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In this research, the vowel breaking phenomenon appeared in two cases.
The first case was the breaking of single vowel sound ʌ into diphthong sound
aʊ. As observed on the table, the representative example for the first case was
the word country
[ˈkʌn.tri]. Most participants mispronounced the word to become [ˈkaʊn.tri], allowing the diphthongization result to replace the single vowel
sound. The second case was the breaking of single vowel
ə into diphthong eɪ.
The breaking can be seen in the word foreign
[ˈfɔːr.ən], which most participants pronounced [ˈfor.eɪn]. The diphthong sound eɪ replaces schwa sound ə.
Although both cases did not share the same phonetic features to change, the cause of this phenomenon was simply similar to each other. Yulia and Ena 2004 state
Indonesian spelling is identical to the pronunciation. It means the vowel-breaking occurrence in this case was caused by most participants who pronounced those
words identically to the word spelling.
6. Assimilation
Assimilation refers to the sound change due to the influence of one sound upon each other resulting in the two similar sounds. Assimilation phenomenon is
divided into three types: palatalization, nasalization, and final devoicing Crowley, 1992: p. 49-56. In this research, the assimilation types occurred only in
final devoicing; allowing the final voiced sound into voiceless one. The sounds containing final devoicing phenomenon are available in the Table 4.6.
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Table 4.6 The Classification of Words Affected by Assimilation Words
Longman Dictionary
Participants’ Pronunciation
Changes
Appears ə
ˈpɪə
r
z
ə ˈpɪə
r
s z
s
Because b
ɪˈk ːz
b
ɪ ˈkos z
s
Believe b
ɪˈliːv
bə
ˈliːf v
f
Cases ke
ɪs. ɪz
kes.
ɪs z
s
Change t
ʃeɪndʒ
t
ʃens dʒ
s
Does d
ʌz
d
ʌs z
s
Give g
ɪv
g
ɪf v
f
Good g
ʊd
g
ʊt d
t
Have hæv
hef v
f
Individuals
ˌɪn.dɪˈvɪd.ju.əlz ˌɪn.dɪˈfɪd.u.əls
z s
Influences
ˈɪn.flu.əns.ɪz ˈɪn.flu.ens.ɪs
z s
Native
ˈneɪ.tɪv ˈne.tɪf
v f
Of
ːv of
v f
Recognize
ˈrek.əg.naɪz ˈrɪk.og.naɪs
z s
Theories
ˈθɪə.ri:z ˈteo.ri:s
z s
By referring to the table above, final devoicing occurrence in participants‟ pronunciations involved four final voiced sounds to change. For example, in word
because [
bɪˈkɑːz]. The researcher found that participants pronounced [bɪ ˈkos];
indicating the assimilation between z and s. The next example of final
devoicing assimilation was the word believe
[bɪˈliːv] to change into [bəˈliːf], allowing the final devoicing from voiced labiodental fricative v into the
voiceless one f. In Indonesian language sound system, as explained by Yulia and Ena 2004, the sound z and s are allophonic as well as the sound v and f.
