Quality of Javanese and Sundanese Vowels

Several studies have documented how first language (L1) vowel systems play an important role in the vowel production of a second language (L2). L2 learners of Western languages who exhibit a smaller L1 vowel system are predicted to struggle with producing L2 vowels. However, there remains a paucity of evidence on how the L1 vowel system of non-Western languages interferes with L2 vowel production In this case, the focus is specifically on Javanese and Sundanese, two of the most widely spoken Indonesian local languages. This present study investigated how the six Javanese vowels and the seven Sundanese vowels influence the production of ten English vowels. In this experiment, 40 speakers, Javanese, Sundanese, and 10 native English speakers, participated in the production task. Spectral dimensions, including first (F1) and second formant (F2) frequencies, were analysed acoustically. According to the Speech Learning Model, Javanese and Sundanese speakers should have trouble producing similar vowels such as (/I, ɛ, ʊ/) and should not exhibit greater L2 differences with new vowels such as (/i:, ae, ɑː, ɔ:, u:, ʌ, ɜ:/). Indeed, the results demonstrated that the Javanese speakers did have different F1 and F2 values with the English vowels (/i:, ae, ɑː, ɔ:, u:, ʌ, ɜ:/) and the Sundanese speakers produced different F1 and F2 values for vowels (/ae, ɑː, ɔ:/) when compared to the English native speakers. Interestingly, though vowels (/I, ʊ/) were considered to be similar vowels in the L1 vowel system, the Javanese and Sundanese speakers also showed differences in the formant structure. The vowel space area in the productions by Javanese and Sundanese speakers was slightly smaller than that of the native English speakers. The present study is expected to serve as a basis for future studies and provide the patterns of English vowels produced by Javanese and Sundanese learners of English.

2020

This study investigated the formant measurement of Indonesian speakers in pronouncing English vowels, and aimed to calculate the average level of F1 and F2 to produce the English vowels. The participants were secondsemester students at the University of Muhammadiyah Metro in Indonesia, with an age range between 20-22. The data is primarily taken from the recordings of minimal English pairs, such as look-room, cat-kate, set-seat, cut-cute, hope-hope, hall-hurl, live-leave, father-family, get-ego, bear-bar. The results revealed that the pronunciation of English vowels recorded by the Indonesian students seemed to be difficult, particularly in minimal word pairs. The Indonesian speakers found it difficult to distinguish the phonemes /i/ and /ɪ/, /ɛ/ and /ᴂ/, which are almost all close to /e/ in Bahasa Indonesia. The formants of phonemes /i/, /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /ᴂ/, and /ʌ/ are relatively produced higher than normal English. The production of English vowel /ʌ/ is identical to Indonesian vowel /a...

Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 1984

In this study the effect of voicing of coda on the values of the first and second formant of the preceding vowel in Sundanese is examined. It is displayed that formant values are normally lower at the offset point for vowel preceding voiced consonant than preceding voiceless ones, because the larynx is comparatively lower when articulating voiced consonants. Formant values are lower when preceding the voiceless labial consonants, so there is no effect of voicing of consonant on the formants values of vowel /a/ in that condition. The formants of vowel /u/ and the first formant value of vowel /i/ are basically low, so there is no significant effect of the two voicing conditions on vowel formants when preceding velar consonants.

Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 1984

2021

This study aims to identify “the phonetic grammar" of voiced plosive sounds [b, d, and g] and voiceless [p, t, and k] at the initial position of the words uttered by two different groups of native speakers: Sundanese and Java. These sounds are phonemically the same phonemes in Sundanese, Javanese and Indonesian. The findings show that the two groups of native speakers realize different and the same VOT (Voice Onset Time) pattern of popping sounds. For sounds voiced plosives or lenis plosive [b, d, and g], Sundanese speakers realize it with a negative VOT pattern, while Javanese speakers do it with a positive VOT pattern. Then, voiced plosive sounds uttered by Javanese speakers tend to be "aspirated" or breathy. For the voiceless plosives or fortis plosives [p, t, and k], the two groups of speakers pronounce them in the same pattern, namely the positive VOT pattern, and even tend to have zero VOT. The VOT patterns reflect aspirated voiced and voiceless phonation catego...

Sirok Bastra, 2018

The first, this research is intended to identify acoustic profiles of the two central vowels in Sundanese, viz /ə/ and /ö/. The second, this research is intended to searches the acoustic contrasts between the two vowels. Experimental method was applied in this research. The result shows that vowel /ə/ has higher first fromant (F1) than vowel /ö/ both at opened syllable and at closed syllable. However, for the other acoustic properties—the second formant (F2), fundamental frequency (Fo), duration (ms), and intensity (dB)—vowel /ö/ has higher acoustic values than vowel /ə/. In correlation with the second research objective, viz to search acoustic properties which contrast the two central vowels, it’s found that all acoustic properties (F1, F2, Fo, duration and intensity) contrast the two Sundanese central vowels. All statistical tests which were applied show the results that there are significant differences of the acoustic properties between both central vowels.

2018

Second language (L2) learners often encounter difficulties due to the interference of their native language (L1) with the target language. The present study is concerned with L2 English learners with non-Western first languages-Javanese and Sundanese. The aim of the study is to investigate (1) whether the sound category (new vs similar vowels) affects the L2 sound perception based on L2 learning models, (2) whether the phonetic distance between target and distractor sounds influences the L2 sound perception. Thirty Javanese, 30 Sundanese, and 20 English native speakers participated in a mouse-tracking experiment. Participants were required to identify English vowels corresponding to an auditory token by clicking on one of two word strings presented on a computer screen. The results showed that phonetic distance between target and distractor plays a more important role in the sound perception of the Javanese and Sundanese listeners than the sound category of the target itself. The findings partially support the L2LP model indicating that new vowels are more problematic to be perceived by the L2 learners than similar vowels.

MANUSYA

High vowels tend to have higher intrinsic F0 (pitch) than low vowels (e.g. Lehiste, 1970; Whalen and Levitt, 1995). Higher intrinsic F0 occurs on vowels which follow voiceless consonants, lower intrinsic F0 occurs on vowels which follow voiced consonants. When high vowels follow voiced consonants and low vowels follow voiceless consonants, the voicing of initial consonants has been found to counterbalance the intrinsic F0 value of high and low vowels. In other words, voiced consonants will lower F0 values of high vowels, and voiceless consonants will raise F0 values of low vowels to the extent that the average F0 of these high vowels is actually lower than the average F0 of the low vowels under examination (Clark and Yallop, 1990; House and Fairbanks, 1953; Lehiste, 1970; Lehiste and Peterson, 1961; Laver, 1994). To test whether this counterbalance finding is applicable to Southeast Asian languages, the F0 values of high and low vowels following voiceless and voiced consonants were ...

Research Result. Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 2024

This study explores the characteristics of Indonesian oral monophthong vowels produced by male and female language consultants in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, as their first language. Using purposive sampling, ten Acehnese males and ten Acehnese females were selected to articulate eight target vowels: /i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /ә/, /a/, /u/, /o/, and /ɔ/. Vowel measurements were obtained through recorded word elicitation, using a word list containing the target vowels. F1 and F2 frequencies in Hertz were determined and analyzed using Praat software to assess vowel qualities and subsequently converted to the Bark scale. Vowels were plotted on the F1/F2 formant space. The findings illustrate the distinct measurements of each Indonesian monophthong vowel by male and female consultants, represented in the vowel space. Male vowels generally exhibit higher and more centralized positioning, while female vowels appear more dispersed and lower. This research contributes valuable insights for comparing vowel systems across various languages and dialects spoken in multilingual Indonesia.