Phonology Assg Essay

7/30/2019 Phonology Assg Essay

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By SHARIL AIZAT SULAIMAN

Many people across the globe practise English language in their countries.

Perhaps there are countries that make English as their official language. In Malaysia,

English is used as our countrys second language. When talking about English

language, we normally refer to The Standard English. However, the type of English

that is more commonly used here is known as Malaysian English. Though Malay is

still the most commonly used lingua franca among Malaysians, English is gaining

more importance and relevance in the country. In fact, Malaysians have come to

realize that it is no longer necessary, nor desirable to aim at an English native

speakers speech to achieve their communicative function. However, there has been

a strong decline in the levels of English proficiency in the country .This is evident in

Malaysians everyday speech, which are often marred by grammatical and

phonological errors or at times too loaded with suffixes (e.g. lah, lor, meh) and loan

words from other languages. Perhaps, there are several factors that have influenced

the way Malaysians speak English.

Firstly, the interference from their native language. Chinese may encounter

difficulties with English sounds. It is difficult for them to produce certain English

sounds which do not exist in Mandarin Chinese. For instance, some English

consonants do not exist in Mandarin Chinese such as /v/, / /, //, etc. Therefore, they

may substitute these sounds with similar ones in their mother tongue as they cannot

find the counterparts in Mandarin Chinese. There are vowels in both Mandarin

Chinese and English, but the two kinds of vowels have many differences in phoneme

and articulation. Due to the differences between English and Chinese vowels,

Chinese are not aware of the lack of long and short vowels in Mandarin Chinese

which might have a negative effect on English vowels. The English vowels / / and

/u:/ are distinguished by quality and length. However, as there is no such distinction

in Mandarin Chinese, English-Chinese bilingual learners might regard them as the

same vowel. (Zhang & Yin, 2009).

Secondly, the influence of American English spelling. Although Malaysia

officially follows British English, Malaysian English is strongly influenced by American

English. This can be proven when we look at the advertisements and media.

Commonly, the writers are unaware of the differences between British and American

English while writing and producing the advertisement and media. They tend to spell


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American word like color instead of colour which is the Standard English.

Perhaps, in school, written English is based on British English but most of the

students speak in a local accent influenced by American pronunciations. American

movies also have given a big impact on Malaysia English as Malaysian are

influenced to use American words because they are easier to pronounce such as

gotta instead of got to and kinda instead of kind of. Therefore, it is obviously

shown that Malaysian English is strongly influenced by American English that is

contrast from Standard English.

Next is the aspect of grammar. A lot of Malaysian Englishs grammatical

structure is taken from Chinese dialects. Some also claim the structures have also

been borrowed from the Malay language. Sentences may be constructed without anapparent subject. For an excellent example, Shirt unbutton, chest can see. Then,

the missing verb to be. The verb to be is commonly discarded, with no loss of

meaning like She very sick yesterday. Other than that, in Standard English, has

andgotdoes not necessarily mean the present perfect tense to have obtained, to

have acquired. Instead it can be deemed an idiomatic expression, meaning the

simple present tense to possess. For example. I have not finished the work. I have

got only two hands. However, Malaysian English has hijacked the wordgot to use

in ways outside the Standard English. In Malaysian English, got can be the

equivalent of the verb to be. For example The pencil, where got? It also

equivalent to the auxiliary verb, has/have, to form the perfect tense like The

teacher got tell us to go to the field and it also equivalent to the lexical

verb has/havein order to form the present tense of the verb, meaning to have, to

possess such as Your lecture got no meaning.

Moreover, Malaysian English is gradually forming its own vocabulary. These

words come from a variety of influences. Typically, for words or phrases that are

based on other English words, the Malaysian English speaker may be unaware that

the word or phrase is not present in British or American English. For example,

handphone instead of mobile phone, keep in view instead of kept on file and

outstation instead of abroad. There are also a list of words and phrases that have

one meaning in British English and another in Malaysian English. For instance, the

word driver. In Standard English, it means anybody who drives or is driving a car.However, in Malaysian English, driver is refer to job. The rich often employ a "driver


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who is a personal chauffeur. Then, in Standard English, bungalow is a small house

or cottage usually having a single storey and sometimes an additional attic story that

is free standing without conjoined with another unit. But in Malaysian English,

bungalow is refer to a mansion for the rich or famous people, regardless of the

number of floors it has. These are some factors that have influenced the way

Malaysians speak English

Other than that, Malaysian intonation is syllable-timed instead of stress-

timed, and there is an absence of weak forms and liaison. Malaysian speakers use a

narrower pitch range and are generally not aware of the fine shades of meaning that

can be conveyed by intonation in English (Tay, 1982).In addition, the pronunciation

of some words in Malaysian English differs from standard English, possibly due to

the influence of graphology and approximation in pronunciation. For example, (sIks /

for / siks ) and differences in how sounds of English words are perceived. In

Malaysian English pronunciation, the last syllable of a word is often not pronounced

with the strength that it would be in British English. Also, sometimes 'p' and 'f' are

pronounced like similarly among speakers of Malay descent. For example, the two

Malay names 'Fazlin' and 'Pazli' may sound almost identical when spoken by

Malays, whereas this confusion would not arise when spoken by a British Speaker.

Last but not least, another factor to look at is syntax. As far as syntax and

formal use are concerned, adherence to a standard model of British or American

English still prevails to a certain degree (Wong, 1978). For lexis in particular, there

are items with a localized context such as kampongand makan, which are absent

in British English. Some lexical items have different meanings. For instance, in

Malaysian English, missus is considered more polite than wife whereas the

former is a low prestige word in British English (Platt, 1980). Where syntax is

concerned, the word order of noun phrases in Bahasa Malaysia is used often. For

instance, fonkadfor phone card,and not enoughtall fornot tall enough.

In conclusion, with Malaysian Englishs development, characteristics and its

role in the multilingual community of Malaysians, Malaysian English may justify a

claim to the status of a "New English". However, the value of English has diminished

considerably with Bahasa Malaysia becoming the language of inter-ethnic

communication and the nation's prestige language. Thus the perceived need for a


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standard Malaysian English arises only in the education system. It might be

necessary to standardize a variety of Malaysian English so that changes in the

language can be regulated for the benefit of Malaysians.

References

Mohan K. Muniandy, Gopala Krishnan Sekharan Nair, Irma Ahmad, Norashikin

Mohamed Noor. (2010). English Language Teaching. Sociolinguistic

Competence and Malaysian Students English, 145.

YIING, I. K. (2011).AN ANALYSIS OF PRONUNCIATION ERRORS IN ENGLISH

OF SIX UTAR CHINESE STUDIES UNDERGRADUATES.

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., Hyams, N. (2007).An Introduction to Language (8th ed.)Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Zhang, F. C. & Yin, P. P. (2009). A study of pronunciation problems of Englishlearners in China.Asian Social Science, 5(6), 141-146.

Roach, P. J. (2009). English phonetics and phonology: a practical course (FourthEdition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

PLATT,J. T. 1980. Varieties and Functions of English in Singapore and Malaysia.English World-Wide 1(1): 97-121.

TAY, M. W. J. 1982. The Phonology of Educated Singapore English. English World

Wide 3(2): 135145.

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Phonology Assg Essay