Segmental and suprasegmental analysis: a case study of a Malay jearner’s utterances of an English song

Abstract

Pronunciation mistakes are among the common occurrences made by L2 Malay learners of English. Bahasa Melayu and English vary in the numbers of vowels and diphthongs, as well as the origin of the consonants (Goay and Choo, 2003). Despite having sundry disparities, both are phonetics languages and use Roman characters in the written form (Wai, Siew and Roziati, 2007). Hence, this paper aims to analyze the differences and similarities of English sound with Bahasa Melayu, by focusing on two features; Segmental and Suprasegmental (Prosodic Rules – Assimilation, Dissimilation, Insertion, Deletion and Linking). The analysis was gathered from a case study, where a Malay subject’s utterances of an English song was recorded and transcribed by using IPA transcription. An in-depth analysis was done by comparing the subject’s written utterances to the original lyric of the song. The lyric was also transcribed into phonetics transcription based on a standard Received Pronunciation (RP) of English. The findings indicate that there are various notable features in the subject’s utterances when compared to the RP of English and these features are consistent and frequent among L2 Malay learners. Ergo, the implication of this case study would be useful for academicians, material developers, researchers; those who are involved in the teaching of English