THE PRONUNCIATION OF ALVEOLAR-ALVEOLAR AND BILABIAL ...

THE PRONUNCIATION OF ALVEOLAR-ALVEOLAR

AND BILABIAL-ALVEOLAR CONSONANT CLUSTERS

IN ENGLISH WORDS BY INDONESIAN LEARNERS

OF ENGLISH

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

NOVALITA PRADNYA PARAMITHA

Student Number: 154214110

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA

YOGYAKARTA

2019

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ii




OF ENGLISH

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

NOVALITA PRADNYA PARAMITHA

Student Number: 154214110

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA

YOGYAKARTA

2019


iii


iv


v

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been

previously submitted for the award of any other degree at any university, and that,

to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material

previously written by any other person except where due reference is made in the

text of the undergraduate thesis.


vi

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiwa Universitas Sanata Dharma

Nama : Novalita Pradnya Paramitha

Nomor Mahasiswa : 154214110

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan

Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul




OF ENGLISH

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan

kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,

mengalihkan, dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan

data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau

media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin kepada saya

maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya

sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal 14 Maret 2019

Yang menyatakan,


vii


viii


ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would certainly send my deepest gratitude to Allah SWT for

giving me literally everything so that I can finish this research on time. I know

that thanking Him is not always enough, remembering Him along with His whole

bless and mercy toward all things in my life. Nonetheless, my gratefulness for

Him is not able to be delivered through this piece of paper only.

Secondly, I will not forget my beloved thesis advisor I have decided to

choose since the 3rd

semester, Arina Isti‘anah, S.Pd., M.Hum. since she has

guided me wholeheartedly during this thesis writing. I thank my co-advisor, Anna

Fitriati, S.Pd., M.Hum. as well for always willing to give her time for me catching

up the thesis defense in this tight deadline.

The third gratitude goes to my parents (Bapak and Ibu), brother (Dek

Yoga), and sisters (Dek Leyla and Dek Aliya) for supporting me through ups and

downs of mine in life. We are not always together, yet I am sure their prayers do

not stop for me.

Fourthly, I also intend to show lots of appreciation to my friends,

especially The Micins—they say—(Ayu, Putri, Mba Uus, Vatma, and Widi) for

always loving, embracing, and accompanying me during my life in the college.

My college life could have been worse without them all for sure. I really do not

know what I have done to deserve them. Besides, my thanks also go to my whole

friends and all of people around me, I cannot mention one by one, having

supported and taken care of me as life goes on and on.


x

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................... ii

APPROVAL PAGE .......................................................................................... iii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ..................................................................................... iv

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ................................................................ v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA

ILMIAH .............................................................................................................. vi

MOTTO PAGE ................................................................................................. vii

DEDICATION PAGE ....................................................................................... viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. x

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................ xiii

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... xiv

ABSTRAK ........................................................................................................... xv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1

A. Background of the Study ..................................................................... 1

B. Problem Formulation ........................................................................... 5

C. Objectives of the Study ........................................................................ 5

D. Definition of Terms ............................................................................. 6

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................ 9

A. Review of Related Studies ................................................................... 9

B. Review of Related Theories................................................................. 13

1. Phonology ..................................................................................... 14

a. English Consonants Sound System ......................................... 15

i. Consonants Based on the Place of Articulation .................. 15

ii. Consonants Based on the Manner of Articulation .............. 17

b. Indonesian Consonants Sound System .................................... 20

i. Indonesian Stop Consonants ............................................. 20

ii. Indonesian Fricative Consonants ....................................... 21

iii. Indonesian Affricate Consonants ...................................... 23

iv. Indonesian Nasal Consonants ............................................ 24

v. Indonesian Lateral Consonant ........................................... 25

vi. Indonesian Flapped Consonant .......................................... 25

vii.Indonesian Approximant Consonants ................................ 26

2. The Comparison of English and Indonesian Consonants

Sound System ................................................................................ 26

3. Consonant Clusters ........................................................................ 27

4. Phonological Processes .................................................................. 29

a. Assimilation and Dissimilation .................................................. 30

b. Feature-Changing Rule .............................................................. 31

c. Insertion ..................................................................................... 31

d. Deletion...................................................................................... 32


xi

e. Metathesis .................................................................................. 32

5. Orthography ................................................................................... 33

C. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................ 34

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 36

A. Object of the Study ............................................................................... 36

B. Approach of the Study .......................................................................... 38

C. Method of the Study .............................................................................. 38

1. Data Collection ................................................................................. 38

2. Data Analysis .................................................................................... 40

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS RESULT AND DISCUSSION ......................... 45

A. The Pronunciation of Alveolar-Alveolar and Bilabial-Alveolar

Consonant Clusters by the Participants ............................................... 45

1. The Pronunciation of Alveolar-Alveolar Consonant Clusters by

the Participants ................................................................................. 48

a. Nasal-Stops ................................................................................... 49

b. Fricative-Stops ............................................................................. 50

c. Nasal-Fricatives ............................................................................ 51

2. The Pronunciation of Bilabial-Alveolar Consonant Clusters by the

Participants ........................................................................................ 52

a. Stop-Stops..................................................................................... 53

b. Nasal-Stops................................................................................... 54

B. Phonological Processes Observed in the Participants‘

Pronunciations ...................................................................................... 55

1. Deletion ............................................................................................. 58

2. Feature-Changing Rule ..................................................................... 62

3. Insertion ............................................................................................ 65

C. Phonological Factors Observed in the Participants‘ Pronunciations .... 68

1. Language Use Influencing the Participants‘ Pronunciations ............ 69

2. English Acquisition Influencing the Participants‘ Pronunciations ... 77

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 84

REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 88

APPENDICES ................................................................................................... 91

Appendix 1. Phonetic Transcription of P1‘s Pronunciation ...................... 91










xii

Appendix 10. Phonetic Transcription of P10‘s Pronunciation .................. 100

Appendix 11. Questionnares of the Research ............................................ 101

Appendix 12. Questionnare Result of P1 .................................................. 103









Appendix 21. Questionnare Result of P10 ................................................ 121


xiii

LIST OF TABLES

No Table Page

1. Table 1. Words with Alveolar-Alveolar and Bilabial-Alveolar

Consonant Clusters 37

2. Table 2. Summarized Results of the Participants‘ Pronunciations

(Table Example) 41

3. Table 3. Language Use Influencing the Participants‘

Pronunciations 43

4. Table 4. English Acquisition Influencing the Participants‘

Pronunciations 44

5. Table 5. Summarized Results of the Participants‘ Pronunciations 46

6. Table 6. Summarized Results of Alveolar-Alveolar Pronunciations 48

7. Table 7. Results of the Participants‘ Pronunciation in Nasal-Stops 49

8. Table 8. Results of the Participants‘ Pronunciation in Fricative-Stops 50

9. Table 9. Results of the Participants‘ Pronunciation in Nasal-Fricatives 51

10. Table 10. Summarized Results of Bilabial-Alveolar Pronunciations 52

11. Table 11. Results of the Participants‘ Pronunciation in Stop-Stops 53

12. Table 12. Results of the Participants‘ Pronunciation in Nasal-Stops 54

13. Table 13. Summary of Phonological Processes Occurring in the

Participants‘ Pronunciations 56

14. Table 14. Summary of Deletion Phonological Process in the


15. Table 15. Summary of Feature-Changing Rule Phonological Process

in the Participants‘ Pronunciations 62

16. Table 16. Summary of Insertion Phonological Process in the


17. Table 17. Language Influencing Participants‘ Pronunciations 69

18. Table 18. English Acquisition Influencing the Participants‘

Pronunciations 77


xiv

ABSTRACT

Paramitha, Novalita Pradnya. (2019). The Pronunciation of Alveolar-Alveolar

and Bilabial-Alveolar Consonant Clusters in English Words by Indonesian

Learners of English. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of

Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Language is an important tool for human beings in life because the main

function of language is to convey certain message and information. Therefore,

language has to be clearly understood by the parties involved in communication.

The clarity of language can be considered by one of the aspects, which is

pronunciation or the production of sounds as people speak. This sound production

is studied in phonology. In phonology, one of the topics provided is syllable

where consonant clusters are explained as well. Consonant clusters are the

combinations of consonant sounds within the syllables. Hence, alveolar-alveolar

and bilabial-alveolar combination of consonants are termed the clusters of

consonant. Consonant clusters are hard to perform, especially for Indonesian

learners, for it contains the mixed sounds, which Indonesians are not accustomed

to it.

There are three main analyzed purposes in this research. The first one is

to find out of how Indonesian learners of English utter English alveolar-alveolar

and bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters. Then, the second is to observe

phonological processes befalling in their pronunciations. The last is to scrutinize

phonological factors affecting the pronunciations.

The purposeful sampling method was used to collect the data of the

research. Ten students of Management Study Program batch 2018 of Sanata

Dharma University were asked to enunciate 8 words with alveolar-alveolar and

bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters selected from their module Bahasa Inggris:

English for General Purposes. Those words were displayed in the questionnaires

part A while part B covers some questions about the participants‘ backgrounds.

These questions were operated to solve the research question of phonological

factors.

The results are 73.75% of the respondents mistakenly utter the consonant

clusters whereas 26.25% others do not. Those 77% of the respondents are known

to act certain language phenomena or phonological processes. They are deletion,

feature-changing rule, and insertion. The main factor leading up to these

phenomena is the mother tongue of all the participants, Indonesian, so that it

influences their enunciations. It occurs because English and Indonesian have

different phonological system. Furthermore, it is found that their utterances are

not backgrounded by their understandings of English knowledge although they all

have it, yet their familiarity of the language itself.

Keywords: Consonant Cluster, Pronunciation, Phonological Processes,

Phonological Factors


xv

ABSTRAK

Paramitha, Novalita Pradnya. (2019). The Pronunciation of Alveolar-Alveolar

and Bilabial-Alveolar Consonant Clusters in English Words by Indonesian

Learners of English. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,

Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Bahasa merupakan alat yang penting dalam kehidupan manusia karena

fungsi utama bahasa, yaitu untuk menyampaikan pesan dan informasi tertentu.

Maka dari itu, penyampaian bahasa harus dipahami secara jelas oleh pihak-pihak

yang terlibat dalam komunikasi. Kejelasan bahasa dapat dinilai dari suatu aspek,

yaitu pengucapan atau produksi bunyi ketika seseorang berbicara. Produksi bunyi

ini dipelajari dalam studi fonologi. Salah satu topik dalam ilmu fonologi ialah

silaba/suku kata yang di dalamnya juga menjelaskan tentang klaster konsonan.

Klaster konsonan adalah sebuah kombinasi dari bunyi konsonan dalam suatu suku

kata. Oleh sebab itu, kombinasi konsonan alveolar-alveolar dan bilabial-alveolar

disebut sebagai klaster konsonan. Klaster konsonan termasuk sulit diucapkan,

terlebih bagi pelajar Indonesia sebab klaster konsonan terdiri dari kombinasi

bunyi, yang warga Indonesia tidak terbiasa dengan hal tersebut.

Ada tiga tujuan utama yang dianalisis dalam penelitian ini. Yang pertama

adalah untuk mencari tahu tentang bagaimana pelajar Indonesia yang mempelajari

Bahasa Inggris mengucapkan klaster konsonan alveolar-alveolar dan bilabial-

alveolar dalam Bahasa Inggris. Yang kedua ialah untuk mengobservasi proses-

proses fonologi yang terjadi dalam pelafalan mereka. Yang terakhir adalah untuk

meneliti faktor-faktor fonologi yang mempengaruhi pelafalannya.

Teknik sampling bertujuan digunakan untuk mengumpulkan data

penelitian ini. Sepuluh mahasiswa Program Studi Managemen angkatan 2018

Universitas Sanata Dharma diminta untuk melafalkan 8 kata berisikan konsonan

klaster alveolar-alveolar dan bilabial-alveolar yang diambil dari buku modul

mereka, Bahasa Inggris: English for General Purpose. Kata-kata tersebut

dituliskan dalam kuesioner bagian A sedangkan bagian B mencakup beberapa

pertanyaan mengenai latar belakang partisipan. Bagian ini digunakan untuk

memecahkan masalah tentang faktor-faktor fonologi.

Berdasarkan hasil, terdapat 73.75% responden yang salah dalam

mengucapkan klaster konsonan sementara 26.25% lainnya tidak. Pelafalan dari

77% responden tadi mengalami fenomena bahasa atau proses fonologi. Proses ini

meliputi penghapusan segmen, pengubahan fitur bunyi, dan penyisipan segmen.

Faktor utama yang menyebabkan terjadinya fenomena-fenomena tadi adalah

bahasa ibu semua partisipan, yaitu Bahasa Indonesia, maka hal ini mempengaruhi

pengucapan mereka. Hal ini terjadi karena Bahasa Inggris dan Indonesia memiliki

sistem fonologi yang berbeda. Terlebih, pelafalan para partisipan tidak didasari

oleh pemahaman mereka terhadap Bahasa Inggris meskipun mereka semua

memilikinya, tetapi kebiasaan mereka terhadap bahasa itu sendiri.

Kata Kunci: Klaster Konsonan, Pelafalan, Proses Fonologi, Faktor Fonologi


1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language is essential to human‘s life due to its main function. It is said

that ―a primary function of language is for humans to convey information to each

other or request services of some kind in a variety of situations (e.g., relating

events that happen to them, giving someone directions, asking for services such as

in a shopping or other service encounter)‖ (Armstrong & Ferguson, 2010, p. 6).

From the function of language mentioned, the researcher is able to conclude that

language is important since it is used for communication in human‘s daily life.

Being operated as a tool of communication to convey messages or information,

language should be clearly understood by the parties involved in that act of

communication. One reason affecting the clarity of language spoken is

pronunciation.

Pronunciation is suggested as ―the method of producing certain sounds‖

(Gilakjani, 2012, p. 2). It is shown that something mattering the most in the

pronunciation is sound. Since human beings have the ability to produce sounds,

pronunciation then becomes a fundamental part of spoken language. This field,

pronunciation or sound production, is learnt in the study called phonology. It

describes the system and patterns of speech sounds whose knowledge is

unconsciously understood by every speaker of language (Yule, 2006, p. 43).


2

One of the subtopics discussed in phonology is syllable. Syllable contains

a vowel sound usually preceded by a consonant. The elements of syllable are

onset (one or more consonants) and rhyme consisting of vowel as nucleus and

consonant(s) treated as coda. Both onset and coda can have more than one

consonant. It is known as a consonant cluster (Yule, 2006, p. 47).

Since consonant clusters are arranged by more than one consonants, it

intermixes a consonant to another or the other consonant(s) to create particular

sounds in a syllable. Nonetheless, the consonants combined can be from various

features each consonant belongs to. In this study, the consonant clusters examined

are alveolar-alveolar and bilabial-alveolar clusters. Alveolar consonants are made

with the tongue tip coming near or touching the bony ridge behind the upper teeth,

alveolar ridge. The fortis or voiceless sounds of this feature are /t/ and /s/ whereas

the lenis or voiced ones are /d, n, z, l, r/. Fortis occurs when the vocal cords do not

vibrate since they are apart, so that the air can freely flow through the oral cavity.

Lenis, on the other hand, is the sounds produced as the vocal cords vibrate since

the airstream forces its way out. Bilabials is produced by both lips. There is only

one fortis sound of it, that is /p/ while the other /b/ and /m/ are lenis (Skandera &

Burleigh, 2005, pp. 20-21). As the definition bares, alveolar-alveolar and bilabial-

alveolar clusters denote that there are two consonants—belonging to the alveolar

and bilabial features—being fused. The subjects declared above are the topic that

is going to be analyzed and discussed by the researcher in this study.

The topic of consonant clusters is worth studying and chosen by the

researcher because


3

Children learning to produce consonant clusters in any language have a

challenging task, and those learning English have a uniquely complex

situation. The large variety of clusters permissible in English, both at the

beginning and at the end of syllables, makes even monosyllables

extraordinarily complex (in words such as strength). A further

complicating factor is that morphological endings create even more

complex phoneme sequences (e.g. sixth) (McLeod, Doorn, & Reed, 2001,

p. 99).

The statement reveals that in acquiring consonant clusters, most of the people

experience difficulties, for it includes more than one consonant that should be

uttered so that the utterances later will be a more complex process. Indonesian

does not have consonant clusters in the end position of words, so that it is rather

problematic for Indonesians to utter consonant clusters in the end position of

English words. For example, the word send /sɛnd/ pronounced [sɛn] by

Indonesians is due to the different rule of consonant clusters between English and

Indonesian. This process, seen in the field of phonology, can be regarded as one of

the factors influencing the pronunciation.

Furthermore, the researcher decides to involve English learners whose

mother tongue is Indonesian to be the participants. This kind of participants is

selected because it is kind of a concern for those who should leave their original

languages and cultures in order to adjust to the new surroundings speaking

different languages. For Indonesian, English is known as first foreign language

and not as second language. It is because second language acquisition is the

process of learning a new language after the acquisition of a learner‘s native

language (Adipramono, 2011, p. 56). Nonetheless, second language in Indonesia

is still occupied by regional language or Indonesian itself, not English. Besides, it


4

has been observed by the researcher during the class that the tendency of

mispronunciation in alveolar-alveolar and bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters in

English words by the participants is higher than in other clusters.

As learners, Indonesians are very possible to face complications in

learning English since, based on Adipramono (2011), English is a foreign

language for Indonesians so that they tend to do some mistakes. These mistakes

that then will be researched by the researcher. Due to the reason that they are just

learners of English, the interference of the participants‘ mother tongue needs to be

considered as well. Those factors—both processes explained in the theory of

phonology and intervention of the mother tongue—affecting the enunciation of

English consonant clusters are also examined in this study.

The factor dealing with the rules of phonology is called phonological

processes while the other concerning to the mother tongue interference is termed

phonological factors. Phonological rules or processes are the part of speakers‘

knowledge of language. It emphasizes on the rules handling the relationship

between a phonemic representation of word and its phonetic representation or how

it is pronounced (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011, p. 244). Unlike the

phonological processes, phonological factors are more considered as the influence

of any other languages the participants possess. In this case, it is Indonesian

shaping the English learning process.

The researcher intends to scrutinize those factors because in the context

of Indonesians learning English, especially pronunciation of the consonant

clusters in this study, the learners may find some problems. Then, those problems


5

must be backgrounded by the reasons or factors being able to explain why the

inaccuracies can occur. This, at the end, leads to the revelation of English

learners‘ proficiency in pronouncing English consonant clusters.

B. Problem Formulation

There are three problems that are going to be discussed in the study.

Those three problems are:

1. How do the Indonesian learners of English pronounce of alveolar-alveolar

and bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters in English words?

2. What phonological processes are found in their pronunciation?

3. What phonological factors influence their pronunciation?

C. Objectives of the Study

There are three major objectives of the study. The first is the

pronunciation of consonant clusters, alveolar-alveolar and bilabial-alveolar,

performed by English learners whose mother tongue or first language is

Indonesian. Then, the findings scrutinized into two studies covering the

pronunciation processes in phonology and phonological factors.

As mentioned, the second objective of the study is an attempt to show the

language phenomena having the effects on the pronunciation of alveolar-alveolar

and bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters achieved by the English learners. These

phenomena are termed phonological processes. It describes what procedures


6

inside phonology able to clarify the utterances of consonant clusters having been

done.

Moreover, the third objective of the study is the reasons from

phonological factors point of view. It exposes the involvement of the English

learners‘ mother tongue or language use and acquisition of English in forming the

pronunciation of consonant clusters. The researcher tries to do a contrastive

research between English and Indonesian sound system also provides

questionnaires utilized as proofs of the learners‘ English acquisition. These will

guide to the conclusion about why the pronunciation of consonant clusters goes in

a certain way.

D. Definition of Terms

This part explains about the definition of some terms applied in this study

in order to be easily understood when read. They are consonant cluster, alveolar

consonant, bilabial consonant, phonological process, and phonological factor.

Since this study examines consonant clusters, it should be defined first.

Consonant clusters are consonants contained in onset or coda of the syllable

(Yule, 2006, p. 47). Consonant clusters in the onset enclosing two consonants are

like trouble /trʌb(ə)l/ and sprawl /sprͻ:l/ including three consonants. Two and

three consonant clusters can occur in the coda as well, such as blast /blɑ:st/ and

tilts /tɪlts/.

Two kinds of English consonants that will be talked about in this study

are alveolar and bilabial consonants. Alveolar is the consonant whose ―active


7

articulator is the blade or tip of the tongue and the passive articulator is the teeth

ridge or alveolar ridge‖ (Shariq, 2015, p. 149). Owing to the definition Shariq

gives, the researcher can assume that in enunciating alveolar consonants, the

tongue tip has the main role, meaning that it rises to touch the alveolar ridge, the

passive articulator. Some consonants articulated by this way are /t, d, n, s, l, r/.

The other consonant mentioned is bilabial. Bilabial consonants befall when the

upper lip meets the lower part of lip. Then, it creates an obstruction in the

production of the consonants (Shariq, 2015, p. 149). The consonants considered

bilabial consonants are /p,b,m/.

After that, as stated in the background of the study, there are two other

aspects which are going to be conferred in this study. They are phonological

process and phonological factor. Phonological process is the speakers‘

knowledge of language about how the articulation of a certain language is emitted

(Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011, p. 244). The statement means that

phonological process is kind of the capability of the speakers about how to

produce sounds in a certain language. This process reveals many kinds of

pronunciation phenomena of a particular language, such as English in this study.

Different from the phonological process, the other reason or background is

measured by the phonological factors. It is the factor whose explanation tries to

compare the sound system in the language examined and the language—either

mother tongue brought by the interviewed participants or any other languages—

affecting the utterance of the examined language. Besides, phonological factors

also involve the learners‘ experience of obtaining English. They, finally, end up


8

declaring what reasons behind the pronunciation of the studied language in the

implication of the mother tongue or any languages that may be the influences.


9

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In this chapter, there are three parts to be discussed. Those discussions

then help the researcher conduct this research in the pronunciation of alveolar-

alveolar and bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters by English learners. They include

review of related studies, review of related theories, and theoretical framework.

A. Review of Related Studies

This study has four references or related studies, two theses and two

journal articles, having been chosen. The selected references are based on the

topics closely related to the topic of this study. Then, the contents of the

references are reviewed. The reviews, finally, are used as supports of the study

being conducted.

The first study is managed by Rahardjosidhi entitled Mispronunciation of

English Final Alveolar-Alveolar and Velar-Alveolar Consonant Clusters by the

Students of SMA Santa Maria Yogyakarta (2017). There are two objectives of the

study in this study: identifying the mispronunciations of alveolar-alveolar and

velar-alveolar made by the students of SMA Santa Maria and analyzing the

reasons behind those mispronunciations (Rahardjosidhi, 2017, p. 4). The

identification of the mispronunciations is done by deciding the methods into two

ways, group interview and sound recording of the participants. The approach of

this study is phonology. It is shown in the explanation of findings or result of this


10

study. Rahardjosidhi states that there are two errors contributing to the

mispronunciations and he discovers that the first is interlingual or interference

errors. These include the justifications that the respondents tend to omit the last

consonant in the consonant clusters, such as in a word kind /kʌɪnd/ becoming

[kʌɪn]. Besides, the participants change the voiced consonants into voiceless since

Indonesian does not have the voiced consonants in the final position of words and

they also add schwa [ǝ] when a letter [e] appears between two consonants in the

final position (2017, pp. 55-56). The second is intralingual errors. One of the

examples is the mispronunciation of once /wʌns/ being [wʌnʃ]. It occurs due to

the vowel sounds in that word (Rahardjosidhi, 2017, pp. 56-57).

The second related study is a thesis written by Oktavia under the title The

Pronunciation of English Consonants in Rihanna’s Songs Entitled ―Work‖ and

―Man Down‖ (2017). Oktavia conducts two objectives of the study: the detection

of Rihanna‘s way in pronouncing English consonants in her song—this is going to

divulge the social backgrounds where Rihanna belongs to—and the scrutiny of

some possible factors backgrounding the pronunciation. Then, the approaches

considered to be utilized in this study are phonology and sociolinguistics

(Oktavia, 2017, pp. 24-25).

The data collection accessed by Oktavia is the purposive sampling study,

meaning that she selects certain units to accomplish a purpose. After that, the data

are processed later producing discoveries or results related to the phonological

processes. Some of them are deletion, palatalization, and affrication existing in the

utterances of English consonants by Rihanna. Furthermore, the facts that Rihanna


11

is Afro-Caribbean and affected by Jamaican music genre contribute to her

pronunciations. Those are the judgments seen from the sociolinguistic viewpoint

(Oktavia, 2017, pp. 47-48).

Unlike the first and second related studies, the third and fourth related

studies are taken from journal articles. The first journal article is composed by

Chin-Wan Chung with the title An Aspect of Consonant Cluster Simplification in

English (2017). In this study, two objectives are managed. They are the

observations of an aspect of consonant deletion in coda clusters of English and the

provisions of an alternative analysis of consonant deletion (Chung, 2017, p. 43).

The methodology the researcher uses to present the data is divided into two

groups:

The first group consists of three-member coda consonant realization in

mono-morphemic words. The second group of data is composed of three-

member coda of mono-morphemic stem followed by a derivational suffix

beginning with a consonant or a consonant initial word (Chung, 2017, p.

45).

The results found after scrutinizing the data are the words in the first

group experience a weakening, but not necessarily a deletion unless it is followed

by another consonant. It befalls, for there are obstruent stops appearing between

consonants. However, the data in the second group undergo a deletion of /t/ sound

to ―satisfy better syllable structure, such as maximization of onset, avoid having

three-coda consonants, and forming singleton coda element‖ (Chung, 2017, pp.

45-47). Those assumptions are studied with the theory of constraints, provided as

the alternative analysis, like trapped consonant, max-nasal, max-final consonant,


12

faith-onset, onset-condition, max-peripheral, and max-coronal (Chung, 2017, p.

56).

The last study authored by Seo entitled Perception of a

Consonant/Lateral Cluster by Korean and English Listeners (2012) researches

about the language universal and specific influences on Korean and English

listeners‘ perception of a consonant/lateral cluster. The methodology functioned in

this study is in the form of stimuli, recording the words performed by the

participants having been elected, Koreans and English (Seo, 2012, pp. 675-677).

The results concluded are first, the listeners are more likely to discriminate

acoustically and auditorily similar sounds, for two similar segments are not

phonemically contrastive in their native language. Secondly, the listeners have a

difficulty in differentiating a weak segment in the consonant clusters although it is

allowed in their native language. It, finally, states that the phenomena of language

perception are affected by various language universal and specific factors (Seo,

2012, p. 689).

Those four related studies are selected because they have similarities

with this study. Those all share the same topic, which is consonant. In involving

methodology, this study utilizes the same method with the first and the last study

even though the term is dissimilar in the last study. The approach used for all the

related studies and this study is the same, phonology, since all of them describe

the language phenomena and the tries to uncover the factors behind them. The last

study, especially, explains how the native language acquired by certain people has


13

the effects on perceiving other languages and this is quite related to the upcoming

analysis of this study on the phonological factors.

However, there must be some differences between the four related

studies and this study. The second study‘s topic is consonant, yet this study deals

with a set of consonants or consonant clusters. Moreover, the first related study

investigates the alveolar-alveolar and velar-alveolar consonant clusters. This

study, on the other hand, examines alveolar-alveolar and bilabial alveolar

consonant clusters. The differences of this study compared to the last two journal

articles are the contrast of the focus. The third study focuses more on the

phonological processes of consonant clusters‘ simplification and the last study

emphasizes on the phonological factors in perceiving consonant clusters, whereas

this study concentrates on both of them.

The study about alveolar-alveolar and bilabial-alveolar consonant

clusters is to improve or develop those four studies by converging both

phonological processes and factors having the possible elucidations on why the

utterance phenomena of the consonant clusters run in a certain way. It covers the

reasons explicated by phonology‘s discipline and mother tongue interference

standpoint.

B. Review of Related Theories

There is actually a main theory in this study that is phonology, yet it

embraces many sub-theories below. Besides only reviewing both English and

Indonesian consonant sound system, in this part, the comparison between both


14

languages, consonant clusters, and phonological processes are illustrated as well.

This part assists the researcher to develop the study in analysis later.

1. Phonology

According to Ufot, ―phonology is the study of the organization and

patterning of sounds in a particular language. Phonology concerns with how the

sounds function in a systemic way in a particular language‖ (2013, p. 110). The

basic activities of phonology are:

phonemic analysis in which the objective is to establish what the

phonemes are and arrive at the ‗phonemic inventory‘ of the

language…(and) the study of stress, rhythm and intonation.…The way in

which sounds combine in a language is studied in ‗phonotactics‘ and in

the analysis of syllable structure (Jones, 2006, p. 388).

Owing to the definition of phonology explained above, the main topic, consonant

cluster, elected by the researcher to conduct is included in phonology, for it

examines how the sounds combined. Phoneme is the minimal unit in the sound

system of a language whereas phone is the smallest perceptible discrete segment

of sound in a stream of speech (Crystal, 2008, p. 361). The combination of

sounds, on the other hand, is called phonotactic constraints. When the

combination comprises some consonants, it is termed consonant cluster.

Phonological rule in each language is, of course, varied. English has its

own phonological system, so does Indonesian. Therefore, they bear some

differences in their systems. However, the system/rule that is going to be revealed

in this study is limited to the consonant and consonant cluster only.


15

a. English Consonant Sound System

Consonants in English are affected by the restriction in the vocal tract

impeding the airflow from the lung. Furthermore, the way the airstream is shaped

as it flows from the lung up to the mouth and nose has the influence on how the

English consonant is formed as well (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011, p.

195&198). These reasons determine the division of the consonants into two parts.

i. Consonants Based on the Place of Articulation

The restriction in the vocal tract affecting the airflow establishes the

place of articulation in English consonants. It is the location where the restriction

takes place. Based on this, English consonants are distributed in eight places of

articulation. They are bilabials, labio-dentals, dentals, alveolars, postalveolars,

palatals, velars, and glottals (McMahon, 2002, pp. 30-33). The order of the place

of articulation is arranged based on the location of the articulators starting from

the front until back part of the vocal tract.

The first consonants are bilabials. It involves both lips to pronounce these

consonants; bottom lip is the active articulator while the upper one is passive.

Consonants contained in bilabials are [p, b, m]. Proud, tribal, and handsome are

the examples of bilabial consonants in words. The second consonants still

bringing lips in their utterance are labio-dentals, yet this type of consonant only

implicates the bottom lip as active articulator and upper teeth. There are only two

consonantal sounds consisted in this type: [f] and [v]. [f] is like stuff and [v] is in

veil.


16

The third type is dental consonants. The active articulator is the tip of the

tongue whereas the passive is the top front teeth. As labio-dentals, dentals also has

only two sounds, which are [ɵ] and [ð]. In the word thigh is the [ɵ] and thy is the

[ð]. Then, alveolars is in the fourth type of the place of articulation. Alveolar

sounds are produced by the tip or blade of the tongue moving up towards the

alveolar ridge. The sounds covered in this type are [t, d, n, s, z, l, r]. There are

many examples in words having those sounds, such as top, sadness, sun, soap,

blaze, lamp, and core.

The fifth class is post-alveolar consonants. The sounds are [ʃ, Ʒ, ʧ, ʤ].

From the sounds having been stated, it can be concluded that the location is in the

hard palate; the blade of the tongue touches the hard palate. This is why the

tongue‘s blade is the active articulator, while the hard palate is the passive one.

This phenomenon is illustrated in the words ship, beige, chunk, and junk. The

sixth type is palatal consonants. As post-alveolar consonants, palatal consonants

also carry hard palate as a passive articulator and blade of the tongue as the

passive. However, the blade of the tongue does not necessarily touch the hard

palate. It just raises or moves up to the hard palate. The consonantal sounds

pronounced in this way are [j] like in the word young.

The last two types are velars and glottals. The active articulator of velars

is the back of the tongue whereas the passive is the soft palate or velum. The

sounds of it are [k, g, ŋ, x]. They can be seen in the words cot, got, rang, and

loch. Glottals, on the other hand, are ―the minority in articulatory terms, since they

do not involve the tongue: instead, the articulators are the vocal folds, which


17

constitute a place of articulation as well as having a crucial role in voicing‖

(McMahon, 2002, p. 33). There are two sounds of glottals in English: [h] and [Ɂ]

as an intervocalic realisation of [t]. The application of them is like in the words

high and butter uttered [bʌɁǝr].

ii. Consonants Based on the Manner of Articulation

If place of articulation reveals where the articulators are located in the

vocal tract to produce sounds, manner of articulation uncovers how the sounds are

made, especially the stipulation of the airflow as it runs when the speaker makes

sounds.

Consonants involve at least two articulators. When the articulators are

brought closer together, the flow of air between them changes: for

instance, it can be stopped or made turbulent. The channels between any

two articulators govern the pressure and flow of air through the vocal

tract, and in turn this affects the kinds of sound that come out (Ogden,

2009, p. 16).

As the definition declares, the relation between both articulators are able to form

the airstream and it ends up indicating the sounds performed. Ogden (2009, pp.

16-18) acknowledges that there are three main umbrellas of manner of

articulation. Those three are stop, fricative, and resonant articulations.

Nevertheless, comparing to Fromkin et al (2011), manner of articulation splits

consonants into voiced and voiceless also nasal and oral sounds besides what

Ogden has listed. Thus, the researcher combines those two sources in describing

manner of articulation of English consonants.

The active articulator of deciding the voicing status is a vocal cord.

Consonants are said voiceless when the vocal cords are apart, so that the air flows

freely through glottis to the oral cavity. Some consonants considered voiceless is


18

/p, t, k/. In contrast, voiced consonants, such as /b, d, g/ are created when vocal

cords are together and the airstream forces its way through then makes them

vibrate (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011, p. 198).

The second classification Fromkin et al (2011) assert rather than voicing

status is whether consonants are encompassed in nasal or oral sounds. Nasals is

the sounds pronounced with the velum low, so that the air escapes from both

mouth and nose. The consonants of nasals are [m, n, ŋ]. Oral sounds, in the

opposite, occur when the velum is up and it blocks the nose. Therefore, the air

flows only through the oral cavity. The consonants involved in the oral sounds are

the other consonants outside those in nasals.

After that, corresponding to Ogden (2009, pp. 16-18), the phenomenon of

the airflow‘s condition in the vocal tract when speaking as manner of articulation

is divided up into three parts: stops, fricatives, and resonants. Stops is built when

there is a complete closure inside the oral tract between two articulators. This

stops the air moving out of the oral tract. Stops comprises a whole range of sound

types varying based on the kind of the airflow, nasal and oral sounds, and whether

or not the closure can be maintained for a long time. The sound types becoming a

part of this manner of articulation are plosives, nasals, trills, and taps.

Plosives is constructed by a complete closure in the oral tract. The velum

is raised and prevents the air from fleeing through the nose. The sounds of

plosives are [p, t, k, b, d, g]. Those consonants are maintainable since the closure

can be held longer in the oral tract and come out as an explosion. Nasals, linking

to Fromkin et al (2011), is the complete closure in the oral tract, but with the


19

velum low causing the air runs through both mouth and nose. The sounds or

consonants are [m, n, ŋ]. The last two other sound types happen shorter, for the

complete closure is only upheld in a short period of time due to aerodynamics or

the movement of articulators from one position to another. The first one is trills;

pronounced by the tongue tip striking the alveolar ridge repeatedly. [r] uttered

rolled is the only sound in this type. This process of pronunciation is rare in

English, yet usually identical to Scottish. The last type is taps. Unlike trills, taps is

quite common in English. The [t] and [d] sounds spoken [ɾ], like in the words

writer [rʌɪɾər] and atom [aɾəm] are transpired by a short percussive of the tip of

the tongue towards the alveolar ridge.

The second type after stop consonants is fricatives. It is the result of two

articulators being in close approximation with each other. The airflow forms

turbulent or friction noise, hissing sound in another word, because the air is held

from passing through by the articulators in a small gap. [f, v, Ɵ, ð, s, z, ʃ, Ʒ] are

consonants performed in this way. Those can be observed in words fish, vow,

think, then, loose, lose, wish, and vision. Affricates is plosives released into

fricatives. English has two sounds of this: [ʧ] and [ʤ] as in the words church and

judge.

The last type in manner of articulation is resonants. It happens as the air

streams smoothly through the vocal tract since there is no friction following. The

consonants are usually called approximants. They are [j, w, l, r]. [j] and [w] are

termed glides because they are closely related in phonetic terms to the vowels [i]

and [u]—[j] is uttered in the same place as [i], which is front high position in the


20

oral cavity. So is [w] and the vowel [u] sharing the same place of articulation,

back low—and also considered as non-syllabic versions of these vowels. The [l]

and [r] are labelled liquids. They also have similarities in the places where they

appear in the consonant clusters.

b. Indonesian Consonant Sound System

The mechanism of Indonesian consonants production is quite the same as

English. Consonants are shaped in three aspects: place of articulation, manner of

articulation, and vocal fold vibration. Concurring to Dardjowidjojo (2009), those

three aspects are allocated into 7 types of Indonesian consonants sound system.

The types are stop, fricative, affricate, nasal, lateral, flapped, and approximant

consonants and the further descriptions of them will be quoted from

Dardjowidjojo (2009) page 36-48.

i. Indonesian Stop Consonants

Indonesian stop consonant is distributed in bilabial, alveolar, and velar

stops. Bilabial stop consonants are [p] and [b]. This bilabial is uttered by having

the upper and lower lips in contact and the nasal passage is closed by the velum.

The sound is not accompanied by the vibration of the folds so it is called

voiceless. Phoneme [p] can occur in the initial, middle, and final word. For

example, pasar, api, and gemerlap. Another bilabial [b], on the other hand,

vibrates the vocal folds when uttered. Therefore, it is considered voiced. Phoneme

[b] can also exist in three positions as [p], yet when it comes to the final position,

the pronunciation is more like [p] than [b], such as in the word rebab[p].


21

Indonesian alveolar stop consonants are [t] and [d]. Those are performed

by having the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge and the nasal passage is

shut by velum. The sound [t] is voiceless since, as [p], it does not result a vocal

fold vibration. Alveolar [t] is able to befall in three positions, like in the words

tua, pintu, and lihat. Similar with bilabial [b], alveolar [d] is voiced and it

becomes [t] when taking place in the final of the word, such as abad[t].

Indonesian velar stop consonants are produced the same as bilabial [p]

and alveolar [t]; three of them are voiceless. The consonant [k] can take place

anywhere, like kartu, akan, and sibuk. Then, velar [g] is voiced like bilabial [b]

and alveolar [d], but it results in a voiceless [k] when occupying the final position

of word, as in the word bedug[k].

ii. Indonesian Fricative Consonants

Indonesian fricatives are [f, s, z, ʃ, h]. Owing to Dardjowidjojo (2009),

fricative [f] is used by educated Indonesians, whereas those who get less

education tend to change it into [p] so that [f] and [p] in the word pikir are applied

interchangeably (p. 40). The fricative [f] is pronounced by bringing the upper

teeth having a contact with the lower lip. As producing it, the velum closes the

nasal cavity. Thus, the air flows through the opening at both sides of the tongue

and there is some frictions. It is, therefore, called labiodental fricative. Fricative

[f] can be found in all positions of words: initial, middle, and front, yet no

allophone of it except itself sometimes changed into [p], such as in the words

filem becoming pilem, lafal to lapal, and khilaf to khilap. The letter ―v‖ is also


22

kown in Indonesian, yet pronounced the same as [f] or [p]. It can occur in only

both initial and medial position, like in varia and Avanza.

Indonesian fricative [s] is uttered by putting the blade of the tongue on

the alveolar ridge. The velum shuts the nasal cavity so the air is released through

the tongue sides and it causes friction, yet there is no vocal vibration. The sound

covered into these characteristics is called voiceless alveolar fricatives. Fricative

[s] occupies all positions. It can be observed in the words salam, kasur, and bebas.

Another sound whose production in the vocal tract is quite the same as

[s] is [z]. However, in articulating [z], the vocal cord vibrates. Thus, it is called

voiced alveolar fricatives. It can befall only in two positions, initial and medial.

Sometimes, it is substituted with the sounds [ʤ] and [s]. The examples for this

type are azaz into asas and zaman into jaman.

Indonesian fricative [ʃ] is performed by the tongue blade contacting the

alveopalatal and the velum closes the nasal cavity up so that the air streams

through the tongue sides. The vocal cord does not vibrate. Nevertheless, the term

for this sound is voiceless alveopalatal fricatives. It is distributed in both initial

and medial positions occassionally uttered as [s]. The difference between English

and Indonesian [ʃ] is Indonesian [ʃ] needs no protrusion of the lips. This sound is

like in the words syair into sair and masyarakat into masarakat.

The sound [x] is realized in a grapheme <kh> performed by having the

tongue back close to the velum without touching it. It is termed voiceless velar

fricatives since the vocal fold does not vibrate. The velum is shut so the air is

released from the narrow passage between the tongue and velum. The sound [x]


23

turned into [k] or [h] is found in all positions of words: khas to kas, akhir to ahir,

and tarikh to tarih.

The other sound included in the Indonesian fricatives is [h]. The

pronunciation of it is by the flowing of the air passing freely from the vocal cord

until the mouth without impeded. It is named glottal fricatives and discovered in

all positions although it sometimes replaced by a vowel [a] when [h] begins the

words. It is dropped as well as locating the medial position between two dissimilar

vowels. For examples, in the words hancur becomes ancur and lihat into liat.

iii. Indonesian Affricate Consonants

The Indonesian affricates has two sounds, which are [ʧ] and [ʤ]. The

affricate [ʧ] is produced by having the tongue blade to touch the alveopalatal as

the nasal cavity is closed so that the air moves through the tongue sides. Since the

vocal cord does not vibrate as pronounced, it is said as voiceless sound. The sound

[ʧ] now has three features: voiceless, alveopalatal, and affricate. Thus, it is termed

as a voiceless alveopalatal affricates. The words cipta and puncak show that [ʧ] is

able to emerge in the initial and middle position of words.

The other Indonesian affricate consonant is [ʤ]. The production of the

sound is in accordance with the construction of [ʧ], yet there is a difference

between them. It is the movement of the vocal cord, meaning that the vocal cord

undergoes the vibration. This is why the affricate [ʤ] is voiced and now, the

expression is voiced alveopalatal affricates. Compared to English, Indonesian [ʤ]

is spoken with less lip protrusion and less vocal fold vibration. While English


24

tolerates the occurrence of [ʤ] in the final position of words, Indonesian does not.

It only befalls in the initial and middle positions: jika and kijang.

iv. Indonesian Nasal Consonants

The nasal [m], [n], [ŋ], and [ň] belong to Indonesian nasals. Except [ň] in

nyaman, English has the other nasal sounds appearing as well in Indonesian.

Nasal [m] is pronounced by involving two lips together when the velum is low so

it allows the air to flow through the nasal cavity. It is also named bilabial nasals.

The utterance is also supported by the vocal fold vibration. This ends up resulting

the statement that all nasals are voiced. This sound, [m], can befall in the initial,

middle, and final positions in Indonesian words, like macan, timpa, and kaum.

When the utterance does not require the lips as in the nasal [n], [ň], and

[ŋ], the label must be different. The nasal [n] is called alveolar nasal consonant

because it brings the tip of the tongue in contact with alveolar ridge, yet the air

runs through the nasal passage. This sound can be found in the words nomor,

pinta, and pesan. The nasal [ň], on the other hand, is a palatal nasal. It is because

in pronouncing it, the back of the tongue raises and touches the palate. In

Indonesian, it is like a combination of [n] and [y] and able to exist in the initial

and middle position of words: nyewa and banyak. The last Indonesian nasals is

[ŋ]. It is a velar nasals since its place of articulation is in velar position along with

the air releases through the nose. Indonesian [ŋ] can be contained in three

positions, such as ngopi, sangat, and bilang. Nonetheless, English does not permit

this sound to emerge in the initial position. Consequently, it is kind of obstacle for

English studying Indonesian to utter it.


25

v. Indonesian Lateral Consonant

The Indonesian lateral is uttered by bringing the tip of the tongue

touching the alveolar ridge with the velum up so that it closes the nasal cavity.

Therefore, the air flows through the side of the tongue without causing any

frictions. There is only one sound of laterals, which is /l/. It is able to appear in

three positions of word: initial, middle, and final. It is realized in the words langit,

kalau, and kidal. For Indonesians comprehending English, the pronunciation of

lateral /l/ is not a problem at all, yet it is if it places the syllabic position of word.

For example, the words little [lɪtl] uttered [lɪtəl], middle [mɪdl] to [mɪdəl], and

battle [batl] to [batəl] reveal that Indonesians tend to retain the schwa [ə] in their

speaking of the syllabic lateral /l/.

vi. Indonesian Flapped Consonant

As Indonesian laterals, flapped consonant too has only one sound, which

is /r/. It is shaped by having the tongue tip contacting to alveolar ridge many

times. Then, the air streams is released through the opening of each of the flap.

Flapped /r/ is performed in two ways: flap and trill. In Spanish, flapped /r/ is like

pero whereas trill is perro. Indonesian has a flapped /r/ rather than trill. The

examples of flapped /r/ in Indonesian words are rumah, merah, and luar.

Since English /r/ is not flapped as Indonesian, people from English find it

hard to speak Indonesian /r/. The same difficulty will also be discovered by

Indonesians learning English, for English /r/ is said differently from it is in

Indonesian.


26

vii. Indonesian Approximant Consonants

The Indonesian approximant consonants [y]—written [j] in English—and

[w] is considered semi vowels since the production of them is more like vowels

due to the absence of obstruction in the mouth, yet their purpose is as consonant.

The Indonesian [y] is uttered by the middle of the tongue raising toward the palate

without touching it. The air is freed through the opening between the tongue and

the palate. Thus, there is no obstruction in the mouth. The approximant [y] does

not exist in the final position of word, but initial and middle, such as yayasan and

payah.

Unlike [y], the approximant [w] is produced by bringing two lips without

even touching each other. The air is unrestricted in the mouth, for there is no any

impediment. As the result, it comes out through the opening between two lips as

the nasal passage is closed. The approximant [w], same as [y], does not occur in

the final position of words. It is viewed in the examples waktu and hawa.

2. The Comparison of English and Indonesian Consonant Sound System

In the purpose of knowing or contrasting what the two systems of

languages are like, linguistics has a branch termed Contrastive Analysis.

Contrastive Analysis believes that the sounds which are not found in

language A, but found in language B will constitute problems for the

speakers of A in learning language B. For instance, the fact that English

cluster [skt] found at the final position of the word asked will be an

obstacle for Indonesian learner of English, for Indonesian does not permit

three consonants located in the final position of words (Dardjowidjojo,

2009, p. 35).


27

The explanation discloses that Contrastive Analysis is the study analyzing the

phenomena or problems of language from the contrasts existing in languages

being observed. It gives the clues what kinds of problem that will be faced by the

speaker or learner of a certain language. Then, these problems are partitioned into

four groups.

The first is if a sound in language A does not arise in language B, it will

initiate a problem for the speakers of B studying language A. For example, /ð/ not

being admitted in Indonesian, yet it is in English is going to complicate

Indonesians in uttering that. The second problem is a sound differently

distributed—such as /ŋ/ in Indonesian beginning the word, but it does not exist in

English—can trigger a difficulty as well. Next, the complication will appear if

there is a sound in language A found in language B, yet they are dissimilar in the

production of pronunciation. One of the examples is an English aspirated /t/ in a

certain position. It is surely hard for Indonesians to perform because Indonesian /t/

is spoken the same anywhere. The last obstacle is if two or more sounds can be

combined in language A, but not in language B, learners from language B will

have a hindrance in comprehending language A. It is shown in the word texts

[tɛksts] in English whereas the coda cluster [ksts] does not belong to Indonesian.

3. Consonant Clusters

Consonant cluster in phonology is actually analyzed by the discussion of

syllable since it is usually used in the arrangement of the word‘s syllable.

Consonant cluster is revealed as two or more consonants are together in a syllable


28

(Roach, 2002, p. 68). Consonant clusters are able to be in the initial, middle, and

final position of the word.

Consonant cluster taking place in the initial position is reflected in the

words spray [spreɪ], try [trʌɪ], and plane [pleɪn]. However, Roach remarks that [s]

is a pre-initial consonant, [p, t, k] following the [s] are initial, and [l, r, w, j] are

post-initial. In conclusion, [s] in spray is the pre-initial consonant and [p] is the

initial one, yet in try and plane, [t] and [p] are the initial while [r] is post-initial.

Then, consonant cluster occurring in the middle position is like in a word signal

[sɪgnəl]. In the final position of word, similar to consonant cluster in the initial

position, there are two sorts of two consonant final cluster: one final consonant

preceded by pre-final consonant and the other consonants followed by post-final

consonant. The pre-final consonants are [m, n, ŋ, l, s], such as in the words bump

[bʌmp], bent [bɛnt], bank [baŋk], belt [bɛlt], and ask [a:sk]. Then, the consonants

[s, z, t, d, Ɵ] are contained in the post-final consonants. Bets [bɛts], beds [bɛdz],

baked [beɪkt], bagged [bӕgd], and eighth [eɪtƟ] are the words bringing post-final

consonants. Another example is the word helped [hɛlpt] where [l] is the pre-final

consonant, [p] is final, and [t] is the post-final one (2002, pp. 71-72).

Contrasting to English consonant clusters, Muslich mentions that

Indonesian consonant clusters are the impact of the loanwords‘ phonetic

structures. However, Indonesian consonant clusters are only established on these

combinations: clusters stood for two and three consonants. If the clusters consist

of two consonants, the first consonant must be [p, b, t, d, k, g, f, s] and the second

ones are only on the sounds [l, r, w, s, m, n, k]. The examples of this clusters are


29

pleonasme, tragedi, psikologi, and kwintal. On the other hand, if the clusters are

made of three consonants, the first consonant is always [s], the second ones are [t]

and [p], and the other ones are [r] and [l]. In the words sprinter and skripsi, this

type of cluster can be found. Furthermore, since Indonesian does not have its own

consonant clusters, Indonesian speakers have a tendency to insert [ə] between the

clusters as they are articulating the loanwords having consonant clusters, such as

[praŋko] often uttered [pəraŋko] and [slogan] turns out to be [səlogan] (2008, pp.

71-72).

4. Phonological Processes

Lass remarks that ―the only case where process terms can be used in a

relatively theory-neutral sense is where the relation between input and output is

temporal: i.e. in describing historical change. For example the change of [d] to [t]

in German was a real event in historical time and it left traces of itself as a

paradigmatic irregularity‖ (1984, p. 170). From the clarification given by Lass, it

can be concluded that phonological processes are kind of irregularities befalling in

a language. Lass also mentions that those ‗surface‘ irregularities are resolved by

referring them to the ‗deeper‘ regularities. Therefore, the processes are needed to

mirror the historical changes producing the irregularities in the first place. The

classifications of the processes are summarized from Lass‘s (1984) account in

page 171, 184, 186-187, and 188. The feature-changing rule, however, is justified

by Fromkin et al (2011) in 249.


30

a. Assimilation and Dissimilation

Assimilation is a segment becomes more like or identical to another or

two become more like each other. In this case, it means the characteristics altered

to be similar to one another. Assimilation can be either progressive/perseverative

or regressive/anticipatory. This is considered from the direction; the assimilating

influence may work in the left or right. It is presented in the examples open

[əʊpən] to [əʊpm] and I’m coming [aɪm kʌmɪŋ] pronounced [aɪŋ kʌmɪŋ]. In the

enunciation of open, the influence moves from the left to right or forward whereas

the last example tells the opposite, from the right to left or backward. In the open,

the [n] changing into [m] is caused by [p]. They turn out to be alike since they

share the same place of articulation, bilabials. The [m] adjusting to [ŋ] is due to

[k] produced identical with [ŋ] in the discussion of manner of articulation (Lass,

1984, p. 171).

Lass, on the other hand, exposes that dissimilation is the reverse of

assimilation (1984, p. 171). While assimilation has the function to transform

certain characteristic of sound so that it assimilates to either preceding or

following sound in a segment, dissimilation is to dissimilate or convert the sound

to be less similar to other sounds. It works to ease the pronunciation since it is

easier to utter the words containing dissimilation, such as fricative dissimilation

rule. The words fifth [fɪfƟ] and sixth [sɪksƟ] tend to be spoken [fɪft] and [sɪkst],

for the changing of fricative [Ɵ] becoming dissimilar to the preceding fricative [f]

to stop [t] (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011, p. 249).


31

b. Feature-Changing Rule

Fromkin et al reveal that feature-changing rule is feature already present

is changed. In another word, it is an addition of features in the other way. The /z/

plural morpheme is turned into /s/ when following the voiceless sounds. Another

example is nasalization of vowel when certain vowel comes before nasals, as pen

[pɛn]. The vowel [ɛ] is finally added with the feature [+nasal] although before,

vowel has no feature of nasal. Because of that, feature-changing rule is the

phenomenon are able to determine the feature conversion of sounds (2011, p.

249).

c. Insertion

Insertion is a new segment appearing ‗from zero‘ in formerly unoccupied

marginal positions in the word or morpheme, or between two previously abutting

segment. The common term for insertion is epenthesis. There are two types of

insertion: prothesis and anaptyxis. Prothesis is an insertion of an initial segment,

normally a vowel—usually with a phonotactic motivation. It can be observed in

the transition of Latin to the Old French, like spiritus and stella become esprit and

étoile in French with the insertion of [e] before the consonant cluster [sp] and [st].

The second type is anaptyxis. It is the insertion of a vowel between two

consonants, most usually sonorants, or an obstruent-sonorant or sonorant-

obstruent cluster. In the words film [fɪlm] and athlete [aƟlit], yet pronounced

[fɪləm] and [aƟəlit], the schwa [ə] is inserted. Schwa there is the anaptyctic vowel

referred as parasite vowels (Lass, 1984, p. 184).


32

d. Deletion

Deletion is the opposite of insertion. If segments can emerge from zero

on insertion, they can also merge with it, meaning delete (Lass, 1984, p. 186).

Then, deletion is shared into three classifications: aphaeresis, syncope

(syncopation), and apocope (apocopation). Aphaeresis is initial deletion, such as I

am into I’m and the utterance for knight [nʌɪt] loses the phoneme [k].

Syncope or syncopation is formative-internal deletion. The expression is

mostly used to show the vowel loss. The results of the syncopation are observed

in the comparisons of American and British accents in the words secretary

[sɛkrɪtɛri] vs [sɛkrɪtrɪ] and dictionary [dɪkʃənɛri] vs [dɪkʃnrɪ]. The vowel [ɛ] and

[ə] are omitted in the utterances. The last type is apocope or apocopation. It is loss

of final element and quite common in English, for instance, final [t] is deleted

before a word beginning with another consonant, as in last time spoken [lӕstaɪm].

The final [t] in last is merged with the following consonant [t] in the word time as

well (Lass, 1984, p. 187).

e. Metathesis

Metathesis or the transposition of segments is less common than deletion

or epenthesis. For instance, there have been a number of metatheses existing in

Old English: the interchanges of /p/ and /s/. They are wapse into waspe ‗wasp‘

(/ps/ /sp/), cosp into cops ‗copse‘, and wlisp into wlips ‗lipsing‘ (/sp/ /ps/).

Another metathesis involving nasal sequences: emnity for enmity and anenome for

anemone. Owing to Lass (1984), there is no solution to this, meaning that the

standard formulation for metathesis fudges the issue by not making a


33

commitment, as in the phenomenon of /p/ and /s/. The phoneme /p/ can move to

either right or left of /s/ or both can simultaneously (1984, p. 188).

5. Orthography

Orthography is another theory needed to answer the third objective of the

study since this research deals with English words, especially the words with

consonant clusters. According to Rumsey et al (1997), there are 2 cognitive

abilities underlying visual word identification: phonological and orthographic

components. Phonological component is defined as the ability to use speech code

to retrieve information and this process involves the ‗sounding out‘ of the words.

Orthographic component, on the other hand, is a process as one gains access to

lexical representations of printed words without phonological mediation (1997, p.

739).

From the definition of each, it implies that phonology and orthography

are two different things. Orthography is a writing system of a language having

nothing to do with the process of producing the sounds within the words, meaning

that what is written is not necessarily what to read.

This theory is required, for the utterance of English consonant clusters is

not the same as how they are written. Unlike English, Indonesian has the writing

system corresponding to the sounds production. Besides, consonant clusters are

not existent in Indonesian. Therefore, the participants, as English learners, may do

some mistakes when pronouncing the consonant clusters provided in the selected

words.


34

C. Theoretical Framework

As having been explained in details in the related theories, this study uses

the main theory: phonology. However, this theory covers many sub-theories.

Those are applied to solve the problems mentioned in the research questions, the

reasons in both discussions of phonological processes and factors of the

pronunciations achieved by Indonesian learners of English.

Phonology mainly explicates the sound system of particular language. In

this study, it is worked to clarify English and Indonesian sound system,

specifically consonant. Then, it is itemized into consonant cluster rule. Consonant

cluster helps the researcher analyze consonants in both languages, English and

Indonesian. Since each language has its own characteristics, one to others must be

varied. These distinctive characteristics are expected to identify the backgrounds

underlying the utterances acted by the participants. Consonant cluster rule

contributes to give reasons for the pronunciations done due to the aspects of those

brought by each language being compared.

Moreover, the utterances attained by the participants are able to be

scrutinized by the rules of phonology. It is to answer the second problem,

phonological processes entangled in the pronunciations. The discipline elucidates

the phenomena of pronunciation in language. The phenomena are assimilation,

dissimilation, feature-changing rule, insertion, deletion, and metathesis. They can

occur in the performance of language and of course have triggering grounds.

Therefore, it is functioned as phonological processes in scrutinizing the utterances


35

later performed along with the descriptions of the motives initiating the

utterances‘ phenomena.

Besides the rules of phonology, to answer the phonological processes of

the utterances, the theory of orthography is utilized to solve the third objective of

the study, phonological factors. Orthography uncovers that writing system does

not parallel to the sounds production of the words. It has the effect on how the

participants utter the English consonant clusters due to the consistency of writing

system and pronunciation in Indonesian.


36

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, there are three parts of discussion. The first part is object

of the study. It explains the objects, participants and the chosen words, conducted

in this research accompanied by the reasons of the selections. Then, the approach

of the study is in the second part of the discussion. It contains the description of

the approach applied in the research. After that, the last part prescribing the

method in examining the data is explicated in the method of the study. This part

has two branches: data collection and analysis. They show how the data are

collected and analyzed by the researcher.

A. Object of the Study

This research involved sounds to be observed since the data were

pronunciations. The pronunciations intended for the investigation in this study

were the pronunciations of consonant clusters. The participants required were

those acquiring Indonesian as the mother tongue. The researcher specifically

chose the non-English students, especially the students majoring Management of

Sanata Dharma University as the participants that would be interviewed. They

were freshmen on the ages of 16-18. The selection was to comprehend the quality

of their pronunciations in English consonant clusters, for consonant clusters in

both English and Indonesian must be distinctive. Therefore, the researcher

attempted to reveal what phenomena taking place in their utterances as well as the


37

potential factors influencing them.

The words tested were taken from the module Bahasa Inggris: English

for General Purposes compiled by Language Institute of Sanata Dharma

University. There are 8 words having consonant clusters, alveolar-alveolar and

bilabial-alveolar, in the final position: the first 5 words included alveolar-alveolars

and the other three were bilabial-alveolars. The words had 1-4 syllable(s), yet the

researcher classified them based on the consonant clusters they possessed.

Table 1: Words with Alveolar-Alveolar and Bilabial-Alveolar Consonant

Clusters

Consonant Clusters No. Words

Alveolar-Alveolar 1 Infant /ɪnfənt/

2 Found /faʊnd/

3 Increased /ɪnkrist/

4 Well-organized /wɛl ɔgənaɪzd/

5 Influence /ɪnfluəns/

Bilabial-Alveolar 6 Developed /dɪveləpt/

7 Transformed /trӕnsfɔmd/

8 Primed /praɪmd/

The words, having the functions as past tense verb, past participle {–ed}

verb, adjective, noun, and non-finite verb, were taken out from the sentences in

some reading comprehensions in the module. The words on the left side presented

alveolar-alveolar consonant clusters in the final position: [nt], [nd], [st], [ns], and

[zd], whereas the clusters [pt] and [md] were categorized in the right side of the

table displaying bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters in the final position of words.

The reason of words choice—besides they exposed consonant clusters related to

the research managed by the researcher—is the module was the only material they

used in learning English in class, so that they may be more familiar with the

words.


38

B. Approach of the Study

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the pronunciations of

Indonesian learners of English, particularly the students of non-English

Department in Sanata Dharma University. Pronunciation is dealing with sound.

The researcher, thus, applied phonological approach to this study as phonology is

the study of distinctive sounds in a language (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 50).

Phonological approach does not only rule about sounds, yet the patterns including

the limitations managed by each language (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011, p.

227). This, then, was functioned to contrast two languages examined in this study,

English and Indonesian. After that, the contrasts uncovered what processes going

on in the utterances by the participants.

C. Method of the Study

There are two sections contained within this part. The first is data

collection explicating about the procedures of collecting the data. The second is

the steps of how the accumulated data are investigated in detail. This is covered in

the data analysis section.

1. Data Collection

This research employed purposeful sampling for gathering the data

needed. The concept of purposeful sampling is commonly used in qualitative

research. It means that the researcher selects the individuals and sites of the study

since they provide understandings of the research problems and central

phenomena of the study (Creswell, 2007, p. 125). To be exact, the research used


39

criterion of purposeful sampling. It was because the individuals/participants and

sites to be observed were not randomly chosen, yet they should meet some criteria

useful for the quality assurance (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 28) so that the

researcher was easily able to classify the data. Therefore, the words—as listed in

the table 1—were preferred since not all words having consonant clusters,

specifically alveolar-alveolar and bilabial-alveolar consonant cluster. Moreover,

the words were often met by the participants as they were obtained from the main

module usually discussed in class. The participants were limited in 10 people

only; those in Management study program taking English General Lecture.

The intended participants had to encounter the criteria decided by the

researcher, which was those procuring Indonesian as their first language (mother

tongue). Then, they were provided questionnaires, one for each, to be filled. There

were two parts of question in the questionnaires: part A contained 8 English

words and part B was multiple choice questions asking about the involved

participants‘ backgrounds. Part A was accomplished by one-on-one or face-to-

face interview utilizing audiotape to be transcribed for further analysis (Creswell,

2007, p. 130); the participants were recorded as they were pronouncing every

word listed in the questionnaires. Then, the voice records were transliterated into

phonetic transcriptions. In this step, the researcher used a sound recorder in taping

the utterances and wrote down each enunciation with helps of friends doing the

same research in phonology to check on them or the researcher involved the

second ears to validate the transcriptions. Part B, on the other hand, was achieved


40

by instructing the participants to fill a choice, out of 2 or more choices, fitting

them the most; related to their backgrounds and experiences.

The interview and questionnaires distribution were realized on Tuesday,

the schedule for English General Lecture in Management Study Program,

November 2nd

2018 in class. These activities took approximately 30 minutes to

complete; 10 minutes for them to fill part B of the questionnaires and 2 minutes

for each of them to perform the utterances concurrently with the voice recording

by the researcher.

2. Data Analysis

This section described the processes of analyzing the data after collected.

The recorded utterances were transcribed by the researcher—by listening to each

utterance‘s recording and writing them down one by one—into International

Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) then checked by friends working on the similar research.

Then the pronunciations in the form of phonetic transcriptions were scrutinized

with two viewpoints: phonological processes and factors.

In order to answer the first problem, the transcribed utterances made by

the participants as well as the intended pronunciations were presented in the

appendices. There were 10 participants whose each enunciation was converted

into phonetic transcriptions and written down in the tables. The participants were

termed as participant 1 (P1), participant 2 (P2), and so on until P10 based on the

number of the participants. The tables showed which consonant clusters

successfully spoken and which were not. These were followed with the


41

dictionary-based, specifically Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary,

transcriptions. In analyzing the data, the researcher created a table displaying the

frequency of both correct and incorrect pronunciations along with their

percentages as the results‘ summary of the utterances.

Table 2: Summarized Results of the Participants’ Pronunciations

Consonant Clusters English Words Based

on Coda Sounds

Results

Correct Incorrect

F % F %

Alveolar-Alveolars Nasal-Stops

Fricative-Stops

Nasal-Fricatives

Bilabial-Alveolars Stop-Stops

Nasal-Stops

Total

F = Frequency

The table revealed two kinds of result of the utterances: correct and

incorrect. The correct ones were those who successfully performed the consonant

clusters in the final position of the itemized words, while the incorrect ones were

those accomplishing the opposite. Both of them were also completed with

frequency, meaning the number of the participants, and the percentage. There

were 8 English words as specified in the Object of the Study: 5 words having

alveolar-alveolar and the others containing bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters.

All the consonant clusters occupied the final position of the words. However, they

were spread according to their coda sounds, reflected from manner of articulation:

alveolar-alveolars was placed in 3 types, nasal-stops in the words infant and


42

found, fricative-stops presenting the words increased and well-organized, and

nasal-fricatives occupying the word influence, yet bilabial-alveolar consonant

clusters were into 2 types, stop-stops as in the selected word developed also nasal-

fricatives portrayed in the words transformed and primed.

As the result, the researcher had 80 data of pronunciations. The

percentage of each word was obtained by dividing the number frequency, in the

correct and incorrect columns, showed with 10 as the number of the whole

participants. Then, the result appearing was multiplied by 100. For example, there

were only 4 participants who could correctly pronounce the word infant, whereas

the others could not. The percentage for the correct ones was 40% since 4/10 x

100.

It shared the same counting formula for searching the percentage of each

classification of coda sounds. Only the divisors varied depended on the preferred

word(s). For instance, the entirety of participants able to utter nasal-stop

consonant clusters was 3. Since the words belong to nasal-stops were 2, the

divisor was 20 (2 words x 10 participants). Hence, the percentage for nasal-stops

was 15%, for 3/20 x 100.

Furthermore, the total of the overall summary percentages was gained by

summing up the correct as well as the incorrect columns. Then, each summed up

result was divided by 80 (8 words x 10 participants). The division result, after

that, was multiplied by 100 to determine the overall percentage of the whole

number of participants‘ enunciations. Lastly, the latest numbers gotten were

justified in the analysis of phonological processes.


43

In finding the phonological factors, on the other hand, the researcher

prepared the other two tables describing language use and English acquisition as

the factors of the utterances. According to Grosvald et al, ―a prominent issue is to

determine whether the processes involved in sign recognition are driven by factors

that are common to human action recognition in general or entail specialized

linguistic processing (2009, p. 24). It can be deduced that language use is linked

to either language features or languages as a whole, such as mother tongue or any

other varieties usually implemented by the respondents so that it intervenes their

English pronunciations. English acquisition, however, is the cause of the language

being learnt by the participants considered as activity or experience. Both data

were constructed by the responses of the participants having filled the

questionnaires.

Table 3: Language Use Influencing the Participants’ Pronunciations

Language Use

Mother Tongue Daily Communication

Indonesian Local language Indonesian Local Language

... ... ... ...

The table above was split into two parts: language of the mother tongue

and daily communication. Then, both columns offered two variants of language,

Indonesian and local language. The numbers appearing as frequency would reveal

their habits toward certain language. Hence, it was researched further in the

analysis by contrasting characteristics of each language that could have potential

effects on the utterances performance of English.


44

Table 4: English Acquisition Influencing the Participants’ Pronunciations

English Acquisition

Learning Pronunciation Differentiating Sounds Segmenting Words

Yes No Yes No Yes No

... ... ... ... ... ...

The table of English acquisition covered whether or not the respondents

having learnt English pronunciation are able to differentiate sounds in both

English and Indonesian also segment syllables in English. The total was then

counted by the number of participants‘ frequencies in answering either ―yes‖ or

―no‖ concerned with their experiences in attaining English. This finally was

applied as proof of their English utterances; the researcher matched the proof

accompanied by pronunciations of English words they had achieved.


45

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter consists of three parts. The first part describes the

distribution of how the non-English students, management students, of Sanata

Dharma University utter the selected English words with alveolar-alveolar and

bilabial-consonant clusters. The second part is about the discussion on the

phonological processes occurring in the pronunciations. Then, the last part

explains the phonological factors affecting the participants in performing the

utterances.

A. The Pronunciations of Alveolar-Alveolar and Bilabial-Alveolar

Consonant Clusters by the Participants

The focus of this research is on the consonant cluster only. As stated in

the previous chapter, specifically chapter 3 in the object of the study, the words to

be examined are elected from the main module the respondents learn in class.

Thus, the words may be recognizable by the respondents.

There are totally 8 words chosen. Then, they are grouped into distinctive

types based on their coda sounds. Alveolar-alveolar consonant clusters‘

organizations are nasal-stops, fricative-stops, and nasal-fricatives. Nasal-stop coda

sounds enclosed in the selected 8 words are /nt/ and /nd/ whereas the fricative-

stops is the sounds /st/ and /zd/. The last, nasal-fricatives, is occupied with /ns/

only. Bilabial-alveolars, on the other hand, signifies its class to stop-stop /pt/ and


46

nasal-stop /md/. All of the consonant clusters‘ utterances mentioned are

constructed with dictionary-based pronunciations or phonetic transcriptions—

having been transcribed in the slash—because one-to-one correspondence

between clusters is in neither speech nor writing (Diouf, 2001, p. 4). For example,

the final sound of the word developed is /pt/ although the final consonant is

written in a letter <d>. The correct utterances are provided in the appendices as

said in the preceding chapter. The table below supplies the summary of the

respondents‘ consonant clusters enunciations.

Table 5: Summarized Results of the Participants’ Pronunciations

Consonant Clusters

English Words

Based on Coda

Sounds

Results

Correct Incorrect

F % F %

Alveolar-Alveolars Nasal-Stops 3 15% 17 85%

Fricative-Stops 1 5% 19 95%

Nasal-Fricatives 10 100% 0 0%

Bilabial-Alveolars Stop-Stops 1 10% 9 90%

Nasal-Stops 6 30% 14 70%

Total 21 26.25% 59 73.75%

F = Frequency

The table demonstrates the overall result of the respondents‘ enunciations

in words bearing consonant clusters. The numbers in frequency represent how

many times the data appear, not the quantity of the respondents. In nasal-stops of

alveolar-alveolars, it is noted 17 in the frequency of the incorrect. It implies that

the chosen words in nasal-stops, infant and found, are done 17 times falsely by 10

respondents whom each of them has to enunciate 2 words.


47

All of the participants do not make mistakes in pronouncing nasal-

fricative alveolar-alveolar consonant clusters, while in performing nasal-stops—to

be exact in the word infant and found—three of them does the utterances

successfully. Moreover, fricative-stops row uncovers a respondent performs

consonant cluster in the word increased in an accurate way while the others do

not. These results are justified in the percentages in alveolar-alveolar rows where

nasal-fricatives obtains the percentage 100% in the correct utterance. Nasal-stops,

conversely, gets three respondent enunciating the word correctly, in the

percentage 15% and the others 85% utter it in an incorrect way and fricative-stops

finds only a respondent correct, 5%, and 95% others are incorrect.

In the achievement of bilabial-alveolar consonant cluster, the percentages

of correct as well as incorrect pronunciations in stop-stops and nasal-stops are

varied: the correct performance in stop-stops is 10%, yet 30% in nasal-stops

whereas the incorrect one is 90% in stop-stops and 70% in nasal-stops. Stop-stops

tells there is a respondent uttering the word in this type well. The successful

respondents are also observed in the class of nasal-stops. It is written that 6

frequencies—3 respondents are accurate in transformed and the other 3 are able to

speak primed appropriately. Fourteen frequencies of the incorrect mean that both

words classified in the nasal-stop consonant clusters are mistakenly enunciated by

7 respondents.

The total result of the table depicts that the quantity of the incorrect

pronunciations is higher than the correct ones—shown in the percentages: 26.25%

of the correct and 73.75% of the incorrect. It denotes that most of the respondents


48

are not able to enunciate the final consonant clusters. Each part of these outcomes

is elaborated further in the following sections.

1. The Pronunciations of Alveolar-Alveolar Consonant Clusters by the

Participants

After the table of synopsized result of the entire data is illustrated, the

calculation is continued to the more detailed analysis. This section describes the

whole results of alveolar-alveolar consonant clusters articulated by the

participants. However, before the examination, a table is provided to summarize

that result as a proof for the further descriptions.

Table 6: Summarized Results of Alveolar-Alveolar Pronunciations

Consonant Clusters English Words Based

on Coda Sounds

Results

Correct Incorrect

F % F %

Alveolar-Alveolars Nasal-Stops 3 15% 17 85%

Fricative-Stops 1 5% 19 95%

Nasal-Fricatives 10 100% 0 0%

Total 14 28% 36 72%

F=Frequency

Alveolar-alveolar consonant clusters have 5 selected words categorized

in three groups of coda sounds. The first group, nasal-stops, offers 2 words: infant

/ɪnfənt/ and found /faʊnd/. The second one is fricative-stops displaying the words

increased /ɪnkrist/ and well-organized /wel ɔgənaɪzd/. The last, nasal-fricatives,

evinces only a word, influence /ɪnfluəns/. The researcher now possesses 50 data (5


49

words x 10 respondents) in alveolar-alveolars, meaning that each word is rated 10

times in its appearance of the data. Therefore, the percentage of the correct is

28%, from 14 (the sum of the correct utterances in alveolar-alveolars) divided by

50 then multiplied by 100 whereas the incorrect ones are found 72% (48 incorrect

utterances/50 x 100).

Twenty eight percent of the correct is 14 data achieving approved

pronunciation; 15% in nasal-stops, 5% in fricative-stops, and 100% in nasal-

fricatives. The 72% is those acting the mistakes in performing the three categories

in alveolar-alveolar consonant clusters—17 data (85%) in nasal-stops, 19 data

(95%) in fricative-stops, and no data (0%) in nasal-fricatives. Every division is

enlarged in the next parts.

a. Nasal-Stops

The respondents‘ pronunciation performances in alveolar-alveolar

consonant clusters, particularly nasal-stops are deliberated in this section. The

table displayed below is the table of that pronunciation result.

Table 7: Results of the Participants’ Pronunciations in Nasal-Stops

Words Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation

Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

Infant 1 10% 9 90%

Found 2 20% 8 80%

Total 3 15% 17 85%

The table reveals a general outcome of the respondents‘ utterances in

nasal-stop alveolar-alveolar consonant clusters. It is seen that the incorrect

pronunciation gets the highest percentage, 85%, than the correct one obtaining a


50

very small number of percentage, 15%. It is kind of a large gap between the

correct and incorrect one.

In the pronunciation of the word infant, the percentage illustrates 10% of

the correct and 90% of the incorrect. There is a respondent articulating the

consonant cluster as the intended pronunciation exposes whereas the other 9

respondents do not. Most of them eliminate the sound /t/ in the final word so the

utterance is like [ɪnfen], yet a respondent is realized uttering it [ɪnfeŋ]; changing

the sound. Identical to the word infant, the percentage of the incorrect

enunciations of the word found is higher than the correct one. However, they are

distinctive in the number. In the pronunciation of found, the correct column gains

15% and 85% for the incorrect. The 15% presents 2 respondents able to articulate

the consonant cluster in the word based on the dictionary-based pronunciation.

Oppositely, the 85% reveals the rest of the respondents not capable to perform the

consonant cluster. All of them omit the last sound /d/ so that it is considered false

since not corresponding to the intended pronunciation.

b. Fricative-Stops

The outcome of the enunciations of fricative-stop consonant clusters by

the respondents will be reviewed in this section. The following table exhibits the

summarized outcome of it.

Table 8: Results of the Participants’ Pronunciations in Fricative-

Stops



Increased 1 10% 9 90%

Well-organized 0 0% 10 100%

Total 1 5% 19 95%


51

As the table portrays, the sum of the correct utterance is only 5%

acquired from a respondent articulating the fricative-stop consonant cluster /st/ in

the word increased precisely. The incorrect, instead, shows the opposite. There

are 19 data of words in this classification mispronounced by the respondents.

Hence, the percentage attained is 95%.

The frequency of increased pronunciation tells that only a participant

successfully speaking the fricative-stop consonant cluster /st/ in the final whereas

the 9 others cannot achieve the pronunciation as the intended one. All of the

incorrect participants in this case miss the final sound /t/ so that it is judged

wrong. A dissimilar situation is observed in the utterance of well-organized; the

whole respondents perform the mistakes in enunciating this word. Consequently,

it is written 100% in the incorrect column of pronunciation. They commonly

substitute the final sound /zd/ into [st], reduce the sound /d/—even combine them

both so that the utterance tends to be [wel ɔgənaɪs] or [wel ɔrganɪs] and stuff, also

add another sound between the consonants forming the word to be [wel

ɔrgənaɪzəd].

c. Nasal-Fricatives

The general result of the respondents‘ utterances in nasal-fricatives is

going to be examined in this part. The examination is then validated in the table

below.

Table 9: Results of the Participants’ Pronunciations in Nasal-

Fricatives



Influence 10 100% 0 0%

Total 10 100% 0 0%


52

The table tells that all of the respondents correctly pronounce the nasal-

fricative word, influence. It is stated in both column of frequency as well as

percentage, which are 10 and 100%. Since this research‘s concentration is only on

the consonant clusters‘ utterances, this success is accomplished since all

respondents are able to utter the nasal-fricative final consonant cluster /ns/ in

accordance to the intended pronunciation of the word, /ɪnfluəns/. It is justified in

the explanation of phonological factors later.

2. The Pronunciations of Bilabial-Alveolar Consonant Clusters by the

Participants

As the alveolar-alveolars, in this segment, the concise result of the

complete data of bilabial-bilabial consonant clusters‘ utterances is demonstrated

as well. Furthermore, a table below is shown in order to condense the result so

that the explanations are based on what is portrayed in the table.

Table 10: Summarized Results of Bilabial-Alveolar Pronunciations

Consonant Clusters

English Words

Based on Coda

Sounds

Results

Correct Incorrect

F % F %

Bilabial-Alveolars Stop-Stops 1 10% 9 90%

Nasal-Stops 6 30% 14 70%

Total 7 23.3% 23 76.7%

F=Frequency

Bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters share the different quantity of the

selected words, which is 3 words and the categorization of the words is unalike.


53

Bilabial-alveolar clusters own 2 only groups arranged by the coda sounds of the

words. They are stop-stops and nasal-stops. There is a word in the group of stop-

stops: developed /dɪveləpt/ while 2 words in the class of nasal-stops: transformed

/tӕnsfɔmd/ and primed /praɪmd/. As the result, the researcher obtains 30 data (3

words x 10 respondents) of bilabial-alveolar utterances; each word emerges 10

times. From this, it can be drawn to the outcome that in bilabial-alveolars, the

correct data are 23.3% (7 correct pronunciations/30 whole data x 100), but the

incorrect ones is 76.7% (23 incorrect pronunciations/30 x 100).

Twenty three point three percent of the correct data in bilabial-alveolar

clusters is gained from 7 right utterances with the percentages 10% in stop-stops

and 30% in nasal-stops. The 76.7% of incorrect ones, instead, is acquired from 23

inaccurate utterances as the percentages reveal 90% in stop-stops and 70% in

nasal-stops. Every classification in bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters will be

specified in the following subparts.

a. Stop-Stops

This part argues the result of bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters,

particularly stop-stops, articulated by the respondents. Moreover, the result

examination is adjusted in the table below.

Table 11: Results of the Participants’ Pronunciations in Stop-Stops



Developed 1 10% 9 90%

Total 1 10% 9 90%

That one participant in the correct pronunciation column is of course able

to utter the stop-stop cluster /pt/ of developed. However, the other 9 mispronounce


54

the consonant cluster. They are 6 respondents omitting the final sound [t], a

respondent adding the other sounds—particularly [mən] so the utterance becomes

[devəlɔpmən], and 2 respondents replacing the sound /t/ into /d/.

As the data of each word have been investigated, the total data of both

correct and incorrect utterances in stop-stop clusters is based on the result of the

word developed pronunciation only: 1 and 9 with the percentages 10% and 90%.

b. Nasal-Stops

The general outcome of the respondents‘ utterances is investigated in this

part. The utterances principally are in nasal-stops. Besides, the clarification is

supported by the table.

Table 12: Result of the Participants’ Pronunciations in Nasal-Stops



Transformed 3 30% 7 70%

Primed 3 30% 7 70%

Total 6 30% 14 70%

Based on the table, it is counted 3 participants doing the pronunciation of

transformed rightly so that its percentage is 30%. As the research concentrates on

the consonant cluster merely, the consonant cluster of nasal-stop /md/ is spoken

precisely in this case. The frequency in the incorrect pronunciation of

transformed, in contrast, uncovers that there are 7 participants—70% on the

percentage. The reasons of these wrong utterances are 6 participants remove the

sound /d/ in the final position of the word also a participant does two mistakes at

once, put in the sound /e/ and alter the final consonant /d/ with /t/. Accordingly,

the articulation tends to be [transfɔrmet].


55

Then, in the word primed, there are 3 correct utterances by the

participants, in the percentage of 30%, and 7 incorrect enunciations, 70%. Those 3

respondents successfully pronounce the nasal-stop consonant cluster /md/ in the

final position of the word primed. However, 7 other respondents mistakenly utter

it. The errors are in the addition of sounds between the consonant cluster by 4

respondents as well as the reduction of the final sound /d/ achieved by 3 other

respondents.

After a complete result of every word‘s achievement is reckoned, the

numbers coming out in the frequency of both correct and incorrect pronunciations

are summed up to find the percentages. Since the table indicates 6 correct data and

14 incorrect data, the percentages must be 30% and 70%.

B. Phonological Processes Observed in the Participants’ Pronunciations

In the previous section, the results, mainly the frequencies and

percentages of the respondents‘ pronunciations have been conferred so that the

sum of each capable and incapable respondents in articulating consonant clusters

is identified. Unlike that preceding part, this section will go into a deeper analysis

of the utterances of the respondents, which is phenomena taking place in their

enunciations or, in a linguistic term, phonological process. Phonological process,

or phonological rule stated by Hayes, is generalizations of sounds that can be

pronounced in a different way depending on the environments (2009, p. 8). This is

to say, sounds in language undergo changes in accordance with the locations

where those sounds occur. Consequently, people in uttering certain language may


56

be distinctive from one another since the generalizations of sounds in the varied

environments are perceived variously by each person.

Moreover, Sahulata (1988) says that phonological process is a dynamic

units of the system enduring changes as in contact with the other units in a system

(Sahulata, 1988). The statement discloses that the respondents likely do some

mistakes in uttering language that is not their mother tongue or daily language, for

they are not accustomed to it so that some units are altered. Those alterations of

units in utterances then are examined in this section.

As having been known in the previous part, the percentage of the

participants who cannot enunciate the consonant clusters, both in alveolar-alveolar

and bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters, is higher than it is in the incorrect

pronunciation‘s percentage. It signifies that most of the participants fail in

performing the consonant clusters or, meaning to say, they are incapable in

enunciating the consonant clusters as the intended pronunciations. Since the

accurate pronunciations have followed the phonetic transcriptions of the intended

pronunciations, it does not further explanations. However, the inaccurate ones

does and each of them is expanded below in the table as well as the analysis.

Table 13: Summary of Phonological Processes Occurring in the

Participants’ Pronunciations

No. Phonological

Process

Consonant

Clusters

Words Based

on Coda

Sounds

Words

1 Deletion Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-Stops Infant, Found

Fricative-Stops Increased, Well-

organized

Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-Stops Developed

Nasal-Stops Transformed,

Primed

2 Feature- Alveolar- Nasal-Stops Infant


57

Changing Rule Alveolars Fricative-Stops Increased, Well-

organized

Bilabial-

Alveolars



Primed

3 Insertion Alveolar-

Alveolars

Fricative-Stops Well-organized

Bilabial-

Alveolars



Primed

Briefly, there are 4 kinds of phonological process befalling in the

participants‘ pronunciations as the table above illustrates. The most occurrence of

phonological process is deletion then following with 2 other processes: feature-

changing rule and insertion.

Sound(s) in deletion tend to be eliminated by the participants; in this

case, it is mostly in the final sounds so that sounds supposed to be articulated are

missing. Feature-changing rule, on the other hand, is a linguistic phenomenon

where the features attached to certain sounds in words are transformed. Then, it

creates another feature of sounds. Contrasting to deletion, insertion is the contrary.

While deletion works in the sounds‘ eradications, insertion triggers the speaker to

add a or some sound(s) to the syllable—the most often sound inserted is [ə] in this

research. Thus, in insertion, the sound(s) expected not to be uttered is pronounced.

Each of these phonological process is elaborated in every section: deletion,

feature-changing rule, and insertion.


58

1. Deletion

Deletion is the most phonological process‘s occurrence in this research,

meaning that it takes place in almost pronunciations performed by the

respondents. It is the act when the respondents eradicate a or some sound(s)

within the words. As having been explained, this research is more about the

consonant clusters‘ utterances. Hence, the researcher only focuses on it. In this

phenomenon, the sounds tending not to be enunciated are the final sounds of each

word tested to the respondents. It befalls on both alveolar-alveolar and bilabial-

alveolar consonant clusters with the same patterns. It, then, will be reviewed on

the descriptions below.

Table 14: Summary of Deletion Phonological Process in the


Consonant

Clusters The Words

Intended

Pronunciations

Participants’

Pronunciations

Alveolar-

Alveolars

Infant /‘ɪnfənt/ [ɪnfen], [ɪnfhen],

[ɪnfeŋ]

Found /faʊnd/ [faʊn], [fɔʊn], [fɔn]

Increased /ɪn‘kri:st/ [ɪnkres], [ɪnkris],

[ɪnkrɪs]

Well-organized /wel ‘ɔ:gənaɪzd/ [wel ɔgənaɪs], [wel

ɔrgənaɪs], [wel

ɔrganɪs]

Bilabial-

Alveolars

Developed /dɪ‘veləpt/ [devəlɔp], [dɪvəlɔp]

Transformed /trӕns‘fɔ:md/ [transfɔm],

[trensfɔm],

[transfɔrm]

Primed /praɪmd/ [praɪm]

In the scope of alveolar-alveolar consonant clusters, particularly in nasal-

stops, there are 2 words provided to be examined: infant and found. As the table in

the previous section reveals, 9 participants fail to utter infant whereas in

pronouncing found, 8 participants erroneously utter it. Furthermore, the mistake


59

generally found in their pronunciations is they delete the final sounds /t/ and /d/ of

both words. Therefore, the enunciations are like [ɪnfen] done by P1, P2, P4, P6,

P7, P8, P9, P10, yet P3 articulates it [ɪnfhen]; all of them abolish the sound /t/ in

the final position of word regardless of the change of the vowel /ə/, as in the

intended pronunciation, to [e] and aspirated [f]. The happening of deletion in P7

as P7 speaks infant as [ɪnfeŋ], he/she omits the consonant /t/ first then replace the

consonant sound /n/ into [ŋ]—this is contained in the elucidation of feature-

changing rule phenomenon.

The articulation of found becoming [faʊn] is committed by P1, P4, P7,

and P8. However, the utterance as [fɔʊn] is acted by P2 and P3 and found uttered

[fɔn] is performed by P6 and P9. They all remove the sound /d/ in the final

position so that the consonant cluster /nd/ is not in line with the intended

pronunciation since the correct pronunciation of found is /faʊnd/.

In the stop-stop consonant clusters of alveolar-alveolars, 2 words are

selected as well: increased /ɪnkrist/ and well-organized /wel ɔgənaɪzd/.

Nonetheless, similar to the deletion in nasal-stops, the sounds /t/ and /d/ are

omitted by the respondents. Table 8 informs that 9 respondents articulate the word

increased inaccurately—seven of which do deletion—while all participants utter

mistakenly the word well-organized. The word increased pronounced [ɪnkres] is

achieved by P1, P3, P6, P7, and P10. P8, oppositely, articulate it [ɪnkris] and

[ɪnkrɪs] by P9. Although their utterances are quite different between one another,

the error they produce to the consonant cluster is alike.


60

The utterances of well-organized show something distinctive since it gets

all participants producing it misguidedly even though the fault constructed is the

same. Nevertheless, 6 of them act deletion of their enunciations. They are P1, P3,

P4, P5, P8, and P9 producing the word like [wel ɔgənaɪs] or [wel ɔrgənaɪs]

whereas P6 and P7 utter it [wel ɔrganɪs]. Since the intended utterance of the word

is /wel ɔgənaɪzd/, those 6 pronunciations are considered mistakes. The main

problem is they miss the final sound of the consonant cluster /d/ besides

substituting the voiced fricative /z/ with voiceless fricative /s/—explained in

feature-changing rule‘s part.

Bilabial-alveolars as well as alveolar-alveolars explicates the alike

mistake‘s pattern. It also takes place in 2 classifications of consonant clusters:

stop-stops and nasal stops. Stop-stops provides a word examined, developed

/dɪveləpt/.

In the enunciation of developed, the phenomenon of deletion happens as

well. As seen in table 11, the frequency of them acting the fault to the

pronunciation is 9 participants, yet there are only 7 of them performing deletion.

P1 articulates it [devəlɔp], P3‘s utterance is [devəlɔpmən] by eliminating /t/ then

replacing it with a syllable [mən]—conferred in insertion‘s explanation. P6,

meanwhile, is [dɪvəlop], P7, P8, P9, and P10 are like [dɪvəlɔp]. Even though their

performances are pretty distinctive between one another, the error they result is

similar: deletion.

The next category, nasal-stops of bilabial-alveolars, presenting 3 words:

transformed /trӕns‘fɔ:md/ and primed /praɪmd/ illustrates different data in the


61

table, particularly table 12, yet the case is just the same although the sounds

removed are dissimilar. The word transformed shows 7 participants in the

quantity of incorrect pronunciations. Six of them: P1, P3, P6, P8, P9, and P10 are

included in this error pronunciation. P1, P6, and P8 do not pronounce the final

alveolar stop /d/ so that the enunciation is [transfɔm]. P3‘s and P10‘s are

[trensfɔm] whereas the last P9‘s is [transfɔrm]. They are incorrect since instead of

uttering both consonant clusters, they only perform a consonant cluster /m/ by

ignoring the other, /d/.

The word primed in the table 12 reveals there are 7 participants, as the

word transformed, mistakenly perform the word, yet only 3 of them are engaged

in this process of pronunciation. They are P1, P3, and P8. They all produce

primed as [praɪm] rather than /praɪmd/. The process undergone by the sound /d/ is

deletion due to its nonappearance in their utterances.

Those processes of deletion of the sounds /t/ and /d/ can be expressed in

the notations below.

Deletion of /t/: /t/ Ø / ________ #

Deletion of /d/: /d/ Ø / ________ #

They have meaning that the sounds /t/ and /d/ are deleted or not uttered in the end

of the words by the respondents. The symbol ―Ø‖ refers to ―null‖ entailing the

absence of certain sounds. Hence, the consonant clusters are not able to be

enunciated precisely.


62

2. Feature-Changing Rule

Similar to deletion phenomenon, feature-changing rule almost takes the

same portion in the utterances‘ performance of the participants. It occurs in all

classes of the words, except nasal-fricatives. In this investigation, sound or some

sounds are altered into another phoneme so that it has a different feature than

before. The further descriptions are identified below.

Table 15: Summary of Feature-Changing Rule Phonological Process

in the Participants’ Pronunciations

Consonant

Clusters The Words

Intended

Pronunciations

Participants’

Pronunciations

Alveolar-

Alveolars

Infant /‘ɪnfənt/ [ɪnfeŋ]

Increased /ɪn‘kri:st/ [ɪnkrisd], [ɪnkresd]

Well-organized /wel ‘ɔ:gənaɪzd/ [wel ɔgənaɪs], [wel

ɔrgənaɪs], [wel

ɔrganɪs], [wel

ɔgənaɪst]

Bilabial-

Alveolars

Developed /dɪ‘veləpt/ [dɪvəlɔpd]

Transformed /trӕns‘fɔ:md/ [transfɔrmet]

Primed /praɪmd/ [premət], [prɪmət],

[prɪmet]

In alveolar-alveolars, this happening occupies nasal-stop and fricative-

stop consonant clusters. The word infant in nasal-stops is uttered [ɪnfeŋ] by P7. It

is proven as a mistake because the enunciation does not fit the correct or intended

pronunciation, which is /ɪnfənt/. This case reveals that after the absence of the

final consonant /t/ as described in the deletion process previously, the alveolar

nasal /n/ is substituted by velar nasal /ŋ/, representing that the alveolar feature of

the phoneme /n/ is shifted to velar feature of /ŋ/. It indicates that the place of

articulation or the place where the sound is produced is dissimilar. Thus, it is

considered the change of the feature in a particular sound.


63

Fricative-stop consonant clusters expose something distinctive. P2 and

P5 pronounce the word increased as [ɪnkrisd] and [ɪnkresd]. Even though the

productions are quite varied, their errors show the same type: converting the

sound /t/ from the intended pronunciation /ɪnkrist/ into /d/. It means that the

alveolar stop /t/—supposed to be enunciated with the vocal cord being apart so the

air freely flows to the glottis and the oral cavity (voiceless)—is achieved by vocal

cord being together (voiced). Due to this unity, the vocal cord is vibrated, for the

air forces its way out through the glottis and oral cavity. Then, the voiceless

alveolar stop /t/ now becomes voiced alveolar stop /d/; having a new feature.

Meanwhile, the word well-organized whose precise utterance is /wel

ɔgənaɪzd/ has erroneous pronunciations done by all respondents except P2: P1 and

P5 enunciate it [wel ɔgənaɪs], P3, P4, P8, and P9—slightly different from P1 and

P5—add /r/ in their pronunciations so it becomes [wel ɔrgənaɪs], P6 and P7—

changing the schwa into /a/ after the consonant /g/ and failing to utter 63iphthong

/aɪ/—perform it [wel ɔrganɪs], and P10 produces the word as [wel ɔgənaɪst]. The

mispronunciations are varied, yet they are classified into the same sound

phenomenon. Besides almost of them falsely pronounce the final consonant

cluster /zd/ by missing the sound /d/, they substitute the voiced alveolar fricative

/z/ into voiceless alveolar fricative /s/. The voiced feature has replaced by

voiceless one. Furthermore, observed in P10‘s utterance, the final consonant

cluster /zd/ whose features are voiced alveolar fricative combined with voiced

alveolar stop changes into /st/ with voiceless alveolar fricative and voiceless


64

alveolar stop features. It also implies the feature changing in the pronunciation,

specifically the voicing status.

P2 and P5 inaccurately enunciate the word developed as well. Their

pronunciations are [dɪvəlɔpd] from the correct utterance [dɪveləpt]. Focusing on

the enunciations of consonant cluster, the voiceless /t/ produced by separated

vocal cord is done with the closing of the vocal cord so that it changes to the

voiced /d/. Similar to the word helped, the feature of voicing status of /t/ is

transferred.

The respondents also make mistakes in articulating all the words in nasal-

stops. A respondent, P7, out of 7 false utterances informed in the table 12

performs the word transformed /trӕnsfɔmd/ to [transfɔrmet]. Instead of inserting

vowel /e/ between the consonant cluster—explained in the part of insertion—the

respondent replaces the voiced alveolar stop /d/ in the final position of word with

the voiceless alveolar stop /t/.

The last word primed with intended pronunciation /praɪmd/ is mistakenly

articulated by P6, P7, and P9. P6‘s utterance is [premət], P7 is [prɪmət], and P9 is

[prɪmet]. Although their utterances are differentiated by the change of vowels

contained in the word, the common mistake is they alter the final sound /d/,

should be pronounced voiced with the closing of vocal cord, into voiceless

alveolar stop /t/. It reveals the shift of the voicing status feature as all the other

nasal-stops‘s occurrence in feature-changing rule clarify.

To make clear the discussions of the processes above, the researcher

gives the processes‘ notations as below.


65

[+alveolar, +nasal] [+velar, +nasal] / _____ #

The first notation elucidates the alteration of nasal-stop alveolar-alveolars /n/ into

nasal velar [ŋ] in the end of the word infant. Meanwhile, other processes, like the

voiceless consonant /t/ uttered in the voiced /d/ after voiceless consonants of the

words‘ roots and vice versa—voiced /d/ is pronounced as voiceless /t/ after voiced

consonants of the words‘ roots—the notations can be done by:

[-voiced, +alveolar] [+voiced, +alveolar] / [-voiced] _____ #

[+voiced, +alveolar] [-voiced, +alveolar] / [+voiced] _____ #

Lastly, the phenomenon of feature-changing rule befalling in the word

well-organized /wel ɔgənaɪzd/ spoken [wel ɔgənaɪst] is able to be portrayed in the

notation:

[+voiced, +alveolar] [-voiced, +alveolar] / [+voiced] _____ #

This act is rather different since there is an occurrence of two consonants change

at once. The consonant cluster /zd/ which is voiced is substituted by voiceless

cluster [st] after the diphthong /aɪ/. However, the process runs as /d/ replacement

by /t/ after voiced sounds.

3. Insertion

Insertion phonological process is the third greatest occurrence in this

discussion. It is the sound phenomenon as another or other sound(s) is added in to

the words. In this study, there are sounds often put into the words: schwa [ə], [e],

and even a syllable [mən]. Those sounds are mainly included between the

consonant clusters. Like the table 13 illustrates, insertion arises in both alveolar-


66

alveolars and bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters. In alveolar-alveolar clusters, it

appears in the fricative-stop consonant cluster only whereas in bilabial-alveolar

clusters, it happens in stop-stops as well as nasal-stops. However, it is only found

in some words of both classifications.

Table 16: Summary of Insertion Phonological Process in the


Consonant

Clusters The Words

Intended

Pronunciations

Participants’

Pronunciations

Alveolar-

Alveolars

Well-organized /wel ‘ɔ:gənaɪzd/ [wel ɔrgənaɪzəd]

Bilabial-

Alveolars

Developed /dɪ‘veləpt/ [devəlɔpmən]

Transformed /trӕns‘fɔ:md/ [transfɔrmet]

Primed /praɪmd/ [praɪməd], [premət],

[prɪmət], [prɪmet]

The fricative-stops of alveolar-alveolars, as seen in the table 8, shows

that the word well-organized proves all respondents wrong. One of them, P2,

commits this mistake to the utterance. The word well-organized, supposed to be

articulated /wel ɔgənaɪzd/, is produced [wel ɔrgənaɪzəd]. It is observed that the

sound schwa [ə] is gained between the consonant cluster /zd/. It is said incorrect

due to the sound alteration of the consonant cluster along with the addition of the

syllable, from 4 syllables into 5, within the word.

Dissimilar from alveolar-alveolar clusters, insertion is realized in stop-

stop and nasal-stop consonant clusters of bilabial-alveolars. In stop-stops,

especially in the word developed, it is written in the table 11 that there are 9

participants falsely articulate the word. From those 9 respondents, a respondent

pronounces developed into [devəlɔpmən]. It does not meet the intended utterance

of the word, /dɪveləpt/. It is because the consonant cluster /pt/ is mispronounced;


67

eliminating the final sound /t/—discussed in deletion—then replacing it into a

syllable [mən].

The occurrence of insertion investigated in nasal stops is noticed in the

words transformed and primed. P7 is known erroneously in producing

transformed whose intended articulation is /trӕnsfɔmd/. From 7 incorrect

pronunciations, table 12, P7 puts in the vowel [e] between the consonant cluster

/md/ so that the pronunciation becomes [transfɔrmet] also revises its syllable from

2 into 3.

The last word in nasal-stops of bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters,

primed /praɪmd/, also undergoes the same pattern of mistake as the word

overwhelmed. The word is added by either schwa /ə/ or /e/. It is achieved by 4

respondents out of 7 inexact pronunciations of this word, detected in table 12.

They are P2, P6, P7, and P9. The addition of schwa is found in the utterances of

P2, P6, and P7 which are [praɪməd], [premət], and [prɪmət] whereas P9 puts in /e/

between the consonant cluster /md/ exchanging the word as [prɪmet].

Because the participants in this research have a propensity to add schwa

/ə/ or the vowel /e/ between the voiced consonants within the words, the notations

to state this manner are as described below.

Ø /ə/ / [+voiced] _____ [+voiced]

Ø /e/ / [+voiced] _____ [+voiced]

They uncover that the sounds not supposed to exist within the words are even

produced by the speakers so that the syllables of the words transform as well. The

other insertion phonological process happens in the word development where a


68

respondent pronounces it [devəlɔpmən]. It is not inserted by the sound schwa or

/e/, but a prefix. The notation below is able to illustrate the process.

Ø [mən] / ________ #

C. Phonological Factors Observed in the Participants’ Pronunciations

As revealed in the previous part, phonological processes occurring in the

participants‘ pronunciations are the utterances undergoing language phenomena.

There are 3 of them: deletion, feature-changing rule, and insertion. These types of

phenomena have been ordered based on their numbers of occurrence. From this, it

is explained that deletion is the most happening in the enunciations of the

participants. Then, it is followed by feature-changing rule and insertion. Insertion

is placed lastly since its existence is the most least in the utterances.

Nonetheless, those phenomena must be backgrounded by some reasons.

The reasons are called phonological factors. As Grosvald et al (2009, p. 24) state,

the recognition of sign by human is affected by factors related to human‘s action

or specific linguistic processing. A conclusion that can be drawn is phonological

factor refers to certain experiences of human or languages causing the particular

way of language pronunciations. From the definition of phonological factor by

Grosvald (2009), it is understood that phonological factor is distributed into 2

kinds. They are language use and English acquisition of the respondents.

Language use is the reason related to language belonging to the participants. It

includes the mother tongue and language used in daily communication by the

participants. English acquisition, meanwhile, is English knowledge obtained by


69

the respondents. It covers English acquisition of the participants, including

English pronunciation learning, the ability of the participants to differentiate

sounds in both English and Indonesian phonological systems as well as segment

words in English.

Those 2 subparts are completed with table for each as a proof of the data

obtained from questionnaires. Then, the table is narrated further along with the

explanations of phonological factors triggering the participants‘ ways of

enunciations.

1. Language Use Influencing Phonological Processes in the Participants’

Pronunciations

Since language use deals with language, in this section, the backgrounds

influencing the participants‘ pronunciations are the languages that are both mother

language and daily language. It is explicated in the table below showing the sum

of the participants speaking either Indonesian or local language as their mother

tongues and everyday communications.

Table 17: Language Use Influencing the Participants’

Pronunciations

Language

Mother Tongue Daily Communication

Indonesian Local language Indonesian Local Language

10 0 8 2

It is described in the table about what language(s) participants speak as

both mother tongue and daily communication. There are two options for each

column. In the mother tongue and daily communication column, the researcher


70

provides 2 other columns: Indonesian and local language. The languages included

in the local language offered by the researcher in the questionnaires are Javanese,

Sundanese, Bataknese, and so on. Nevertheless, whether as mother tongue or

regular language, the results express varied numbers of the respondents using it.

The table clarifies that all respondents‘ mother tongue is Indonesian even

though 2 of them, P3 and P6, use local language as their regular communications.

Mother tongue is the language one learned first, meaning that the language one

has established the first long-lasting verbal contacts in (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000,

p. 106). As the result, as the definition reveals, Indonesian as the mother tongue is

the most possible interference in the English words utterances by the respondents.

Moreover, mother tongue belongs to one in the whole life, as in the definition by

Skutnabb-Kangas, although as the time goes by, the person may perform another

language in delivering daily communication. This existence of mother tongue

within the speakers, then, ends up intervening their processes of learning another

language so that it initiates language phenomena in their utterances, such as

deletion, feature-changing rule, and insertion—as described in the previous part,

yet no inclusion of metathesis.

Simply, deletion is triggered due to the absence of consonant clusters in

the final position of Indonesian words. For example, the consonant cluster /nt/ in

the word infant cannot be uttered accurately; missing the sound /t/, for Indonesian

does not acknowledge cluster /nt/ in its words. Another language phenomenon,

feature-changing rule, where the participants replace the sound /t/ with /d/ in the

enunciation of increased /ɪnkrist/ into [ɪnkrisd] is because Indonesians recite all


71

the present sounds in the words. Insertion, on the other hand, where the sounds

schwa /ə/ and /e/ are included between consonant cluster as in the word primed

spoken [praɪməd] is caused by the inclination of the respondents to insert schwa or

/e/ to make the pronunciation of the word easier. It is found in some utterances of

Indonesian words; one of the examples is putra becoming [putəra], and so on.

Those brief justifications of how Indonesian as the mother tongue affects the

English learners will be clarified further in this section.

Besides the influences having been mentioned, the phenomena of

feature-changing rule and insertion can also be justified by the theory of

orthography. Orthography itself simply means that the writing of certain language

is not in parallel with the articulation or the production of its sound. This reason is

also a potential factor that is able to provoke the participants to perform feature-

changing rule and insertion in their utterances. The occurrence of orthography

appears due to the intervention of the mother tongue as well. Nevertheless, it fits

in the discussion of language use of the participants.

In the occurrence of deletion in the participants‘ pronunciations, all

participants have a tendency to eliminate the final sounds of the consonant

clusters in both alveolar-alveolar as well as bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters. It

is because of the absence of final consonant cluster in Indonesian. As

Dardjowidjojo (2009) states, the third obstacle in the Contrastive Analysis is when

the combination of sounds appears in language A whereas it does not in language

B, it will create difficulty for the learners from language B in comprehending

language A (p. 35). Indonesian, as the language B, does not allow consonant


72

clusters in the final position as English, as language A, does. Indonesian only has

consonant clusters in the initial and middle position of words; the consonant

combination of 2 and 3 consonants. For instance, these consonant clusters are seen

in the Indonesian words produksi, gamblang, so on and so forth (Muslich, 2008,

pp. 71-72). Nonetheless, English possesses consonant clusters in the final position

of words as words examined in this study. Consequently, Indonesian learners of

English tend to mistakenly pronounce the final consonant clusters, such as /nt, nd,

st, zd, pt/ and /md/ in the provided English words, by reducing the last consonants

in each words.

Furthermore, in case of 2 respondents whose daily language is local

language, particularly Javanese, they do deletion as well in their enunciations.

Besides affected by their mother tongue, Javanese—their everyday language—

also does not provide consonant clusters in the final position of words. Javanese

consonant clusters only take place in the words‘ initial position, like /br, pr, kr, gr,

tr, bl, pl, kl, gl, tl, str/. Those initial position clusters are able to be discovered in

the Javanese words, such as blinger meaning bingung (Indonesian) and

―confused‖ (English) and trima meaning terima (Indonesian) and ―accept‖

(English) (Wedhawati, 2006, pp. 62-63). This proof strengthens the reason more

of why they are not able to utter final consonant clusters in an accurate way.

Meanwhile, the word influence /ɪnfluəns/—nasal-fricative consonant

cluster of alveolar-alveolars—gets no participants erroneously pronouncing it.

Relating to the language use factors in this section, it is still due to the mother

tongue; why all respondents are able to perform the consonant cluster /ns/. Unlike


73

what Contrastive Analysis confesses, the background of the correct enunciation of

influence is because of Indonesian loanwords.

Borrowed words or loanwords are words adopted to the native language

and their forms adapt to the forms of native language as well: nouns

taking plural and/or possessive forms of the new language and verbs also

adjectives receiving native morphemes (Hoffer, 2005, p. 53).

The definition of Hoffer reveals that borrowed words or loanwords are not only

used in the native language, but also adjusted to the forms of the native language

too. Therefore, it allows Indonesian to have final consonant cluster /ns/ in the

words. The examples are the words ambulance /ambjʊləns/ and conductance

/kəndʌktəns/. Those two words are loaned to Indonesian with suffix spelling

adjustment: from {-ance} of English to {–ans} so that in Indonesian, they become

ambulans and konduktans (Johannes & Moeliono, 2007, p. 28). Since those both

words have existed in Indonesian, it facilitates Indonesian learners of English to

utter consonant cluster /ns/ in the final position of word as influence.

In the phenomenon of feature-changing rule, the second most happening

phonological process in this research, the respondents are likely to alter the

voicing status of the sounds in the consonant clusters—the voiceless becomes

voiced and vice versa. This occurs in both alveolar-alveolar and bilabial-alveolar

consonant clusters, such as in the words increased, well-organized, developed,

transformed, and primed. The voiceless /t/ of the consonant clusters /st/ and /pt/ in

the words increased, and developed is substituted by the voiced /d/. The reason is

because Indonesians have a habit of reading out all the present sounds of words

without being aware of the different phonetic system in English: if the regular

verbs of the past-tense form end in voiceless segment other than [t], it is followed


74

by [t] (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011, pp. 230-231). On the opposite, the

voiced /d/ of the consonant clusters /zd/ and /md/ in the words well-organized,

transformed, and primed is uttered in the voiceless /t/ by the respondents. It is

owing to the reduction of voiced consonants when it comes to the final position as

Dardjowidjojo (2009, p. 38) affirms.

Additionally, the feature-changing rule committed by P7 in pronouncing

infant /ɪnfənt/ becomes [ɪnfeŋ]—replacing alveolar-alveolar consonant cluster /nt/

with [ŋ]—is affected by another language rather than the mother tongue. After

doing close interview with the participant, the participant had learnt French when

in senior high school so that the utterance is affected by the language. As known,

the word infant is an English loanword from Latin infant, meaning unable to

speak, via French enfant—in the throne of Edward the Confessor—as the word

saint (Roth, 2010, p. 255). The consonant cluster /nt/ in the final position is indeed

read by French in nasal sound [ŋ].

The third happening of phonological factor is insertion. It befalls in both

alveolar-alveolars and bilabial-alveolars as well. It is found the addition of the

sounds schwa /ə/ and /e/ between the consonant clusters in the participants‘

enunciations, specifically in the words well-organized, developed, transformed,

overwhelmed, and primed. According to Muslich, this addition is called anaptyxis:

the process of inserting certain vowel between two consonants in order to ease the

pronunciation (2008, p. 126). Indonesians are apt to do this process, such as in the

words putra to putera [putəra], bahtra to bahtera [bahtəra], and srigala to


75

serigala [sərigala]. Therefore, it triggers the addition of the words‘ syllables as

well.

Insertion existing in the participants‘ pronunciations is not only the

process of including vowels between the consonant clusters as uncovered before,

but also the addition of the sounds [mən] considered as suffix for the word

developed. This mistake called overgeneralization that will be explained in the

next session, for it is not backgrounded by the participants‘ mother tongue, but the

target language being learnt by the respondents.

Some occurrences of feature-changing rule and insertion acted by the

respondents denote that Indonesians are likely to speak all of the present letters

within the words by assuming that those sounds are in correspondence with how

they are symbolized/written. For example, some respondents in performing

feature-changing rule phenomenon utter the word developed /dɪveləpt/ into

[dɪvəlɔpd] by altering the sound /t/ with /d/ as it is written in the word. Moreover,

in the insertion phenomenon, some participants articulate the letter <e> in the

words well-organized, developed, transformed, and primed as /e/ or the schwa /ə/.

It shows that they suppose the letter <e> has to be read out. This, then, leads to the

statement that these both happenings are able to be supported by the theory of

orthography.

Orthography, based on Rumsey et al (1997), is a theory ruling that

orthographic components are just lexical representations not related to the

phonological components. It entails that printed words in a certain language do


76

not stand for how that words are produced. English adheres this theory, whereas

Indonesian describes different system.

According to Muslich (2008), Indonesian spelling posseses phonemic

spelling. It is the symbolism of phonemes by graphemes. Nonetheless, the number

of phonemes is less than the number of the letters in the alphabets. However, there

are still 2 problems often found in this system: one phoneme represented by two

graphemes and two phonemes signified by one grapheme. One phoneme

represented by two graphemes can be seen in the words menganga /meŋaŋa/ and

makhluk /maxluk/ where the phonemes /ŋ/ and /x/ are written in two letters <ng>

and <kh>. Meanwhile, the words ide /ide/ and berat /berat/ are explained two

phonemes signified by one grapheme. The pronunciations of the letter <e> in ide

and berat are distinctive, yet the symbolism of them both is just in the phoneme

/e/ (2008, p. 105). These processes of phonemes‘ representations in Indonesian

tell that what is written is also what is read since each grapheme of the words has

its sounds.

With those contrastive descriptions of English and Indonesian

orthography, it is obvious that the respondents‘ enunciations are still affected by

the mother tongue so that they treat English words the same as Indonesian. This is

why they keep on uttering /d/ for the consonant /t/ in the developed—in the

occurrence of feature-changing rule—and pronouncing the letter <e> between the

consonant clusters in some selected words as /e/ or the schwa /ə/—in the insertion.


77

2. English Acquisition Influencing Phonological Processes in the


This section discusses the factors of second language acquisition causing

phonological processes in the respondents‘ pronunciations. As having been

explained by Grosvald et al (2009, p. 24), English acquisition is related to certain

language being attained by the participants thought as human actions. This part

illustrates about factors caused by language acquired by the participants. They are

about the respondents‘ experiences in learning English—if they have acquired

pronunciation knowledge, are able to differentiate sounds in English not existing

in Indonesian, and segment words—since it is the language tested. This is also

used as a proof of the pronunciations of English words they have performed so its

summarized results are explicated in the table below.

Table 18: English Acquisition Influencing the Participants’ Pronunciations

English Acquisition

Learning Pronunciation Differentiating Sounds Segmenting Words

Yes No Yes No Yes No

9 1 9 1 8 2

The table illustrates activities of the respondents in obtaining English

acquisition influencing the respondents‘ enunciations. These factors cover the

knowledge about English in learning pronunciation, differentiating sounds in

English not appearing in Indonesian, and segmenting words in English. In another

term, it reveals the understanding or comprehension of the participants about

English.


78

In the first column, learning pronunciation, it asks whether or not the

participants have experienced such kind of pronunciation learning process or

pronunciation course in either school or any kinds of such institution during their

whole life. The result is 9 respondents have had knowledge about how to

pronounce English words. It is achieved by all participants except P2; P2 admits

that he/she has yet to acquire English pronunciation. Nevertheless, all of them—

those either having experience of pronunciation learning or not—act mistakes in

their utterances, based on the results. Therefore, in this analysis of English

acquisition factors influencing the respondents‘ enunciations, the other reasons

may play an important role. It will be exposed in the next descriptions.

The second column, conversely, describes another outcome. The data

appearing are the same as the result in the learning pronunciation column, 9

respondents are able to differentiate English sounds not existing in Indonesian

while a respondent is not. This column questions the participants‘ knowledge as

well about phonetic system theories of both language, English and Indonesian or

perhaps only self-awareness of each participants about the features‘ differences

between the two languages. From the data, it is observed that most of the

respondents have possessed this kind of understanding.

Lastly, the column of segmenting English words uncovers other

distinctive number of outcome as well as data, the participants. This column also

examines the knowing about English phonetic system, particularly syllable; if the

respondents have the ability to segment words in English or divide them into


79

syllables or not. It is found 8 participants are able to pass this skill whereas the

rests are not. Those 2 participants are P4 and P7.

As the outcomes reveal, it is known that the pronunciations‘

performances are not in accordance with the data of SLA factors since according

to the discussion in the chapter 4a, almost of the respondents, 73.75%, fail to utter

the consonant clusters taking place in the final position of English words

provided. The outcome of English acquisition factors explicates that most

respondents have acquired the knowledge of English in either pronunciation or

theory of English phonology: sounds and syllable in English. Nonetheless, since

these factors are also treated as a proof of the participants‘ pronunciations and

they have to be matched with the condition in the research field, it does not fit one

another. From this, it can be concluded that the participants‘ pronunciations may

be affected by neither experience nor knowledge of English as covered in English

acquisition factors, but mostly by the factors of language use, especially the

mother tongue.

According to Leong and Ahmadi (2017), one of the reasons of English

learners speaking their mother language as speaking is because it is indeed natural

for non-native speakers or learners of certain language to perform the mother

tongue instead of the language they are gaining. Moreover, if the learners share

the same mother tongue among them, its occurrence will commonly befalls (2017,

p. 36). It can be drawn, after comprehending the explanation Leong and Ahmadi

give, the mother tongue is the biggest influence for learners of certain language

since they are more accustomed to it than the foreign language they are trying to


80

acquire. Thus, in the data, the participants may be right about their experiences in

understanding English, yet the failures they have shown in pronunciations are still

caused by their mother tongue‘s intervention.

Besides, the fluency and accuracy of speaking are determined by, instead

of the knowledge of the language learnt itself, the willingness of the learners to

speak the language. Tuan and Tran state that one problem in speaking is the

participations of the learners are low or uneven (2015, p. 10). From this statement,

the researcher can say that in gaining fluency and accuracy of speaking certain

language, the participants have to be involved in using that language. In this case,

English as a foreign language obtained by the participants should be performed

often to achieve the correctness of its pronunciation, not only the knowledge

gotten without being practiced.

Due to the unfamiliarity of English causing the more exposure of the

participants‘ mother tongue, the three other phonological processes, deletion,

feature-changing rule, and insertion—except insertion acted by P3 as the word

developed /dɪveləpt/ read [devəlɔpmən]—taking place in the respondents‘

pronunciations are not able to be clarified in this section. It is because the three

language phenomena having been mentioned are not initiated by the

comprehension of English knowledge like illustrated in the table 19 revealing

good results of the participants acquiring the knowledge, in fact. All the

phenomena found in the respondents‘ enunciations should not be encountered if

the data in English acquisition factors show significant numbers of respondents in

‗yes‘ columns of all English knowledge aspects. Conversely, the level of


81

pronunciations‘ correctness does not fit the outcome revealed in this part so that

other backgrounds creating tendencies of the participants to speak the English

words that way must exist: mother tongue and the English speaking intensity like

described before.

In the case of deletion, the highest happening of phonological process in

the utterances, the respondents might have learnt to pronounce consonant clusters

/nt/, /nd/, /st/, /zd/, /pt/, and /md/ in the final position of words and been able to

understand that Indonesian does not allow those consonant clusters in the final

position of the words unlike English so that they are aware that the last sounds of

the clusters should still be spoken. In spite of this, the missing of the last sounds in

their utterances is affected by their low intensities of using English as their

communications since they mostly speak Indonesian playing the role as both the

mother tongue and regular language. Consequently, the interference of the mother

tongue is essential as well in this research.

Feature-changing rule has a strong correlation with English phonetic

knowledge; the understanding of how to pronounce the past tense {–ed}

morpheme as the final consonant clusters. It means that the participants have to

know whether /t/ or /d/ that should follow the final sounds of the words‘ roots.

Owing to the absence of this theory in Indonesian, it needs the comprehension

about what sounds being existent in English whereas inexistent in Indonesian.

Since the data in the table uncover that 90% respondents have this kind of

understanding, the data and the fact in the research field do not match each

other—the respondents‘ utterances of the consonant clusters /zd/, /pt/, and /md/


82

are inaccurate by altering the voicing status of the sounds /d/ and /t/. As the result,

the researcher concludes other factors backrounding these failures: not the English

knowledge having acquired by the respondents, yet the lack of English practice in

their everyday life.

Insertion or addition of sounds in the respondents‘ pronunciations is able

to be avoided if the respondents learn pronunciation of how to utter consonant

clusters formed by past tense morpheme {-ed} without the letter <e> is

enunciated—it is observed in the participants‘ utterances of pronouncing the letter

<e> into schwa or /e/. It can also be obtained by the knowledge of segmenting

English words; if the words are added with the sounds schwa /ə/ or /e/ the syllable

must change. Indonesian does allow it to ease the utterances of the consonant

clusters within the syllable, yet English does not. This distinctive rule between

English and Indonesian triggers the inaccuracy in the consonant clusters

pronunciations by the respondents. The respondents may be true in learning all

aspects of English knowledge as revealed in the table. However, the fact data of

the enunciations do not perform good results so that it is not because of their lack

of understanding about English, yet the usage of English; the intensity or habitual

English performing. It ends up leading their routines to their mother language still,

Indonesian, taking the biggest portion in affecting their pronunciations.

Nevertheless, one phenomenon of insertion instead of adding vowels /ə/

and /e/, one of the respondents, P3, adds the suffix [mən] to the word developed

that should be pronounced /dɪveləpt/ so that the utterance turns out to be

/devəlɔpmən/. This error is termed overgeneralization which is overextension of


83

one rule to cover instances to which that rule does not apply (Saidan, 2011, p.

185)—at morphological level where derivational morphology is observed in the

speaker‘s pronunciation (Ambridge, Pine, Rowland, Chang, & Bidgood, 2012, p.

49). In this case, P3 includes the derivative morpheme [mən] to the verb develop

without being aware that the verb can also be in the form of regular past tense by

putting the suffix {–ed}, not only in noun.


84

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

The purpose of this research is to comprehend the pronunciations of

Management major students in Sanata Dharma University learning English. Ten

participants are involved in this research. The provided words are the words with

alveolar-alveolar and bilabial-alveolar consonant clusters in the final position of

words. There are 8 words to test classified into other classes based on their coda

sounds. Then, the results of the pronunciations are counted in the percentages;

according to the correct and incorrect, examined in the viewpoint of phonological

processes and phonological factors: language use and English acquisition factors

as the last.

The analysis results and discussions describe in the summarized results

calculation of the participants‘ pronunciations, the incorrect utterances are higher

than the correct ones since the percentages show 73.75% of the incorrect whereas

26.25% of the correct. Except nasal-fricative consonant clusters, other classes of

consonant clusters are erroneously enunciated. After that, this is divided again

based on the types of consonant clusters: alveolar-alveolars and bilabial-alveolars.

The outcomes of alveolar-alveolars split into three classes of coda sounds: nasal-

stops, nasal-fricatives, and fricative-stops still uncover the higher percentage of

the incorrect, 72% while the incorrect is 28%. The other type, bilabial-alveolars

fragmented to two coda sounds: stop-stops and nasal-stops, shares the similar

results as well. They are 23.3% of the correct and 76.7% of the incorrect.


85

From the data sum, it can be drawn a conclusion that most of the

respondents inaccurately utter the English words containing consonant clusters in

the final position. Moreover, those mistakes are able to be termed as language

phenomena in phonological processes. This is discussed to solve the second

objectives of the research, finding out the phonological processes taking place in

the respondents‘ enunciations.

The participants have a tendency to delete or abolish the final consonants

in almost all of the consonant clusters since it takes place in all words, except

nasal-fricatives. Furthermore, they also substitute the final consonants of the

words, particularly the words with past participle {-ed} morpheme as well as

insert the sounds schwa /ə/ and /e/ between the consonant clusters. It occurs due to

the interference of their mother tongue. Therefore, these phenomena can be

justified by the description in the phonological factor related to language.

Due to the dominance of Indonesian, their utterances must be influenced

by this language. In case of deletion phenomenon where the participants omit the

final consonants of the selected words, Indonesian intervention plays an important

role. Indonesian does not have consonant clusters in the final position of words,

especially like the clusters in the words provided in this research: /nt/, /nd/, /st/,

/zd/, /pt/, and /md/, so that Indonesians are likely to erroneously enunciate English

words containing those clusters in the final position of words. However,

consonant cluster /ns/ exists since brought by loanwords. Therefore, clusters

rather than nasal fricative /ns/ cannot be enunciated properly by the respondents.


86

Indonesian as the respondents‘ mother tongue also triggers the

respondents perform the other language phenomena, like feature-changing rule

and insertion. In feature-changing rule where the sound /t/ as in the word

increased /ɪnkrist/ is spoken /d/ and vice versa, it reveals that Indonesians actually

read all the sounds out presented in the words as well as they utter the voiced

sounds in the final position of words voiceless. Meanwhile, the tendency of

Indonesians insert the vowels /ə/ and /e/ between consonant clusters initiates the

phenomenon of insertion. Feature-changing rule and insertion can also be justified

by the different theory of orthography between English and Indonesia.

According to the analysis of the research, the most influential

background in shaping the participants‘ pronunciations is the mother tongue.

Nonetheless, phonological processes begun by these errors are discussed in the

phonological factors of language use. Moreover, in phonological factors of

English acquisition, factors produced by language acquisition, strengthens the

statement that mother tongue occupies the most essential position in affecting the

participants‘ utterances. Even though the result of the participants‘ English

acquisition demonstrates high numbers, it does not necessarily denote that they

completely comprehend the English knowledge leading to the correct English

words‘ enunciations. However, the familiarity of the respondents towards English

matters to be another factor in the utterances.

In this section also, the researcher encourages the future researchers to

conduct other studies with different analyses and objects of English consonant

clusters‘ pronunciations. Moreover, it is suggested that the researchers find other


87

more familiar English words to be examined because the English words in this

study are still hard to utter even though they come from the learners‘ module

discussed in class. It is seen in the results of the analysis where the respondents

perform lots of mistakes in their enunciations. Hence, it can be reckoned that

managing research about English pronunciation by learners is essential.


88

REFERENCES

Adipramono, R. (2011). The Possibility of English as a Second Language in

Indonesia. Journal of English and Education, 5 (2), 56-66.

Ambridge, B., Pine, J. M., Rowland, C. F., Chang, F., & Bidgood, A. (2012). The

Retreat from Overgeneralization in Child Language Acquisition: Word

Learning, Morphology, and Verb Argument Structure. WIREs Cognitive

Science, 4, 47-62.

Armstrong, E., & Ferguson, A. (2010). Language, Meaning, Context, and

Functional Communication. Edith Cowan University Research Online, 24

(4), 1-34.

Brinton, L. J., & Brinton, D. M. (2010). The Linguistic Structure of Modern

English. Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company.

Chung, C.-W. (2017). An Aspect of Consonant Cluster Simplification in English.

Studies in Linguistics, 43, 43-66.

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Second Edition.

London: Sage Publications.

Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics: Sixth Edition.

Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.

Dardjowidjojo, S. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology for Indonesians.

Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.

Diouf, A. (2001). The Production of Consonant Clusters of English by Wolof

Speakers: An Error Analysis. Saint-Louis: Universite Gaston Berger de

Saint-Louis.

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An Introduction to Language.

Wadsworth: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Gilakjani, A. P. (2012). The Significance of Pronunciation in English Language

Teaching. International Journal of Research in English Education, 1 (1),

1-6.

Grosvald, M., Lachaud, C., & Corina, D. (2009). Influences of Linguistic and

Non-Linguistic Factors in the Processing of American Sign Language:

Evidence from Handshape Monitoring. Linguistic Society, 35 (2), 24-35


89

Hayes, B. (2009). Introductory Phonology. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing.

Hoffer, B. L. (2005). Language Borrowing and the Indices of Adaptability and

Receptivity. Intercultural Communication Studies, 14 (2), 53-72.

Johannes, H., & Moeliono, A. M. (2007). Pedoman Umum Pembentukan Istilah.

Pihak Mabbim Indonesia (pp. 1-65). Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan

Nasional.

Jones, D. (2006). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Lass, R. (1984). Phonology: An Introduction to Basic Concepts. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Leong, L.-M., & Ahmadi, S. M. (2017). An Analysis of Factors Influencig

Learners' English Speaking Skill. International Journal of Research in

English Education, 2 (1), 34-41.

McLeod, S., Doorn, J. V., & Reed, V. A. (2001). Normal Acquisition of

Consonant Clusters. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 10

(2), 99-110.

McMahon, A. (2002). An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press.

Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: A

Sourcebook of New Method (Second Edition). California: Sage

Publications.

Muslich, M. (2008). Fonologi Bahasa Indonesia: Tinjauan Deskriptif Sistem

Bunyi Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Bumi Aksara.

Ogden, R. (2009). The Introduction to English Phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh

University Press.

Oktavia, D. (2017, September 28). The Pronunciation of English Consonants in

Rihanna's Songs Entitled "Work" and "Man Down". Yogyakarta: Sanata

Dharma University.

Rahardjosidhi, K. R. (2017, January 9). Mispronunciation of English Final

Alveolar-Alveolar and Velar-Alveolar Consonant Clusters by the Students

of SMA Santa Maria Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.


90

Roach, P. (2002). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Roth, I. (2010). Explore the Influence of French on English. Leading

Undergraduate Work in English Studies, 3, 255-262.

Rumsey, J. M., Horwitz, B., Donohue, B. C., Nace, K., Maisog, J. M., &

Andreason, P. (1997). Phonological and Orthographic Components of

Word Recognition. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 120 (5), 739-759.

Sahulata, D. (1988). An Introduction to Sounds and Sound Systems of English.

Jakarta: Proyek Pengembangan Lembaga Pendidikan Tenaga

Kependidikan.

Saidan, A. M. (2011). Linguistic Overgeneralization: A Case Study. International

Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Science, 1, 184-194.

Seo, M. (2012). Perception of a Consonant/Lateral Cluster by Korean and English

Listeners. The Journal of Studies in Language, 27 (4), 673-691.

Shariq, M. (2015). Arabic and English Consonants: A Phonetic and Phonological

Investigation. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 6 (6), 146-152.

Skandera, P., & Burleigh, P. (2005). A Manual of English Phonetics and

Phonology. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag Tubingen.

Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2000). Linguistic Genocide in Education-or Worldwide

Diversity and Human Rights? New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Tuan, N. H., & Tran, N. M. (2015). Factors Affecting Students' Speaking

Performance at Le Thanh Hien High School. Asian Journal of Educational

Research, 3 (2), 8-23.

Ufot, B. G. (2013). Phonology and Stylistics: A Phonaesthetic Study of Gray's

"Elegy Written in a Country Curchyard". English Linguistics Research, 2

(2), 110-125.

Wedhawati. (2006). Tata Bahasa Jawa Mutakhir. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Kanisius.

Yule, G. (2006). The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.


Appendices

Appendix 1: Phonetic Transcription of P1’s Pronunciations

P1

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations C IC Phonological Processes

Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops

Infant /’ɪnfənt/ [ɪnfen] Deletion

Found /faʊnd/ [faʊn] Deletion

Fricative

-Stops

Increased /ɪn’kri:st/ [ɪnkres] Deletion

Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/ [wel ɔgənaɪs]

Feature-Changing Rule

and Deletion

Nasal-

Fricatives Influence /’ɪnfluəns/ [ɪnfluens] -

Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops Developed /dɪ’veləpt/ [devəlop] Deletion

Nasal-

Stops

Transformed /trӕns’fɔ:md/ [transfɔm] Deletion

Primed /praɪmd/ [praɪm] Deletion

91



P2

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations

C IC Phonological Processes

Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops


Found /faʊnd/ [fɔʊn] Deletion

Fricative

-Stops

Increased /ɪn’kri:st/ [ɪnkrisd] Feature-Changing Rule

Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/

[wel

ɔrgənaɪzəd]

Insertion

Nasal-

Fricatives

Influence /’ɪnfluəns/ [ɪnfluens] -

Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops

Developed /dɪ’veləpt/ [dɪvəlɔpd] Feature-Changing Rule

Nasal-

Stops

Transformed /trӕns’fɔ:md/ [transfɔmd] -

Primed /praɪmd/ [praɪməd] Insertion

92



P3

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations


Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops

Infant /’ɪnfənt/ [ɪnfhen] Deletion

Found /faʊnd/ [fɔʊn] Deletion

Fricative

-Stops


Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/

[wel ɔrgənaɪs] Feature-Changing Rule

and Deletion

Nasal-

Fricatives


Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops

Developed /dɪ’veləpt/ [devəlɔpmən] Deletion and Insertion

Nasal-

Stops

Transformed /trӕns’fɔ:md/ [trensfɔm] Deletion


93



P4

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations


Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops



Fricative

-Stops

Increased /ɪn’kri:st/ [ɪnkrəst] -

Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/

[wel ɔrgənaɪs] Feature-Changing Rule

and Deletion

Nasal-

Fricatives


Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops

Developed /dɪ’veləpt/ [devəlɔpt] -

Nasal-

Stops


Primed /praɪmd/ [praɪmd] -

94



P5

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations


Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops

Infant /’ɪnfənt/ [ɪnfent] -

Found /faʊnd/ [fɔʊnd] -

Fricative

-Stops

Increased /ɪn’kri:st/ [ɪnkresd] Feature-Changing Rule

Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/

[wel ɔgənaɪs] Feature-Changing Rule and

Deletion

Nasal-

Fricatives


Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops

Developed /dɪ’veləpt/ [dɪvəlɔpd] Feature-Changing Rule

Nasal-

Stops



95



P6

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations


Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops


Found /faʊnd/ [fɔn] Deletion

Fricative

-Stops


Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/

[wel ɔrganɪs] Feature-Changing Rule and

Deletion

Nasal-

Fricatives


Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops

Developed /dɪ’veləpt/ [dɪvəlop] Deletion

Nasal-

Stops


Primed /praɪmd/ [premət] Feature-Changing Rule and

Insertion

96


Appendix 7: Phonetic Transcription P7’s Pronunciations

P7

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations


Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops

Infant /’ɪnfənt/ [ɪnfeŋ] Deletion and Feature-

Changing Rule


Fricative

-Stops


Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/

[wel ɔrganɪs] Feature-Changing Rule and

Deletion

Nasal-

Fricatives


Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops

Developed /dɪ’veləpt/ [dɪvəlɔp] Deletion

Nasal-

Stops

Transformed /trӕns’fɔ:md/ [transfɔrmet] Feature-Changing Rule and

Insertion

Primed /praɪmd/ [prɪmət] Feature-Changing Rule and

Insertion

97



P8

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations


Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops



Fricative

-Stops

Increased /ɪn’kri:st/ [ɪnkris] Deletion

Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/

[wel ɔrgənaɪs] Feature-Changing Rule and

Deletion

Nasal-

Fricatives

Influence /’ɪnfluəns/ [ɪnfluəns] -

Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops


Nasal-

Stops



98



P9

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations


Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops


Found /faʊnd/ [fɔn] Deletion

Fricative

-Stops

Increased /ɪn’kri:st/ [ɪnkrɪs] Deletion

Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/

[wer ɔrgənaɪs] Feature-Changing Rule and

Deletion

Nasal-

Fricatives


Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops


Nasal-

Stops

Transformed /trӕns’fɔ:md/ [transfɔrm] Deletion

Primed /praɪmd/ [prɪmet] Feature-Changing Rule and

Insertion

99



P10

Consonant

Clusters

Words

Based on

Coda

Sounds

Words Intended

Pronunciations

Participant’s

Pronunciations


Alveolar-

Alveolars

Nasal-

Stops


Found /faʊnd/ [faʊnd] -

Fricative

-Stops


Well-

Organized

/wel

’ɔ:gənaɪzd/

[wel ɔgənaɪst] Feature-Changing Rule

Nasal-

Fricatives


Bilabial-

Alveolars

Stop-

Stops


Nasal-

Stops

Transformed /trӕns’fɔ:md/ [trensfɔm] Deletion


100


101

Appendix 11: Questionnaire of the Research

KUESIONER PENELITIAN LINGUISTIK

The Pronunciation of Alveolar-Alveolar and Bilabial-Alveolar Consonant

Clusters in English Words by Indonesian Learners of English

(Pengucapan Klaster Konsonan Alveolar-Alveolar dan Bilabial-Alveolar dalam

Kata-Kata Bahasa Inggris oleh Pelajar Bahasa Inggris)

Kuesioner ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengucapan beberapa kata

dalam bahasa Inggris yang mengandung klaster konsonan di akhir silabel oleh

partisipan dan mengobservasi latar belakang partisipan tersebut. Praktik

pengucapan dan latar belakang ini kemudian digunakan untuk menjawab

permasalahan di dalam penelitian yang sedang dilakukan oleh peneliti, yaitu

proses dan faktor fonologi yang memengaruhi pengucapan klaster konsonan oleh

partisipan tadi.

A. Instruksi: Ucapkan 10 kata dalam bahasa Inggris di bawah ini satu kali

yang secara bersamaan akan direkam oleh peneliti.

No. Kata-Kata dalam bahasa Inggris

1. Infant

2. Found

3. Increased

4. Influence

5. Well-organized

6. Developed

7. Transformed

8. Primed

B. Instruksi: Isilah beberapa pertanyaan pilihan ganda di bawah ini

dengan cara melingkari jawaban yang cocok dengan diri anda.

1. Saya berasal dari suku:

a. Jawa

b. Sunda

c. Batak

d. Lainnya: ...

2. Bahasa yang pertama kali saya pelajari sewaktu kecil (bahasa ibu) saya

adalah:

a. Indonesia


102

b. Bahasa daerah (Jawa, Sunda, Batak, dll)

3. Bahasa yang saya gunakan dalam berkomunikasi sehari-hari adalah:

a. Indonesia

b. Bahasa daerah (Jawa, Sunda, Batak, dll)

4. Saya pernah belajar pengucapan (pronunciation) dalam bahasa Inggris.

a. Ya

b. Tidak

5. Saya dapat membedakan beberapa bunyi dalam bahasa Inggris yang tidak

ada dalam bahasa Indonesia.

a. Ya

b. Tidak

6. Saya tahu bagaimana memenggal suku kata dalam pengucapan bahasa

Inggris.

a. Ya

b. Tidak

Atas partisipasinya, peneliti mengucapkan banyak terimakasih dan partisipan

menyatakan bahwa dirinya setuju jika data yang terdapat dalam kuesioner ini

digunakan sebagai sumber penelitian.

Partisipan Peneliti


103


104


105


106


107


108


109


110


111


112


113


114


115


116


117


118


119


120


121


122


123


124


125



Date post:	19-Feb-2022
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	16 times
Download:	0 times

THE PRONUNCIATION OF ALVEOLAR-ALVEOLAR AND BILABIAL ...

Documents