Localization of English Phonology159Localization of English Phonology
in the Indonesian Context Francis Borgias Alip - Sanata Dharma University Abstract English has currently been spoken all over the world, whichsubstantially influences its development. In Indonesia, where English is
studied and is increasingly spoken on daily basis by some people, it hasemerged as a noticeable variety not necessarily in conformity with
either British English or American English. This paper is meant topresent how the English variety spoken in Indonesia has beenphonologically influenced by the local languages.
Keywords: Indonesian English, local variety of English, phonological variationEnglish is not only the language of the English people, the Americanpeople, and the Anglophone nations. It has currently been adopted by
different peoples all over the world. Accordingly, it has also been in contactwith many more different languages. Due to the contact with local languages,
the variety of English spoken in a particular part of the world might have
deviated from the so-called standard variety of English, either British English
(BE) or American English (AmE). The grammar, vocabulary, and phonology of
the local languages influence the local variety. In practice, the graphology of
the local languages has also imposed its influence; and, as a result, we might
observe spelling pronunciation, where English words are pronounced based onthe local spelling system. Those deviations are not random but systematic.Phonological deviations, which are part of the linguistic deviations, areshown not only in certain individual speakers but generally appear in the
speech of most speakers of the variety. This happens because the local people
share similar features of language competence and performance, which
influence their English competence and performance.The deviant forms of phonological phenomena can be observed in bothsegmental and non-segmental aspects of the language. The segmental
deviation covers different realization of speech sounds. Certain sounds might
be substituted by others. For example, in the English spoken by Indonesians,
diphthongs are often reduced into monophtongs. Thus, words like out, now and
away are pronounced as [Ɔt], [no] and [cwe]. Among consonant sounds, thevoiced alveolar fricative /ð/ is systematically replaced with a nasalized voiced
alveolar stop, which is particularly true among the Javanese. Its voiceless
counterpart is substituted by a voiceless alveolar stop /t/.
In the suprasegmental level, rearrangement of sound clusters often takesplace. A complex syllable coda is often made into a separate syllable. Thus,Vol.10 No. 3 – February 2007Francis Borgias Alip160the brand name Surf (of a certain detergent} is reanalyzed into a two-syllable
word to produce [surcp]. (Observe also that the final voiceless dental fricative/f/ is substituted with the voiceless bilabial stop /p/.) Suprasegmental
alteration is also observed in the change of stress position. The daily word
family should have an antepenultimate stress: the stress is in the first syllable(the third syllable from behind). Among the Indonesians, the stress is often in
the penultimate syllable (the syllable before the last one), just like most
Indonesian words. As a result, the word is more likely to be pronounced as
[fæ’mɪlɪ] rather than [‘fæmclɪ], the standard BE pronunciation as shown inHornby’s Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictiornary of Current English (1987) and
Hornby’s Oxford Student’s Dictionary of American English (1988), or [‘fæmɪli]as in Wells’s Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (2003).
This paper is meant to present how the English variety spoken in Indonesia has
been phonologically influenced by Indonesian, the national language of the
republic. Rather than presenting individual examples of phonological
influence, this paper will try to systematize the alterations. This is because
the alterations are not only instances of mistakes but systematic errors, whichaccording to Corder (1974: 161) “are regular, systematic, meaningful …
describable in terms of a set of rules …” For convenience purposes, the
phonetic symbols and phonetic transcriptions of the English words used as the
examples follow those in Wells (2003).English in Indonesia Unlike in the neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, inIndonesia English is a foreign language. It is normally not spoken on daily basis,
except in limited circles, such as foreign institutions (foreign companies and
agencies), English educational institutions, and some bilingual schools. It isvery seldom used in personal domains, such family life or friendship. However,
for long English has been adopted as the most important foreign language
because of its strategic functions in the international communication. It has
recently been introduced at as early as elementary schools as a “local”
content. Since the pre-independence era, at junior high schools it has been a
compulsory subjects, which goes on to senior high schools. In the tertiary
education, it has also been taught as part of the personality building courses.Despite the ambitious programs, in general, the teaching of English inIndonesia has been characterized with massive failure. Many students leave
senior high schools with barely any trace of learning English. Many factors can
be attributed for the fact, such as poor learning facilities, poor English syllabi,
and incompetent teachers. The most obvious unsupportive factor is the fact
that the absence of learners’ need to master English. Many students myopicallyobserve that at the local level without English people can survive and even
succeed in their life. It is encouraging, therefore, that due to the more open and increasingcontacts with other cultures and countries in urban and metropolitan areas
people have begun to realize the importance of English for the development of
knowledge, science, business and technology as well as personal career
advancement. This can be observed through the development of EnglishVol.10 No. 3 – February 2007Localization of English Phonology161medium schools at all levels of education. Many high-paying jobs are also
normally advertised in English. If in the past English was exposed orally only
through films, songs, and very short news programs, now more and more
television programs are conducted in English. (On the negative side, some
people have complained about the encroachment of English in the domainsnormally requiring the national language.)The above recent development has produced a substantial number ofIndonesians who frequently use English for daily communication in their limited
circles. English being a foreign language, it is not surprising that the English
spoken by Indonesian speakers is characterized with deviation in all linguistic
levels, including phonology, which is the concern of this article.Segmental Alterations As shown above, phonological alterations can take place among theindividual sound segments. The alterations might be substitution and
convergence. In substitution, a sound is substituted by another, such [f] by [p]
in the case of Surf, or, like in the case of the English sound /ð/, by a nasalized
alveolar voiceless stop. In convergence, different sounds might coalesce to
produce a single sound. Thus, the two different English phonemes /s/ and /ʃ/are pronounced the same, as [s], by Indonesian speakers.The alterations, however, do not occur randomly. The fricative /ð/, forexample, is never substituted by /k/, the voiceless velar stop, nor by /h/,
which is in fact also a fricative. A sound can substitute another only if they
share certain phonetic features. Phonologically speaking, they must belong to
a certain natural class where they share at least a common feature. However,
the most potential candidates are those which share most features. The more
potential substitute for /ʃ/ is /s/ and not /z/ because the former share notonly the manner feature (+fricative) but also the voicing feature (-voiced).
Similarly, the phoneme /ð/ is a voiceless dental fricative, while its Indonesian
substitute is a nasalized voiceless alveolar stop. Superficially, they share onlythe voicing status, and differ in terms of their manner and place features.
However, if binary phonetic features are used, they share another feature: +
anterior.Collins and Mees (2003:189) present a list of potential phonologicalerrors for speakers of Indonesian, which include difficulties in pronouncing the
final lenis consonants, aspiration, the labial consonants /f, v, w/, the dental
fricative consonants /θ, ð/, the palato-alveolar fricatives /ʃ, ʒ/, and the fronthigh vowels /ɪ, i:/. They also mention consonant clusters and stress andrhythm as potential sources of errors for speakers of Indonesian. Let us below
describe how and why these difficulties occur and, more importantly, how and
why the English sounds are localized in the Indonesian context.1. Final Fortis/lenis Distinction Fortis/lenis contrast is related to the energy of articulation (Collinsand Mees, 2003: 49). Their contrast is due to the amount of energy released in
their production. Fortis sounds are produced with stronger energy andVol.10 No. 3 – February 2007Francis Borgias Alip162voiceless, while lenis sounds are produced with weaker energy and potentially
(!) voiced. Thus in English, the voiceless obstruents are fortis, while the voiced
ones are lenis. (Sonorants sounds are produced with weaker energy of
articulation and all of them are voiced.) As the feature fortis/lenis is relatedto the voicing status of English obstruents, this feature is phonemic. Their
contrast, accordingly, leads to phonemic distinction.Like in many other languages, in Indonesian word-final fortis/leniscontrasts are not observed. The Indonesian noun babad (‘historical narrative’)
is pronounced exactly the same as the verb babat (‘to cut down’), where the
final sound is voiceless, though phonemically /d/ and /t/ are differents.Similarly, the final consonant in the word sebab (‘cause’) is phonetically
realized as [p] rather than [b].The absence of word-final fortis/lenis contrast in Indonesian explainsthe systematic devoicing of the final obstruents of English words spoken by
speakers of Indonesian. Thus, the words mop and mob, bet and bed, peck and
peg, miss/Miss and Ms are pronounced the same. The phenomena can be
described in the following rule:(1) - sonorant + fortis / - #
Fortunately, the other voiced obstruents are never word-final in Indonesian
and most of them are not found in Indonesian. Thus, the rule does not need
any further specification. However, we observe that Indonesian speakers dohave difficulities in pronouncing these obstruents when they are in the final
position of English words. For Indonesians, words such as judge and wave often
experience devoicing in their final sounds.The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/ are originally foreign sounds inIndonesian. Through foreign words, the two sounds have been introduced to
Indonesia, as observed in the word fakultas (borrowed from the Dutch word
faculteit) and varietas (borrowed from Latin as a botanical term). Thedifferent spelling of the initial consonants, however, does not lead to any
contrast in the Indonesian pronunciation. Therefore, for the two sounds the
fortis/lenis contrast is absent, which is responsible for the convergence of the
pronunciation of words such as wave and waif as well as fan and van among
speakers of Indonesian. Unlike what is presented by Collins and Mees, the approximant labial/w/ is not a problem for Indonesians. It is never mixed up with either /f/ or
/v/. Thus, the initial consonants in English words fan and van cited as
examples in the above paragraph are never pronounced as [w]. In Indonesian,
the consonant /w/, though labeled as voiced in many Indonesian grammar
books (see Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia, 1988: 55) is sometimes
voiceless, such as in wanita and watak. Fortunately, devoicing of the English
phoneme /w/ is seldom observed in the English speech of Indonesian speakers.2. Missing Aspiration In Indonesian, unlike in English, no sound is aspirated. It is predictablethat English aspiration causes problems for speakers of Indonesian. Therefore,Vol.10 No. 3 – February 2007Localization of English Phonology163 the English voiceless stops /p, t, k/ are phonetically realized without any
aspiration no matter what their position is. The English word pot, top and cot
are phonetically realized as [pƆt], [tƆp] and [kƆt] rather than [phƆt] [thƆp][khƆt]. Fortunately, aspiration is not phonemic in English. Unlike thefortis/lenis contrast, the localized stop deaspiration does not lead to muchtrouble in understanding the spoken English of speakers of Indonesian.3. Palato-alveolar Fricatives Palato-alveolar fricatives are not originally found in Indonesian(Lapoliwa, 1981: 12). With the influence of Arabic, the voiceless palato-
alveolar fricative /ʃ/ has been introduced. In practice, however, the twosounds have been pronounced as [s]. Thus, in careful pronunciation the initial
consonant of the words syarat and shariat is pronounced [ʃ], but in dailyspeech, it is pronounced [s]. This change can be described in the following
rule: (2)- sonorant + coronal + continuant - coronal
As a result, English words like fish and measure are pronounced as [fɪs] and[mesc] where in BE they should be pronounced as [fɪʃ ] and [meʒə]. As /z/and /ʒ/ are not native Indonesian sounds, they are difficult for Indonesianspeakers. In their spoken form, they are both pronounced as [s]. Thus, zoo and
vision, are often pronounced as [su:] and [vɪsɪcn].4. Tense/lax Distinction What Collins and Mees (2003) describe as the problem of the
pronunciation of /ɪ/ and /i:/ is in fact not limited to these two front highvowels. The problem can be extended to the other pairs of tense and laxvowels. In Indonesian tense/lax distinction for vowels is in fact observed
(Lapoliwa, 1981: 114). However, this contrast is not at the phonemic level but
only at the phonetic one. Tense vowels in Indonesian are lax when they are in
closed syllables. The absence of phonemic contrast in Indonesian has been
extended to their English. The words seat and sit are pronounced the same.
However, the lax back high vowel /u/ is difficult to be pronounced by speakers
of Indonesian. This vowel tends to be pronounced as tense. Similarly, theEnglish front mid vowels /e/ and /ei/ also pose difficulties for speakers of
Indonesian. They are likely to be pronounced as lax. Thus, the direction of the
problem of tense/lax distinction is more difficult to simplify. In closed
syllables, some vowels (+high, + back) resist from being lax, while others (-
back but also + back, – high) resist from being tense.Like /ei/, other English diphthongs are considered as tense, but theytend to be pronounced lax by speakers of Indonesian. The words know and soVol.10 No. 3 – February 2007Francis Borgias Alip164are often pronounced as [no] and [so] rather than [ncu] and [scu] (BE) or [nou]and [sou] (AmE).Suprasegmental Alterations 1. Consonant clusters Consonants are peripheral elements of a syllable. A syllable absolutelyrequires a vowel or at least a syllabic sound, like syllabic sonorants [m] and [n]
or syllabic liquids [l] and [r]. Consonants, if present in a syllable, can be infront of the syllabic sound (technically termed as the nucleus or peak), where
they constitute (parts of) the onset. They can be also after the syllabic sound,
where they are (parts of) the coda.English phonology permits three consonants functioning as an onset of asyllable as long as the first is /s/ while the second is any of the voiceless stops
/p, t, k/ and the third is any of the four approximants /l, r, w, j/. Thus, in
English we have words like scream, structure, spring, split, squeeze, and stew(BE only).Indonesian, however, accepts only two consonants in an onset position.Furthermore, the consonant /s/ is originally never part of a consonant cluster
in an onset position unless the following consonant is a liquid. As a result,
speakers of Indonesian might have difficulty in pronouncing those words.
Between the first and the second consonants there might be a vowel insertion.
The word star might be pronounced [scta:] where the schwa sound isintroduced.It should also be noticed that, like in English, certain sequences ofdouble consonants are acceptable in Indonesian, while other sequences are
not. Words like try and sleep are no problems for most Indonesians because
the sequences /tr/ and /sl/ are observed in Indonesian languages. However,
the sequences /sk/ and /st/, which are abundant in English vocabulary, are
not observed in Indonesian languages. Thus, words like school and still arereinterpreted as two syllables by Indonesian speakers.Similarly, consonant clusters in the coda position are very frequent inEnglish. Two different consonants are abundant because the plural morpheme
and the past tense morpheme in English might take only one consonant sound:
a voiceless consonant takes [s] for the plural morpheme and [t] for its past
morpheme, while a voiced consonant takes [z] for the plural and [d] for thepast morpheme. This type of final consonant cluster is a problem for many
speakers of Indonesian. As a result, the plural or tense marker is often absent
in their speech. Indonesians might be aware that the suffixes are needed and
in their mental words they might appear but the suffixes might fail to appear
in their spoken language. Thus, while in the written language, suffixes might
not be a serious problem, but they are so when English is spoken.Some speakers also solve their difficulty in pronouncing the past suffixby producing spelling pronunciation. Words like warned and asked are
pronounced as [wƆrncd] and [askcd]. This strategy is almost effective foradjectivized past participles as observed in the adjectives learned and burnedas well as verbs ended with alveolar stops such as wanted and responded. WeVol.10 No. 3 – February 2007Localization of English Phonology165have to notice, however, that in standard English the pronounced vowel of the
suffix is not a schwa but an [Ι]. Worse still, in English syllables a coda might five consonantsconsecutively (Giegerich, 1992: 167). Such a coda, however, requires the
following condition: the first consonant must be + sonorant, the second +consonantal, the third and fourth – sonorant, + coronal, and the fifth –
sonorant, - coronal. Speakers of Indonesian have difficulties in pronouncing
words like wasps and contexts. Their solution is different from that of onset
clusters. No vowel insertion takes place. Instead, the later consonants are
usually not pronounced, as also observed in the suffixation mentioned in the
previous paragraph. For the words in the examples we might hear [wƆs] and[khƆntek]. The third word [wƆʧ] presents a difficulty for Indonesian speakersbecause in Indonesian languages the sound [ʧ] does not happen in a codaposition.2. Stress and Rhythm In these two suprasegmental aspects, English and Indonesian aredifferent. In English stress is phonemic, while in Indonesian it is not ((Tata
Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia, 1988: 73). In Indonesian we do have stress, but
unlike in English its position is changeable depending on the arbitrary emphasisof the meaning (Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia, 1988: 71). As a result,
many speakers of Indonesian do not realize that different positions of stress
lead to different meaning, such as in export as a verb with a final-syllable
stress and as a noun with an initial-syllable stress. When such a contrast is not
available, many words will be unrecognizable. While staying in the US, the
present writer used to have difficulties in assigning the stress of the words
character and return and pronounced the two words as [kc’ræktc] and[‘rɪtc:n] with a penultimate stress. They should be pronounced as [‘khærcktc](with an antepenultimate stress) and [rɪ’thc:n] (with an ultimate stress).Different assignment of stress in those words make them confused with the
words corrector and written. When there are no similar words, wrong stress
assignments might lead to funny amusing accents. Indonesian students
normally pronounced the familiar word computer with an antepenultimate
stress rather than with a penultimate, [‘khƆmpu:tc] rather than [kcm’phu:tc].Rhythm poses a more serious problem for speakers of Indonesianbecause of the nature of English as a stress-timed language (McMahon, 2002:124) where feet must be isochronous. The time required for pronouncing a
certain expression depends on the number of feet rather than on the number
of syllables, which is characteristic of syllable-timed languages like Indonesian.
Fortunately, this difference does not cause any problem in understanding.
However, if one does not want to be stigmatized with his or her foreign
accent, this deviation must be minimized.Vol.10 No. 3 – February 2007Francis Borgias Alip166Effect of Localized Pronunciation Systematic deviant forms from the targeted forms are labeled as errors,which can be global (causing communication breakdowns) or local (which do
not produce such breakdowns but are prescriptively incorrect). Collins and
Mees (2003:185) classify errors into three categories: (1) those resulting in
unintelligibility, (2) those producing irritation and amusement, and (3) those
producing limited negative reactions or even unnoticed. In their criteria, thefirst category of errors include: (1) lacks of phonemic contrasts
between/among vowels, such as the distinction of lax and tense vowels, (2)
lenis/fortis confusion, (3) consonant clusters, (4) lacks of phonemic contrasts
between/among consonant sounds, (5) omission or replacement of sounds, and
(6) word stress.Accordingly, the English spoken by Indonesians can cause understandingproblems in the following areas: (1) fortis/lenis distinction for final obstruents,(2) lax and tense distinction for vowels, (3) replacements of palato-alveolar
fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ and also the voiced alveolar fricative /z/ with /s/, (4)consonant cluster re-arrangement or simplification, and (5) different stressassignment. Problems of missing aspiration, which is in fact “incorrect
allophones” application in Collins and Mees’ term, and replacements of
fricatives with stop sounds or another fricative (such as the substitution of /θ,
ð/ with stop sounds and the substitution of the fricatives /z,ʃ, ʒ/ with /s/ areerrors which produce irritation and amusement. The different rhythm
employed by Indonesians when speaking English produces only few negative
reactions.The fricative replacement theoretically belongs to the first category oferrors because the difference between the replaced fricatives and theirreplacements is phonemic. There are a lot of minimal pairs which show the
different sounds lead to different meanings, such as thin versus tin, then
versus den, zoo versus sue or shoe. Therefore, the replacement of these
fricative sounds should belong to the first category since they can lead to a
communication breakdown. Perhaps because the potential syntactic and
lexical contexts of those words are significantly different, the fricative
replacement is then grouped into the second category.Attitude to Localization When people still revered native English, be it American or British, localvarieties of English were labeled as bad English. They were considered as the
failure of the speakers to master the flawless native proficiency of English or
“deficient models of language acquisitions” (Kachru, 1992: 59). However, with
the advent of postcolonialism such a view has been much abandoned. To
many, local varieties are instead considered as the pride of local cultures.
Deviant forms as long as they do not lead to communication breakdowns are
deemed acceptable because they are part of the local variety. In a moreassertive way, they can or must be retained if the speakers wish to maintain
their local distinct form of English. In this respect, teachers of English inVol.10 No. 3 – February 2007Localization of English Phonology167Indonesia should not spend too much time and effort on students’ mastery of
stop aspiration (which is not phonemic) and of English rhythm.In the era of postcolonialism, the breach from standard English is notconsidered as a failure but as a purposeful attempt to highlight and underscore
the distinct characteristic of the local varieties, which should be considered asother equal forms of English in addition to native varieties of English. This view
poses a danger for us because they might lead to an extreme where our English
is not understandable for those speaking another variety. In addition, there
should also be a critical question whether a particular local variety of English
exists in a certain area. Until English is spoken as a language of daily
interaction in a particular area, a local variety does not emerge and
consequently there is no local norm of English. In this case, the norms ofEnglish should be the varieties which are globally acceptable and
understandable, which until now are either British English or American English.
It is to the best interest of speakers of Indonesian to approach either one of
the varieties in order to facilitate our global communication, though such an
attempt is not always easy and successful, because as argued before, in
Indonesia English is spoken only in different limited circles.References Collins, Beverley and Inger M. Mees. Practical Phonetics and Phonology.London: Routledge, 2003.Corder, S.P. “Idiosyncratic Dialects and Error Analysis” in Jack C. Richards(ed.), Error Analysis. London: Longman, 1974: 158-171.Giegerich, Heinz J. English Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1992.Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1987.Hornby, A.S. Oxford Student’s Dictionary of American English. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1988).Kachru, Brarj B. Models for Non-Native Englishes. In Brarj B. Kachru, The OtherTongue: English across Cultures. (2nd Edition). Urbana: University ofIllinois Press, 1992: 48-74.Lapoliwa, Hans. A Generative Approach to the Phonology of Bahasa Indonesia.Canberra: Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National
University, 1981.McMahon, April. An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburg: EdinburgUniversity Press, 2002.Moeliono, Anton M. (Editor). Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: BalaiPustaka, 1988.Wells, J.C. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow, Essex: PearsonEducation Limited, 2003.Vol.10 No. 3 – February 2007

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