ISSN: 2302-920X

E-Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Sastra dan Budaya Unud

Vol 14.1 Januari 2016: 96-103

MOTHER TONGUE’S INTERFERENCE IN PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH

FRICATIVE BY BALINESE HOUSEKEEPING EMPLOYEES IN WESTIN RESORT

NUSA DUA BALI

BY

Ni Wayan Erni Cahriani

Email: [email protected]

English Department, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Udayana University

Abstrak

Studi ini membahas tentang kata-kata yang mengandung bahasa Inggris Fricative yang diucapkan oleh orang Bali. Data utama dalam studi ini adalah orang yang bekerja sebagai pegawai Housekeeping Department di hotel Westin Resort Nusa Bali. Tujuan dari studi ini adalah untuk menganalisis ucapan bahasa Inggris Fricative. Data tersebut diperoleh melalui beberapa teknik yaitu recording dan membagikan questionnaire. Kemudian data dianalisis dengan metode kualitatif. Teori yang digunakan adalah teori bahasa Inggris Fricative oleh Tiffany dan Carrell (1987) dan teori bahasa Bali Fricative oleh Warna (1993).

Hasil dari analisis tersebut menunjukkan bahwa bahasa Inggris Fricative yang tidak terdapat dalam bahasa Bali Fricative digantikan oleh konsonan yang memiliki kesamaan karakteristik. Penggantian yang mereka lakukan seperti; penggantian phoneme /f/ dan /v/ menjadi /p/, penggantian phoneme /θ/ menjadi /t/, penggantian phoneme /ð/ menjadi /t/, penggantian phoneme /z/ menjadi /s/, penggantian phoneme /ʃ/ menjadi /s/, dan penggantian phoneme /ʒ/ menjadi /s/. Penggantian ini terjadi karena konsonan-konsonan tersebut tidak terdapat dalam bahasa ibu mereka.

Kata kunci: Bahasa Ibu, Bahasa Inggris Fricative, Bahasa Bali Fricative

  • 1.    Background of the Study

The difficulty of pronouncing some words becomes a challenging stuff especially for non-native speaker in one language. English as the most important language in the world makes people find it necessary to learn English as their second language or foreign language. In learning English as a foreign language, mispronounce may occur since English phonological system is different from another language, in this case,

Balinese language. There are some English sounds which are absent in Balinese phonological system, in this case is consonant sounds. English has twenty four consonant sounds while Balinese only has eighteen. The most existence of numerous English consonant sounds which is absent in Balinese is English fricative consonant sounds. There are nine English fricative sounds / f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h /, which Balinese never recognizes because Balinese only has two fricative sounds /s/ and /h/.

  • 2.    Problem of the Study

The discussion of this study is focused on:

How the English Fricative Consonants were pronounced by Balinese employees in Westin Resort Nusa Dua Bali?

  • 3.    Aim of the Study

The purpose that especially achieved in this study is as follows:

To analyze the pronunciation of English Fricative Consonant sounds produced by Balinese employees in Westin Resort Nusa Dua Bali

  • 4.    Research Method

The primary data in this study were people who work as hotel employees. There were 20 Balinese employees in Housekeeping Department of Westin Resort Nusa Dua Bali who involved in this study by considering their origin of Balinese descendant and Balinese language as their mother tongue. The data was collected by doing observation and technique of collecting data was recording and giving questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using qualitative method and analyzed using theory of English fricative consonant which is proposed by Tiffany and Carrell (1987).

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

English Fricative is introduced according to their places of articulation along with the necessary terminology for the analysis of English fricative. According to Tiffany and Carrel (1987: 188), the class of obstruent consonant termed fricative is characterized by an incomplete or leaky obstruction of the airstream. Fricatives require a constriction which allows the air to escape with difficulty and it produces a hissing sounds. There are nine English fricative consonants, those are / f, v, θ, ð, s, z,ʃ, ʒ, h /. Some are voiced and some are voiceless.

  • a.    English Fricatives /f/ (Voiceless Labiodental Fricative)

The labiodentals fricative sounds were made by the flow of air out of the body is constricted by upper teeth to the lower lip and creates turbulence for the air but not stopping its passage out of the mouth. This sound /f/ is easy to place in any position of words and it is common in English. In order to see the production of initial /f/, it was used the word ‘Few’ that should be pronounced as /fju:/. The production of phoneme /f/ in initial position according to the findings is described below;

English Word Pronounced as ‘few’ /fju:/ /pju:/ (S1)

There were 12 employees committed the error by replacing fricative /f/ with phoneme /p/. According to the error they committed, they tend to articulate ‘few’ with both lips and by partially stopping the air coming from the mouth. Therefore, they produced bilabial sound instead of labiodentals sound. In order to produce this sound correctly, they have to produce it with the lower lip touching the upper front teeth.

  • b.    English Fricatives /v/ (Voiced Labiodental Fricative)

English fricative /v/ is produced by the lower lip touch the upper teeth. The vocal fold is used, therefore, it’s produced a vibration. This sound is more lax and less strident sound than /f/. In the medial position of fricative /v/, the English word

chosen was ‘Review’ that phonetically should be pronounced as /rІ’vju:/. The production of phoneme /v/ in medial position according to the findings is described as follows;

English Word Pronounced as

‘Review’ /rІ’vju:/ /re:pju:/ (S7)

There were 7 Balinese employees who replaced phoneme /v/ as /p/. They produced English plosive /p/ instead of English fricative /v/ since phoneme /p/ is the closest phoneme to replace English fricative /v/.

  • c.    English Fricatives / θ / (voiceless dental fricative)

English Fricatives /θ/ is made by placing the tip of the tongue on or very close to the edge of the upper central teeth and by directing an unvoiced breath stream through the close but broad gap between tongue and teeth. This sound is weak because the friction sound created by passage of the airstream between tongue and teeth may not be heard in actual speech. In the final position of fricative /θ/, the English word chosen was ‘Youth’ that phonetically should be pronounced as /ju:θ/. The result upon this is provided as follows;

English Word Pronounced as ‘Youth’/ju:θ/ /ju:t/ (S3)

According to the finding, it found that overall Balinese employees failed to pronounce this word correctly since they only recognize phoneme /t/ rather than phoneme /θ/. Besides, the characteristic of these sounds are almost similar. /θ/ is voiceless dental fricative while /t/ in Balinese is voiceless alveolar plosive

  • d.    English Fricatives / ð / (voiced dental fricative)

This sound is made by the tip of the tongue makes light contact with the back of the top, front teeth. The common classification of /ð/ is identical with /θ/ except for the voicing. In order to see the production of final /ð/, it was used the word ‘Clothe’ that phonetically should be pronounced as /kləυð/. The production of phoneme /ð/ in final position according to the findings is described below;

English Word             Pronounced as

Clothe’/kləυð/               /kləυt/         (S2)

The finding shows that there was replacement of phoneme /ð/ to phoneme /t/. Among 20 Balinese employees, there were only 6 employees pronounced the word correctly. The error of /ð/ pronunciation in overall Balinese employees was similar to the error of fricative /θ/ pronunciation.

  • e.    English Fricatives /s/ (voiceless alveolar fricative)

English fricative /s/ is made as the voiceless breath stream which is forced through the narrow channel between the roof of the mouth and blade of the tongue. The blade of the tongue makes light contact with alveolar ridge and soft palate is raised. The word used to observe the production of fricative /s/ in initial position of word was ‘See’ which should be pronounced as /si:/. The result upon this initial fricative /s/ is provided as follows;

English Word             Pronounced as

‘See’/si:/                        /si:/             (S1)

The result shows that overall Balinese employees succeed in producing phoneme /s/ and pronounced the word perfectly. It might be perceived because the existence of this phoneme in Balinese language. Not only Balinese language, most languages in the word have fricative /s/. Therefore, there was no interference found in producing this sound.

  • f.    English Fricatives /z/ (voiced alveolar fricative)

English fricative /z/ is classified as voiced alveolar fricative sound. The common classification of /s/ is identical with /z/ except for the voicing. The word used to reveal the result upon this fricative was ‘Easy’ which should be pronounced as /’i:zi/. The result for this medial fricative is shown as follows;

English Word             Pronounced as

‘Easy’/’i:zi/                     /i:si:/           (S7)

The finding for medial fricative /z/ show that there were 3 Balinese employees pronounced ‘easy’ as how it’s written. Although the word contains ‘s’ letter, it should be pronounce with phoneme /z/. There was replacement of phoneme /z/ to phoneme /s/ since there is no phoneme /z/ in Balinese inventory. In English, phoneme /z/ and /s/ are identical regarding to the place and manner of articulation.

  • g.    English Fricatives /ʃ/ (voiceless palato-alveolar fricative)

English fricative /ʃ/ is produced by the tongue blade which makes light contact with the alveolar ridge and the front of the tongue is raised. The soft palate is also raised. When the tongue held in this position, an unvoiced breath stream is directed against the palate and alveolar ridge. The word that contained fricative /ʃ/ in initial position used in this study was ‘Shoe’. It should be pronounced as /ʃu:/. The result upon this fricative is provided as follows;

English Word Pronounced as ‘Shoe’/fu:/ /sυ/ (S11)

The finding shows that there was obstacle in pronouncing fricative /f/. Overall Balinese employees tend to replace fricative /f/ to fricative /s/. Since fricative /f/ and /s/ are almost the same regarding to lips position and both are voiceless sound. However, the place of articulation is different

  • h.    English Fricatives /ʒ/ (voiced palatoalveolar fricative)

This sound’s production is the same as /ʃ/ which is the front of the tongue is raised and create a narrowing reaching from the ridge to the beginning of the hard palate. The distribution of this sound /5/ is very limited. /3/ does not occur as an initial sound in English, and is rare as a final sound. It is commonly found in medially position of words. The word that contained fricative /ʒ/ in medial

position used in this study was ‘Pleasure’. It should be pronounced as /’pleʒə(r)/. The result upon this fricative is provided as follows;

English Word             Pronounced as

‘Pleasure’/’pleʒə(r)/          /plesυə/        (S2)

There were 13 Balinese employees who failed to pronounce this word and replaced phoneme /ʒ/ as /s/. The production of phoneme /ʒ/ is almost similar with phoneme /s/ but front of the tongue is raised. Since phoneme /s/ is existed in Balinese inventory, therefore, Balinese employees tend to replace phoneme /ʒ/ into phoneme /s/ as the closest phoneme.

  • i.    English Fricatives /h/ (voiceless glottal fricative)

English fricative /h/ is voiceless which the vocal cords do not vibrate during the production of this sound. This sound can only be found in initial and medial position of word. There is no English word contains /h/ in final position of word. The word used to research the fricative /h/ in medial position was ‘Behind’ which phonetically should be pronounced as /bІ’haІnd/. The production of phoneme /h/ according to the findings is described as follows;

English Word             Pronounced as

‘Behind’/bІ’haІnd/            /bІ’heІnd/ (S13)

The discussion of the production of fricative /h/ in medial positions of word can be considered successful. Since the existing of fricative /h/ in Balinese inventory. Both Balinese and English have fricative /h/ in medial position and both are glottal sound. Therefore, most of Balinese employees pronounced the word correctly.

  • 6.    Conclusion

According to the findings, English fricative consonants that are not found in Balinese inventory were replaced by the nearest consonants which are share similar characteristics regarding to the voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.

This replacement was applied since some particular sounds are not existed in their mother tongue. Therefore, Balinese employees tend to substitute the nearest equivalent sound they know. The replacement they were committed such as; the replacement of phoneme /f/ and /v/ with phoneme /p/, the replacement of phoneme /θ/ with /t/, the replacement of phoneme /ð/ with /t/, the replacement of /z/ with phoneme /s/, the replacement of phoneme /ʃ/ with phoneme /s/, the replacement of phoneme /ʒ/ with phoneme /s/.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Oxford University Press. 2008. Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press

Pastika, Wayan. (2005). Fonologi Bahasa Bali. Kuta: Pustaka Larasan.

Roach, Peter. (2001). Phonetics: Oxford Introduction to Language Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Roach, Peter. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. 4th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tiffany & Carrel.(1987). Phonetics Theory and Application. Washington: McGraw-Hill Book Co.

Warna, Wayan. (1993). Tata Bahasa Bali. Denpasar: Upada Sastra.

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