounced it as dʒon, insead of zoʊn. It happens because the sound z is rarely or almost never used in both Javanese and
Indonesian. The closer sounds to z are d ʒ and s.
Besides the pronunciation variations which are based on theory of phonological processes, there are also unusual or unique pronunciation variations
of President‟s English speech with Javanese accent. The other variation which is influenced by Javanese accent is the pronunciation of some consonants, like the
sounds b, d, g, and d ʒ. Those voiced consonants do not change into other
similar sounds like in assimilation phonological process, but they are pronounced in a little bit unique way. Those voiced consonants are pronounced with aspiration
