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1.6.1 Contrastive Analysis
The first term to be defined is contrastive analysis. Contrastive analysis according to James 1980, is an inductive investigative approach based on the
distinctive elements in a language. It means that in conducting a contrastive analysis, a writer compares two or more distinctive features in a language.
Contrastive Analysis in this study is an inductive investigative approach on English and Cantonese
‟s segmental features of speech. The researched distinctive elements are the speech-sounds of both languages. And the features being
compared are the consonants of both languages.
1.6.2 Cantonese
The second term to be defined is Cantonese. Cantonese or Standard Cantonese is a Chinese dialect, spoken as the mother language of many Chinese people in the
south China region. Lo, 2000. It is the acrolect of a sub-group of Chinese language divisions called the Yue. Bauer Benedict 1997 divide Cantonese into
two groups, namely, Hong Kong Cantonese, and Guangzhou Cantonese. Hong Kong Cantonese refers to the variety currently spoken in Hong Kong, whereas
Guangzhou Cantonese refers to the variety spoken in the city of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province of Southen China. Guangzhou Cantonese, as
Bauer Benedict explain, is regarded as the regional standard across South China. Both varieties are phonologically and grammatically similar and the most
distinctive difference lies in their lexicons. The Cantonese referred to this study is
15 the standard Guangzhou Cantonese as featured in the book of Bauer Benedict
1997 entitled Modern Cantonese phonology.
1.6.3 Speech Sound
Speech, according to Collins Mees 2003 is “a continuous sound with interruptions only when necessary to take in air to breathe or to organize
thoughts ”. While, Jones 1975 explains speech-sounds as “certain acoustic
effects voluntarily produced by organs of speech; they are the result of definite actions performed by these organs
”. Syllabically, speech sounds can be distinguished into three types; consonants, vowels and glides. They are discerned
by their way of articulation and their acoustic properties Dobrovolsky Katamba, 1996, p. 22. In this study a speech sound refers to the segmental
features of speech that belong to both Cantonese and English language, which are symbolized with International Phonetic Alphabet.
1.6.4 Consonant
The term consonant refers to a group of sounds forming with the air-stream through the pharynx and both the oral and nasal cavity receives temporary
obstructions that allow a narrowing which will cause audible friction Jones, 1975: 23. In details, Jones elaborates that consonants therefore include:
“All sounds in the production which are not voiced, all sounds in the production of
which the air has an impeded passage through the mouth, all sounds in the
16 production of which air does not pass through the mouth, and all sounds in which
there is audible friction ” p. 23. The consonants referred to in this study are the
24 English consonants as seen in Indriani 2005, and the 19 Cantonese consonant speech sounds as seen in Bauer Benedict 1997, each sound defined by its
place of articulation, and manner of articulation.
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