Indonesian English Users’ Common Mistakes in Pronunciation

There are some common mistakes done by most Indonesian who learn English and especially English students. These mistakes are in the pronunciation of some English words. The mistakes are done in many generations, from teachers to students and teachers to teachers. The mistakes somehow become the truth and they are no more considered as mistake. They become common mistakes accepted by the English users and learners. The English pronunciation cannot be separated with the unique form of English spelling. The difficulty occurs to the English users (especially Indonesian) since the English spelling doesn’t apply phonetics rules as in Indonesian. This difference is pretty much significant for Indonesian speakers for Indonesian alphabet is using phonetics rules in the clear way. Most of Indonesian alphabets have similar sound and spelling as in International Phonetics Alphabets (IPA). For example the word ‘simple’ in English, according to the alphabet it should be pronounced /si:mple/ which is very similar to the phonetics, while in English it should be pronounced differently, which is /sImpl/. Another example is the loanword ‘karate’ from Japanese. In romanized Japanese and Indonesian, it simply pronounced as it is written /kɑ:rɑ:te/, while in English, the pronunciation is very different, /kərɑ:tɪ/, where there are some changes in /ɑ:/ into /ə/ and /e/ into /I/. The English learners will find it difficult to follow English spelling’s ‘inconsistency’. The alphabet or letter ‘u’ can be pronounced in many different fashions. It is pronounced /ju:/ in ‘university’, /ʊ/ in ‘bush’, /u:/ in ‘shoot’, /ʌ/ in ‘bus’ or ‘cup’, or /ɜ:/ in ‘fur’, while in Indonesian the letter ‘u’ in simply pronounced the same as phonetics /u:/ in any word, as in ‘dunia’ /du:nIa/, ‘kamu’ /kɑ:mu:/, ‘suatu’ /su:wɑ:tu/ etc. English itself has a complex and long history to its ‘fixed’ form as we see today. English is actually originated as West Germanic language. According to Michael D. C. Drout in his book A History of English Language, ‘But English itself belongs to the West Germanic group, which is divided into two branches, High and Low. High German was spoken in the mountains and uplands of Germany and, after Martin Luther translated the Bible into this language, became the standard literary language of Germany. The Low German languages include Old Saxon (which has evolved into modern Low German or Plattdeutsch), Old Low Franconian (which became Dutch and Flemish), Old Frisian (which became Frisian, still spoken in a few places in the Netherlands), and Old English’. (2006:60) The difference in spelling (also called ortography) and pronounciation from one word to another is caused by different influences and loan words of different languages. During the rather complex history of English, the language has been subjected to numerous influences that resulted in it actually becoming a mixture of other languages. It resulted in abundant contributions to its vocabulary and also blending different spelling systems. These contribute to the irregular and sometimes incredibly inconsistent and confusing spelling of the written language, which in turn interacts with a varied and sometimes unpredictable pronunciation. In order to master English spelling, one needs to learn a great many spelling rules and be aware of the numerous possible letter combinations. For example, when representing a vowel, the letter ‘y’ represents the sound /I/ in some words borrowed from Greek while the letter usually representing this sound in non-Greek words is the letter ‘i’. Therefore, the word myth /mɪθ/Greek origin, while ’pith’ /piθ/ is a Germanic word. Other examples include ‘ph’ pronounced /f/, and ‘ch’ pronounced /k/ (which is usually spelt /ʧ/ or /k/). This confusion is somehow understandable for the Indonesian English learners. The following words in English are some of the examples the most often mispronounced words. The reason of the mispronunciation is as previously stated, the confusion in the inconsistency of English pronunciation. 1. Doubt Usually this word is pronounced /daʊb/ by many learners or English users, however, the correct pronunctiation should be /daʊt/. In fact, the sound of /b/ is omitted or is not pronounced. This case is also happened to: 2. Debt Which should be pronounced /det/ instead of /deb/. 3. Determine The word ‘determine’ is the perfect example of the confusion in the English inconsistency. Many Indonesian pronounce it as / detɜ:rmaIn/, since the pronunciation is considered only the compund of ‘deter’ and ‘mine’ /maIn/, while in fact, ‘determine’ is completely a different word. The word ‘determine’ should be pronounced as /dɪtɜ:rmɪn/. The case also works for: 4. Examine Which should be pronounced /ɪgzæmɪn/ instead of /ekzɜ:maIn/. 5. Ache The word ‘ache’ is another perfect example, since many English words with the letter ‘ch’ are pronounced as /ʧ/ as in ‘beach’ /bi:ʧ/,  ‘fetch’ /feʧ/, ‘match’ / mæʧ/, etc. It is no wonder the word ‘ache’ is considered having the same rule and should be pronounced as /æʧ/ (though there are plenty of words with ‘ch’ in different pronounciation: ‘chord’ /kɔ:rd/ or ‘chic’ /∫i:k/). The word ‘ache’ should be pronounced as /eɪk/. 6. Hour This case is one of the most mispronounced, since the letter ‘h’ is usually pronounced well in Indonesian, and also some in English as in ‘home’ /hoʊm/, ‘hope’ /hoʊp/ or ‘hear’ /hIr/. Most will pronounce /haʊr/ while in fact in ‘hour’, the letter ‘h’ is silent into /aʊr/. It is similar to: 7. Honor Which is pronounced as /ɑ:nər/ instead of /hɑ:nər/ 8. Because It is another example of a common mistake in the pronunciation. It should pronounced /bɪkɑ:z/ instead of /bIkaʊs/. This writing therefore is expected as one of assistances for the Indonesian English learners or users in understanding more about English pronunciation and helping them to lessen the mistakes in the English pronunciation. The article can also be read in: http://nikodemusoul.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/indonesian-english-users-common-mistakes-is-pronunciation/