] Diphthong English Sound Production

28 entities p. 76. In the following part, it will be presented the description of each dipthong. 1 Centring Diphthongs [ɪ ə], [ ə], [ʊə] According to Indriani 2005, when [ɪ ə] sound is produced, the tongue glide begins with a tongue position approximately that used for [ɪ], i.e. centralized front half-close, and moves in the direction of the more open variety of [ ə] when [ɪ ə] is final in the word; in non-final positions. The lips are neutral throughout, with a slight movement from spread to open p. 84. For example, fear [fɪ ə], near [nɪ ə], and era [ɪərə]. Furthermore when [ ə] sound is produced, the tongue glide begins in the half-open front position, i.e. approximately [ ], and moves in the direction of the more open variety of [ ə]. Where [ ə] occurs in a syllable closed by a consonant the [ ə] element tends to be a mind [ə] type. The lips are neutrally open through-out p. 86. For example, care [k ə], share [ʃ ə], and dare [d ə]. Meanwhile, Indriani 2001 also stated that when [ʊ ə] sound is produced, the tongue glides from a tongue position similar to that used for [ʊ] towards the more open type of [ ə] which forms the end-point of all three centring diphthongs with, again, a somewhat closer variety of [ ə] when the diphthong occurs in a closed syllable. The lips are weakly rounded at the beginning of the glide, becoming neutrally spread as the glide progresses p. 87. For example, poor [pʊ ə], pure [pjʊ ə], and sure [ ʃ ʊ ə]. 29 2 Closing Fronting Diphthongs [eɪ], [aɪ], [ ᴐɪ] [eɪ], [aɪ], and [ ᴐɪ] are closing fronting diphthongs. According to Indriani 2005, when [eɪ] sound is produced, the tongue glide begins from slightly below the half-close front position and moves in the direction of [ɪ], there being a slight closing movement of the lower jaw, the lips are spread p. 77. For example, late [leɪt], make [meɪk], and lady [leɪdi]. Furthermore, when [aɪ] sound is produced, the tongue glide begins at a point slightly behind the front open position, and moves in the direction of the position associated with [ɪ]; the lips change from a neutral to a loosely spread position p.78. For example, time [taɪm], write [raɪt], and bite [baɪt]. Meanwhlie, when [ ᴐɪ] sound is produced, the tongue glide begins at a point between the back half-open positions and moves in the direction of [ɪ]; the lips are open rounded for the first element, changing to the neutral for the second element p. 80. For example, oil [ ᴐɪl], join [d ʒᴐɪn], and coin [kᴐɪn]. 3 Closing Backing Diphthongs [ əʊ] and [aʊ] [ əʊ] and [aʊ] are closing backing diphthongs. According to Indriani 2005, when [ əʊ] sound is produced, the tongue glide begins at a central position, between half-close and half-open, and moves in the direction of [ʊ], there being a slight closing movement of the lower jaw; the lips are neutral for the first element, but have a tendency to round on the second element p. 81. For example, old [ əʊld], home [həʊm], and both [bəʊө]. Therefore, when [aʊ] sound 30 is produced, the tongue glide begins at a point between the back and front open positions, slightly more fronted than the position for [a:], and moves in the direction of [ʊ], though the tongue may not be raised higher than the half-close level. The lips change from a neutrally open to a weakly rounded position p. 82. For example, house [haʊs], sound [saʊnd], and cow [kaʊ]. In addition, Collin and Mees 2003 state that there are two diphthongs in English, first is centring diphthongs which are produced by the movement of the tongue from peripheral to central position, and second is closing diphthongs which are produced by the position of the tongue from mid or low to high position p. 98. Furthermore, Collin and Mees 2003 state that the closing diphthongs can be devided into two, namely, fronting and backing diphthong p. 98. Fronting diphthong is produced by the movement towards a close front vowel. The characteristic of fronting diphthong is end with the sound [ɪ]. There are three sounds which are placed in fronting diphthong. They are the sounds [eɪ] as in the word aim [eɪm], the sound [aɪ] as in the word ice [aɪs], and the sound [ ᴐɪ] in the word oil [ ᴐɪl]. Meanwhile, backing diphthong, end with the sound [ʊ], is produced with the movement towards a close back vowel. There are only two sounds which is placed in backing diphthong. They are the sound [ əʊ] as in the word phone [f əʊn] and the sound [aʊ] as in the word sound [saʊnd] Collins and Mess, 2003, p. 99. 31

B. Theoretical Framework

In this research, many of the University students of English Language Study Program experience the process of sound change in learning English. As they are also going to be the next English teachers, this research is intended to find out the phenomena of sound change that occurred in the pronunciation of the students of the English Department. The first problem formulation is to find out the types of English sound change of the students of ELESP whose first language is Papua-Malay dialect. To answer the first research problem, the researcher uses the sound change theory by Crowley 1992. He classifies types of sound change into nine catogories. They are lenition and fortition, sound addition, metathesis, fusion, unpacking, vowel breaking, assimilation, dissimilation, and abnormal sound changes. Second problem formulation is to see the distribution of the sound change among the students. What types of sound change that frequently occured in the students ’ pronunciation.