Exploring Misunderstanding concerning the Malay Affricates

(Menelusuri Kesalahfahaman terhadap Bunyi Letusan Bahasa Melayu)

Abstract

The use of IPA phonetic symbols in the study of Malay has grown in the past half century. However, there are some scholars who still confuse the IPA phonetic symbols with the graphemes of Malay. This can be seen especially in the phonetic transcription of affricate sounds. They probably have not gone through the IPA manuals and do not care about the phonetic value of the Malay affricates. This article aims to expose the misunderstanding by some scholars about the affricates c [tʃ] and j [dZ].of Malay, then to present the actual phonetic value of these affricate sounds objectively through the method of computer-aided acoustical phonetic analysis. The results of this experiment have convinced us that the affricates that exist in Malay were surely the postalveolar c /tʃ/ and j /dZ/ sounds.

Keywords: double articulation, fricatives, approximants, plosives, affricates, graphemes, palatalization, secondary cardinal vowels