An acoustical study of English Plosives in word initial position produced by Malays

This paper presents key findings from a study on the realisation of the initial plosives voicing contrast in the speech performance of learners of English whose first language is Malay. This paper also presents the results of an acoustic study of the Malay voicing contrasts with a focus on acoustic...

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Main Authors: Shahidi A.H, Rahim Aman
Format: Article
Language:en
Published: Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2011
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3217/1/5-Shahidi_A.H_et_al.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3217/
http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/3L/3LCurrentIssues.html
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author Shahidi A.H,
Rahim Aman,
author_facet Shahidi A.H,
Rahim Aman,
author_sort Shahidi A.H,
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
description This paper presents key findings from a study on the realisation of the initial plosives voicing contrast in the speech performance of learners of English whose first language is Malay. This paper also presents the results of an acoustic study of the Malay voicing contrasts with a focus on acoustic measures. Waveform and spectrogram samples were used for segmentation of utterances and for obtaining values for each measurement. Measurements were taken of VOT of initial phase of selected segments occurring singly. VOT measurements were made (to the nearest msec) from the plosive release burst to the first periodic cycle of the vowel. The release burst refers to the point at which there was a sudden spread in spectral energy indicating articulatory release. For the prevoiced tokens, VOT was measured from the onset of periodicity (which shows a visible periodic signal with low frequency energy) and assigned a negative value. Results are then presented on the realisation of the voicing contrast in English spoken by Malay speakers. The results are discussed in light of the acquisition of L2 (English) sound patterning, focusing in particular on the situation presented by acquiring L2 within an L1 (Malay) context. This study (via spectrographic analysis) demonstrates that where there is phonemic similarity (but phonetic dissimilarity) across Malay and English, L1 phonetic properties are found to be strong for Malay learners of English in the L1 environment.
format Article
id my-ukm.journal-3217
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
language en
publishDate 2011
publisher Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM
record_format eprints
spelling my-ukm.journal-32172016-12-14T06:33:58Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3217/ An acoustical study of English Plosives in word initial position produced by Malays Shahidi A.H, Rahim Aman, This paper presents key findings from a study on the realisation of the initial plosives voicing contrast in the speech performance of learners of English whose first language is Malay. This paper also presents the results of an acoustic study of the Malay voicing contrasts with a focus on acoustic measures. Waveform and spectrogram samples were used for segmentation of utterances and for obtaining values for each measurement. Measurements were taken of VOT of initial phase of selected segments occurring singly. VOT measurements were made (to the nearest msec) from the plosive release burst to the first periodic cycle of the vowel. The release burst refers to the point at which there was a sudden spread in spectral energy indicating articulatory release. For the prevoiced tokens, VOT was measured from the onset of periodicity (which shows a visible periodic signal with low frequency energy) and assigned a negative value. Results are then presented on the realisation of the voicing contrast in English spoken by Malay speakers. The results are discussed in light of the acquisition of L2 (English) sound patterning, focusing in particular on the situation presented by acquiring L2 within an L1 (Malay) context. This study (via spectrographic analysis) demonstrates that where there is phonemic similarity (but phonetic dissimilarity) across Malay and English, L1 phonetic properties are found to be strong for Malay learners of English in the L1 environment. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2011 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3217/1/5-Shahidi_A.H_et_al.pdf Shahidi A.H, and Rahim Aman, (2011) An acoustical study of English Plosives in word initial position produced by Malays. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 7 (2). pp. 23-33. ISSN 0128-5157 http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/3L/3LCurrentIssues.html
spellingShingle Shahidi A.H,
Rahim Aman,
An acoustical study of English Plosives in word initial position produced by Malays
title An acoustical study of English Plosives in word initial position produced by Malays
title_full An acoustical study of English Plosives in word initial position produced by Malays
title_fullStr An acoustical study of English Plosives in word initial position produced by Malays
title_full_unstemmed An acoustical study of English Plosives in word initial position produced by Malays
title_short An acoustical study of English Plosives in word initial position produced by Malays
title_sort acoustical study of english plosives in word initial position produced by malays
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3217/1/5-Shahidi_A.H_et_al.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3217/
http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/3L/3LCurrentIssues.html
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/