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a. θ [t] V , as is seen in the word thin θɪn which is pronounced as tɪn. Consonant θ becomes [t] in the environment before a vowel in the word thin.
In other words, θ changes into t in the initial position before a vowel. b. θ [t] V V, as is seen in the word authorᴐ:θər which is pronounced as
ᴐ:tər. Consonant θ becomes [t] in the environment between vowels in the word author. In other words, θ becomes [t] between vowels in the medial
position. c. θ [t] V
as is seen in the word breath breθ which is pronounced as bret. Consonant θ becomes [t] in the environment after a vowel in the word breath.
In other words, θ becomes [t] after a vowel in the final position.
2. Voiced Dental Fricative Consonant ð
The two informants failed to produce the sound ð correctly. The description of how the consonant ð changes is as follows:
a. ð [d] V, as is seen in the word then ðɛn which is pronounced as den. ð becomes d in the environment before a vowel in the word then. In other
words, ð becomes d when ð occupies the initial position, preceding a vowel.
b. ð [d] V V , as is seen in the word leather lɛðɛr which is pronounced as leder. ð becomes [d] in the environment between vowels such as in
the word ‘leather’. In this case, ð also changes into [d] when it occupies the medial position.
c. ðs V __ as is seen in the word breethe bri:ð which is pronounced as bri:s. ð becomes s in the environment after a vowel in the final position as in
the word breethe. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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3. Voiceless Palato Alveolar Fricative Consonant ʃ
The two informants did not pronounce the sound ʃ correctly. a. ʃ [s] V, as is seen in the word shin ʃɪn which is pronounced as sɪn. ʃ
becomes [s] in the environment before a vowel in the word shin. In other words, ʃ changes into [s] before a vowel in the initial position.
b. ʃ [s] V V , as is seen in the word rashes ræʃɪz which is pronounced as
ræsis. ʃ becomes [s] in the environment between vowels in the word rashes. In other words, ʃ becomes [s] between vowels in the medial
position. c. ʃ [s]V
, as is seen in the word rush rʌʃ which is pronounced as rʌs. ʃ becomes [s] in the environment after a vowel in the word rush. In other words,
ʃ becomes [s] before a vowel in the final position of a word.
4. Voiced Palato-alveolar Fricative Consonant ʒ
The two informants did not pronounce the sound ʒ correctly. a. ʒ [z] V, as is seen in the word genre ʒʌŋre which is pronounced as
zʌŋre. ʒ becomes [z] in the environment before a vowel in the word genre. In other words, ʒ becomes [z] in the environment before a vowel in the initial
position. b. ʒ [z] V V, as is seen in the word measure mɛʒɛ which is pronounced as
mɛzɛ. Consonant ʒ becomes [z] in the environment between vowels in the word measure. In other words, ʒ becomes [z] in the environment between
vowels in the medial position. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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c. ʒ [z] V __ as is seen in the word rouge ru:ʒ which is pronounced as ru:z. ʒ becomes [z] in the environment after a vowel in the word rouge. In
other words, ʒ becomes [z] after a vowel in the final position.
5. Voiceless Palato-alveolar Affricate Consonant tʃ
The two informants did not pronounce the sound tʃ correctly. a. tʃ [c]
V, as is seen in the word church tʃə:tʃ which is pronounced as cə:c. tʃ becomes [c] in the environment before a vowel in the word church.
In other words, tʃ becomes [c] in the environment before a vowel in the initial position.
b. tʃ [c]V V , as is seen in the word kitchen k
h
ɪtʃən which is pronounced as k
h
itcən. tʃ [c] in the environment between vowels in the word kitchen. In other words, tʃ becomes [c] between vowels in the medial position of a
word. c. tʃ [c]V
as is seen in the word pitch p
h
itʃ which is pronounced as p
h
ic. tʃ [c] in the environment after a vowel in the word pitch. In other words, tʃ becomes [c] after a vowel in the final position.
6. Voiced Palato-alveolar Affricate Consonant dʒ.
The two girls did not pronounce the sound dʒ correctly. a. dʒ [j]
V, as is seen in the word jelly dʒelɪ which is pronounced as jeli. dʒ becomes [j] in the environment before a vowel in the word jelly. In other
words, dʒ becomes [j] in the initial position of a word. b. dʒ [j]V V as is seen in the word bludgeon blʌdʒən which is pronounced
as blʌjən. dʒ becomes [j] in the environment between vowels in the word PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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bludgeon. In other words, dʒ becomes [j] between vowels in the medial position.
c. dʒ [j]V as is seen in the word fudge fʌdʒ which is pronounced simply as fʌj. dʒ becomes [j] in the environment after a vowel in the word fudge
in the final position. It is interesting to notice that the substitution of an English sound with a Nataia
sound by the two young female speakers of Nataia above occurs systematically. Both girls, for instance, substituted the English voiceless dental fricative θ with
the Nataia voiceless alveolar stop t in the initial, medial, and final position of a word. They also substituted the English voiced d e n t a l fricative ð with
the Nataia voiced dental stop d in the initial and medial positions, and they substituted English voiced dental fricative ð in the final position with Nataia s
which is a voiceless alveolar fricative. The two girls substituted the English voiceless palato-alveolar fricative ʃ
with the Nataia voiceless alveolar fricative s and English voiced palato-alveolar fricative ʒ with the Nataia voiced alveolar fricative z in all the three positions.
They substituted the English voiceless palato-alveolar affricate tʃ with the Nataia voiceless alveolar fricative c. Finally, they substituted the English voiced
palato-alveolar fricative dʒ with the Nataia voiced palato-aveolar j. Alip 2016: 159 notices at least two reasons behind such systematic
phonological alterations. Firstly, the well-versed English teacher asserts, phonological deviations are detected not only in the individual speakers but
also in the speech of speakers of a certain language. This so happens, he explains, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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because the local people share similar features of language competence and performance which influence their English competence and performance.
In addition, the deviant forms of phonological phenomena, Alip argues, can occur both in the segmental and suprasegmental aspects of the language. The
segmental deviations cover different realizations of speech sounds. A sound can substitute another, only if they share certain phonetic features. Phonologically
speaking, Alip explains, they must belong to a certain natural class where they share at least one common feature. Therefore, the most potential candidates are
those which share the most features. It is understandable, he ascertains, that the more potential substitute for ʃ, for instance, is s, not z because the former
shares not only the manner feature + fricative but also the voicing feature -voiced. Similarly, the English phoneme ð which is a voiced dental fricative is
substituted in Nataia by d which is a voiced dental stop. It is important to note, however, that deviant phonological forms or
phonological errors normally occur in a communicative setting. In fact, they are spoken errors that an L1 speaker makes in an effort to produce L2 ‘unknown’
sounds. In language acquisition, language teachers usually categorize errors into two types: global and local. Global phonological errors are deviant spoken forms
which lead to a breakdown of intelligibility i.e., a listener fails to understand what a speaker puts forward in a face-to-face communication. Local errors do not cause a
breakdown of intelligibility but only disturb communications. Regarding local errors, Collins and Mees 2003:186 assert that some “give rise to irritation and
amusements’ while some others ‘may even pass unnoticed”. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Special notes need to be taken about the pronunciations of the two Nataia female speakers who became informants in the research above. It is true that the
two girls mispronounced all the 18 data indicator words, but they did not produce the errors within a communicative context. In fact, the errors appeared when the
two girls were asked merely to repeat the pronunciations of the present writer. No wonder, therefore, their pronunciation errors did not result in any communication
effects. Their errors merely pointed to one thing: the six specific English sounds are really difficult for the two Nataia speakers to pronounce.
From the perspective of a contrastive analysist, the two girls’ failure to produce the six specific sounds of English is a clear proof that ‘unknown’ sounds
of L2 may cause difficulties. In the light of foreign language acquisition, however, the errors may also be attributed to a different cause i.e., Nataia learners are not yet
adequately exposed to spoken English. Without sufficient exposure to spoken English, Nataia native speakers can never properly produce and recognize the
specific English sounds in their right communicative contexts. However, it is very difficult for Nataia speakers to meet the need for sufficient
exposure . The reason is that English is a foreign language for them, just like for other Indonesians in general. In such a position, English is almost never used in
personal domains, such as family life or friendship. To regularly use English in personal domains, people need an English speech community, which is rarely
found in Indonesia. Of course, there are some but they are confined within the four walls of foreign institutions, English educational institutions, and bilingual schools.
Outside the dividing walls, Alip argues 2016: 13, English remains a subject of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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intellectual study which never assumes its practical functions as a language of social interactions.
In the face of such a situation, Alip advises English teachers to be realistic in their expectations of their students’ mastery of spoken English. A perfect
command of English phonology for Indonesians in general, the English teacher explains, is just beyond reach. However, English teachers in this country should
not be discouraged if they still find some foreign accent in their students’ pronunciation. It is enough if the students can produce “intelligible English sounds
without distracting or irritating effects for the listeners’ Collins and Mees, 2003: 186.
It is generally believed that extensive exposure to good pronunciation is the key to solving segmental phonological problems such as above. Based on such a
belief, intending English teachers should first equip themselves with good pronunciation because they are to become models for their students to emulate.
This is an important requirement because only competent teachers can help their students to improve their active pronunciation. In the exercises that use minimal
pair drills, for instance, only teachers with good pronunciation can be in charge. Fortunately, in the present-day world, digital dictionaries can take over the role of
a teacher as model. Indeed, present-day learners can hear the native pronunciation of words in their citation forms in the digital dictionaries. However, as words are
never spoken in isolation, Alip 2016: 16 recommends that English teachers also assign their students to read particular passages such as news items to improve
active pronunciations in connected speech. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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4.3 English Suprasegmental Phonemes with Potential Difficulties
This is Section Three in which the present writer explains why Nataia native speakers may find it difficult to deal with English ‘stress and rhythm’. This
explanation is expected to lead to the answer to the third research question of this thesis: What suprasegmental phonemes of English may cause difficulties
for Nataia speakers in learning English phonology? Fromkin, Blair and Collins 1996:2 state that part of knowing a language is
‘knowing what sounds…are in that language and what sounds are not’. This statement proves to be true whenever the present writer listens to the way
Tadeus Leu 72, one of the four respondents of this work, pronouncing the word Stanis 32 of the appendix. Leu fa il e d to pronounce the word Stanis correctly
because as a Nataia native speaker, he is not familiar with a sequence of consonant sounds. A Nataia native speaker has to turn a complex syllable onset
such as [st] into a separate syllable in order to suit the phonotactic rule of the local language. Therefore, the Christian name Stanis i s r e analyzed into a
trisyllabic word and finally pronounced as [sətɑni]. Additional phonological problems appear when Leu inserted [ə] between the consonant sequence [st] and
dropped the sound [s] from the coda position. Based on the illustrative example above, a contrastive analyst can easily predict
that a Nataia speaker learning English phonology will often be confronted with a problem of consonant cluster. Of course, a consonant cluster may pose a big
problem for Nataia speakers because Nataia is a vocalic language which has only CV and V syllables. On the opposite end, English allows a huge number of its words to
have consonant clusters in the initial as well as in the final positions of its words. In PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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other words, a Nataia speaker will often be made busy reanalyzing English consonant clusters into separate syllables in order to suit the phonotactic rules of the
local language. Speak, which is a mono-syllabic word, for instance, will have to be reanalyzed into a bisyllabic word, the result of which is a deviant form [sǝpi:k].
It is important to note, however, that pronunciation is not merely a mastery of individual sounds and sound sequences. Language as a system requires various
combinations of linguistic units, where not only sounds matter Alip, 2016: 16. The units which operate above individual sounds and sound clusters are generally
referred to as suprasegmentals. In English, the most relevant suprasegmental features are stress and rhythm Collins Mees, 2003: 109.
Stress is basically the relative prominence of syllables because what receives stress either primary or secondary are syllables, not individual sounds Alip,
2016: 17. For a Nataia native speaker, English stress is certainly challenging because in the local language, stress is not phonemic and
unsystematic. Stress in Nataia is generally assigned on the syllable before the last penultimate stress. In actual practice, however, Nataia native
speakers sometimes assign stress on any syllable, depending on the communication effect they wish to create. On the opposite end, English stress is to
a limited extent phonemic Giegerich, 1992: 180. There are some pairs of English words which are segmentally identical but distinct in meaning, owing to a
difference in stress placement such as ‘differ vs de’fer. In addition, Giegerich ascertains, there are a number of noun-verb pairs such as ‘pervert and per’vert
where stress placement signals a different syntactic category. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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When speaking English, Nataia speakers may not realize that different positions of stress may lead to different meanings. So they may assign the wrong
stress in words such as differ and defer etc, resulting in global errors which cause a problem of intelligibility. Assignment of wrong stress on words such as import
and export, however, only results in a minor problem of ‘irritation or amusement’, which accentuates a foreign accent of a non-native speaker.
Fortunately, on the whole, Giegerich explains 1992: 180, the phonemic function of stress in English is not very significant. In a vast majority of English
words, the noted phonetician asserts, stress does not give rise to phonemic distinctions. Still, Giegerich further ascertains, speakers cannot assign stress on
whichever syllable they like because each English word has a single possible stress pattern. Thus, word stress i.e., the stress position in an English word can become a
huge problem for Nataia speakers. A three syllable word such as diligent should have an antepenultimate stress i.e., the stress is on the third syllable from behind.
However, in Nataia where most words consist only of two syllables, word stress is generally on the penultimate syllable the syllable before the last one. As a
result, the E n g l i s h word is m o r e l ikely to be pronounced as [dɪ’lɪdʒənt], rather than [‘dɪlɪdʒənt], the standard British English BE pronunciation as shown
in Hornby’s Oxtord Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English 1974. It is also likely that every one of the three syllables receives equal stress and the word
is then pronounced as [‘dɪ’lɪ’dʒənt] because Nataia speakers sometimes assign stress on any syllable,.
Given a limited number of minimal pairs in which stress is phonemic, Giegerich concludes, the main function of stress in English cannot be to
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differentiate words, but to maintain rhythm in connected speech 1992: 181. Rhythm is “the patterns of the timing of syllables in speech” Collins and Mees,
2003: 248. Syllables in English are pronounced in different timing or length of utterance based on their significance in the utterance Alip, 2016: 20. Certain
words or syllables, are more significant than others, so they receive more prominence and accordingly, they require more time. Syllables which are not so
significant, the well-versed English teacher asserts, are made less prominent by assigning less time in their pronunciation. As a result, time reduction in syllables
might end up with a weak form, a contracted form or even a syllable omission. As a general rule, the English words that are most likely to receive stress are
those termed content words, namely nouns, adjectives, adverbs and main verbs. These are words that normally carry a high information load Collins and Mees,
2003”: 16. On the opposite side are function words that carry relatively little information load; their role is holding the sentence together. Unlike content
words, the two phonologists argue, function words for the most part carry little or no stress. Only two types of functions words, they further explain, are
regularly stressed: the demonstratives e.g this, that, those and wh-interrogatives e.g. where, which, who, how. When wh-words are used as
relatives, however, they are unstressed. Now, look at the following example: ‘Eli has de’cided to ‘fetch him from the ‘station ‘eli ǝz dǝ’saɪdɪd tǝ ‘fɛʧ ǝm
frǝm ðǝ ‘steiʃǝn. Here the words ‘has, to, him, from, the’ are all unstressed and reduced to ǝz tǝ ǝr frǝm ðǝ. Out of the nine words in the utterance, only
four‘Eli, decided, fetch, station’ are stressed. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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As in English stress isochrony equality in time is preferred, stressed syllables must occur at roughly equal time intervals Alip, 2016: 20. Thus, the
pronunciations of ‘Eli has de should be roughly equivalent to ‘cided to, ‘fetch him from the and ‘station’, respectively although syllable-wise they are different
in number. Phonologists have introduced the term foot to indicate the timing units in an
utterance. Foot is “ a stretch of phonetic material that begins at the onset of a stressed syllable and ends at the onset of the next syllable Giegerich, 1992: 181.
Thus, a foot starts with a stressed syllable and continues up to, but not including, the next stressed syllable McMahon, 2002: 124. In the above example, there
are four feet : ‘Eli has de, ‘cided to, ‘fetch him from the, and ‘station. The first foot consists of four syllables, the second three, the third four and the last two.
This simple example clearly reflects the concept of rhythm and foot, where the timing of an utterance depends on the number of feet rather than on the number
of syllables. This simple example also represents the concept of English as a stress-timed language, in which the length of an utterance depends particularly
on the number of stressed syllables. Above all, this simple example clearly shows how spoken English relies very much on the marked contrast between its
stressed strong and unstressed weak syllables to exhibit its characteristic rhythmic patterns.
A lot of languages make very little difference between syllables in the matter of stress. As a consequence, native speakers of such languages usually
find it difficult to achieve a natural speech-flow in English Stannard Allen, 1960:1. This is also true for native speakers of Nataia, a syllable-timed
