Showing posts with label Phonetics and Phonology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phonetics and Phonology. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 September 2019
"Queue is pronounced "Q" /kju:/
I thought this is funny. French spelling does get a lot of bad rap from English speakers, especially native speakers of English for its perceived sound-spelling discrepancy. However, in my experience of learning French, it's actually not as bad as that of English. Sound-spelling discrepancy in English is far worse.
Saturday, 15 June 2019
Thursday, 27 December 2018
How language shapes the way we think by Lera Boroditsky
Lera Boroditsky is a cognitive scientist. This is a talk delivered by her at
TEDWomen 2017 (November 2017).
There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world -- and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. But do they shape the way we think? Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky shares examples of language -- from an Aboriginal community in Australia that uses cardinal directions instead of left and right to the multiple words for blue in Russian -- that suggest the answer is a resounding yes. "The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is," Boroditsky says. "Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000."
There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world -- and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. But do they shape the way we think? Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky shares examples of language -- from an Aboriginal community in Australia that uses cardinal directions instead of left and right to the multiple words for blue in Russian -- that suggest the answer is a resounding yes. "The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is," Boroditsky says. "Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000."
Thursday, 28 January 2016
Stress and Intonation between Malay and English
Introduction
According to Fromkin and Rodman (1993), knowing a language means knowing what sounds are in that particular language and what sounds are not. This subconscious knowledge of the language is revealed when a speaker pronounces sounds from another language. For example, if a person is a native-speaker of English, he may substitute English sounds for sounds which are not familiar to him. This is also true in cases of intonation patterns.
Stress
Before going into intonation, it would be useful to look at stress first. Malay and English have different stress patterns. Thomson (1996) pointed out that English is a stress-timed language. Stress is important and has its own functions in the language. Native speakers of English more often than not, rely on the stress patterns (and intonation) to infer and identify meanings of words or utterances because different stress could mean differently. The stress syllables in an English sentence occur at regular intervals. They are usually longer and louder than the unstressed, often with a higher pitch. The unstressed syllables must be made to fit in-between the stressed syllables and do not disturb or change the “beat” or “rhythm”. The unstressed syllables are reduced and said quickly and quietly.
However, Malay, being a syllable-timed language, the stress falls in the same place in the sentence each time, making it predictable. Juliah (1993) stated that stress does exist in Malay, but it does not have any particular significant function. The stressed syllables are generally produced with equal length and loudness. According to Platt and Weber (1980), in a syllable-timed rhythm, “all syllables, stressed or unstressed, recur at equal interval of time, such as –’or —’ extending up to —–’.”
Intonation
Hawkins (1984) believes that there are three basic properties in intonation. They are:
1. It is universal, which every language makes use of intonation, and spoken language is not monotonous. For example, English makes use of changes in tone as part of the sentence phrase, while the Chinese uses it as lexical distinction,
2. Intonation has its own functions and purposes in spoken language, and not for “decorative purposes”,
3. Intonation is systematic because each speaker has to use the same pattern for the same purpose.
As we already know, intonation plays a lot of roles in an English utterance. Many linguists have suggested several functions of intonation. Roach (1991) stated that there are four functions of intonation in English which are often proposed. They are:
1. It enables the speakers to express their emotions or attitudes, and this function is called attitudinal function of intonation. For example, a bored person would likely to use a level tone when answering a question.
2. Intonation also helps to produce the prominent effect on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed. This will mark out the word as the most important in the utterance. For example (as given in Roach), (a) is non- emphatic and (b) is emphatic:
(a) It was very BOring.
(b) It was VEry boring.
This intonation function is called the accentual function.
3. Intonation plays a role in grammar, which is called the grammatical function of intonation. The listener is better able to identify the grammar and syntactic structure of what is being said. For instance, in differentiating whether an utterance is a question or a statement.
4. Finally, intonation also has a discourse function. In a conversation, for example, it helps the listener to recognise whether the information is new or already given, and to give the appropriate and expected response.
Roach (1991) added that though the functions of intonation is identified and categorised, these functions can sometimes overlap. For example, attitudinal function may overlap with the discourse function of intonation.
Intonation in Malay
Stress does not play an important role in Malay. Ramish (1971) says that (as cited in Suhaila, 1994) Malay words are not distinguished by the contrast of stress. Malay speakers do not depend on stress to give emphasis, but they change the word order to do it.
However, intonation does have its own part in Malay utterances. It is used in spoken Malay mainly to express emotions and attitudes. The patterns may differ from English intonation. Checketts (1993) stated that Malay speakers who speak English have the tendency not to use the rising tone, such in English, to signal lists or sequences of verbs. In addition to that, a rising tone is always used at the end of a statement or list.
In terms of attitudinal function of intonation, the stress could fall almost anywhere in an utterance, depending on what is emphasised. A rising, falling, falling-rising and rising-falling tones are used somehow quite differently from English. As an example given by Checketts (1993), in giving a list of items, Malay speakers of English tend to use a falling tone with each item. Due to the differences, English as second language learners, specifically Malay students whose mother tongue is Malay, encounter difficulties in acquiring the correct patterns of English intonation and stress patterns.
Intonation in English
Intonation has an equal importance with stress in English. As we have seen before, intonation in English has several functions. In addition to that, Roach (1991) stated several typical intonation occurrences in English:
1. Falling tone is used to show finality and usually neutral.
2. Rising tone has many functions, for example, are in listing, yes/no questions, and incomplete statement.
3. Falling-rising tone is used mainly in limited agreement or having reservations, and excitement.
4. Rising-falling tone is used in expressing strong feeling of agreement/disagreement or in being sarcastic.
Though intonation in English is said to have several functions, Carnie (1998) believes that intonation is actually a “realisation of semantics, rather than syntax.” He added that this is due to the nature of intonation itself, and the fact that people draw inferences from what is said and how it is said.
Reference
Checketts, S. 1993. Thoughts on Pronunciation. New Straits Times, 27 October: 30
Roach, P. 1991. English Phonetics and Phonology : a practical course (2nd ed.). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Suhaila Sulong. 1994. A study on the B.Ed. TESL students’ usage of word stress patterns in speech. Academic exercise. University Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Thomson, D. 1996. Second Language Acquisition. PPP-ITM : Mass Lecture.
Hawkins, P. 1984. Introducing Phonology. London : Hutchinson
Juliah Mohamad Beon.1993. Stress and meaning : Malay UKM students’ ability to apply English word stress. Academic exercise. University Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Fromkin and Rodman. 1993. An Introduction to Language. New York : Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
Carnie, A. 1998. Review : Watt : Phonology and Semiology of Intonation. http://emich.edu/~linguist/issues/9/9.847.html
According to Fromkin and Rodman (1993), knowing a language means knowing what sounds are in that particular language and what sounds are not. This subconscious knowledge of the language is revealed when a speaker pronounces sounds from another language. For example, if a person is a native-speaker of English, he may substitute English sounds for sounds which are not familiar to him. This is also true in cases of intonation patterns.
Stress
Before going into intonation, it would be useful to look at stress first. Malay and English have different stress patterns. Thomson (1996) pointed out that English is a stress-timed language. Stress is important and has its own functions in the language. Native speakers of English more often than not, rely on the stress patterns (and intonation) to infer and identify meanings of words or utterances because different stress could mean differently. The stress syllables in an English sentence occur at regular intervals. They are usually longer and louder than the unstressed, often with a higher pitch. The unstressed syllables must be made to fit in-between the stressed syllables and do not disturb or change the “beat” or “rhythm”. The unstressed syllables are reduced and said quickly and quietly.
However, Malay, being a syllable-timed language, the stress falls in the same place in the sentence each time, making it predictable. Juliah (1993) stated that stress does exist in Malay, but it does not have any particular significant function. The stressed syllables are generally produced with equal length and loudness. According to Platt and Weber (1980), in a syllable-timed rhythm, “all syllables, stressed or unstressed, recur at equal interval of time, such as –’or —’ extending up to —–’.”
Intonation
Hawkins (1984) believes that there are three basic properties in intonation. They are:
1. It is universal, which every language makes use of intonation, and spoken language is not monotonous. For example, English makes use of changes in tone as part of the sentence phrase, while the Chinese uses it as lexical distinction,
2. Intonation has its own functions and purposes in spoken language, and not for “decorative purposes”,
3. Intonation is systematic because each speaker has to use the same pattern for the same purpose.
As we already know, intonation plays a lot of roles in an English utterance. Many linguists have suggested several functions of intonation. Roach (1991) stated that there are four functions of intonation in English which are often proposed. They are:
1. It enables the speakers to express their emotions or attitudes, and this function is called attitudinal function of intonation. For example, a bored person would likely to use a level tone when answering a question.
2. Intonation also helps to produce the prominent effect on syllables that need to be perceived as stressed. This will mark out the word as the most important in the utterance. For example (as given in Roach), (a) is non- emphatic and (b) is emphatic:
(a) It was very BOring.
(b) It was VEry boring.
This intonation function is called the accentual function.
3. Intonation plays a role in grammar, which is called the grammatical function of intonation. The listener is better able to identify the grammar and syntactic structure of what is being said. For instance, in differentiating whether an utterance is a question or a statement.
4. Finally, intonation also has a discourse function. In a conversation, for example, it helps the listener to recognise whether the information is new or already given, and to give the appropriate and expected response.
Roach (1991) added that though the functions of intonation is identified and categorised, these functions can sometimes overlap. For example, attitudinal function may overlap with the discourse function of intonation.
Intonation in Malay
Stress does not play an important role in Malay. Ramish (1971) says that (as cited in Suhaila, 1994) Malay words are not distinguished by the contrast of stress. Malay speakers do not depend on stress to give emphasis, but they change the word order to do it.
However, intonation does have its own part in Malay utterances. It is used in spoken Malay mainly to express emotions and attitudes. The patterns may differ from English intonation. Checketts (1993) stated that Malay speakers who speak English have the tendency not to use the rising tone, such in English, to signal lists or sequences of verbs. In addition to that, a rising tone is always used at the end of a statement or list.
In terms of attitudinal function of intonation, the stress could fall almost anywhere in an utterance, depending on what is emphasised. A rising, falling, falling-rising and rising-falling tones are used somehow quite differently from English. As an example given by Checketts (1993), in giving a list of items, Malay speakers of English tend to use a falling tone with each item. Due to the differences, English as second language learners, specifically Malay students whose mother tongue is Malay, encounter difficulties in acquiring the correct patterns of English intonation and stress patterns.
Intonation in English
Intonation has an equal importance with stress in English. As we have seen before, intonation in English has several functions. In addition to that, Roach (1991) stated several typical intonation occurrences in English:
1. Falling tone is used to show finality and usually neutral.
2. Rising tone has many functions, for example, are in listing, yes/no questions, and incomplete statement.
3. Falling-rising tone is used mainly in limited agreement or having reservations, and excitement.
4. Rising-falling tone is used in expressing strong feeling of agreement/disagreement or in being sarcastic.
Though intonation in English is said to have several functions, Carnie (1998) believes that intonation is actually a “realisation of semantics, rather than syntax.” He added that this is due to the nature of intonation itself, and the fact that people draw inferences from what is said and how it is said.
Reference
Checketts, S. 1993. Thoughts on Pronunciation. New Straits Times, 27 October: 30
Roach, P. 1991. English Phonetics and Phonology : a practical course (2nd ed.). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Suhaila Sulong. 1994. A study on the B.Ed. TESL students’ usage of word stress patterns in speech. Academic exercise. University Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Thomson, D. 1996. Second Language Acquisition. PPP-ITM : Mass Lecture.
Hawkins, P. 1984. Introducing Phonology. London : Hutchinson
Juliah Mohamad Beon.1993. Stress and meaning : Malay UKM students’ ability to apply English word stress. Academic exercise. University Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Fromkin and Rodman. 1993. An Introduction to Language. New York : Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
Carnie, A. 1998. Review : Watt : Phonology and Semiology of Intonation. http://emich.edu/~linguist/issues/9/9.847.html
Saturday, 28 November 2015
Sound System of Bahasa Malaysia
According to Abdullah Hassan and Heah ,
originally there were 19 consonant sounds, six vowel sounds and three
diphthongs, which are /ai/ as in pantai /pantai/, /au/ as in pulau
/pulau/ and /oi/ as in sepoi /səpoi/ in Malay. Presently, although many
linguists believe that in Malay, there is no consonant cluster in
spelling, it does exist in Malay phonology. For example, words such as Kelang, Terengganu and seteru, are pronounced as /klaŋ/, /trəŋganu/ and /sətru/ respectively .
Malay consonant sounds are basic in the
sense that the pronunciation is mainly in the supraglottal organs (only
two glottal sounds), no pharyngealised sounds (unlike Arabic) and no
clicks (unlike some African dialects). Table 1 below demonstrates
original consonant sounds in Malay (-V refers to voiceless sounds and +V
are voiced sounds).
Table 2: Original consonant sounds in Malay (BM)
Malay vowel sounds are also simple and
basic, in the sense that every vowel sound is distinct and none is
similar to one another in terms of lax or tense vowel sounds (such in
English as in short /i/ and long /i:/). Table 2 demonstrates vowel
sounds (monophthongs) in Malay.
| Height of Tongue | Degree of Retraction of Tongue | |||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
| i | u | |||||
| High | ||||||
| e | ə | o | ||||
| Middle | ||||||
| Low | ||||||
| a | ||||||
Table 3: Vowel sounds in Malay (BM)
However, due to language transfer and borrowing from Arabic and English, the Malay sound system has dramatically changed. We now have 26 consonant sounds and six diphthongs. Table 3 below illustrates the change which Malay consonant sound system experienced due to language transfer and borrowing.
Table 3: New (current) consonant sounds in Malay (BM)
Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Provo-Based English Language Learning Center Fires Employee for "Homophone" Misunderstanding
This is an interesting piece. It's a bit old news, but worth posting here. If you're sending your children to study at any language institute, please make sure the head of the language institute knows one of the most basic features of language. Or at least his/her vocabulary is slightly above average. Trust me; it's not too much to ask!
By Savannah O'Leary
Lifestyle
From: www.bustle.com
Here is the latest in American horror stories: in an ironic and totally ludicrous turn of events, Tim Torkildson, a social-media specialist for a private Provo-based English language learning center, was fired after a misunderstanding when his boss failed to comprehend the difference between “homophones” and “homosexuality.”
Torkildson wrote a blog on the school’s website explaining homophones — words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and mean different things (allowed vs. aloud, their vs. there, eight vs. ate.) He was immediately called into the office of his boss, Clarke Woodger, who expressed frustration that the school was now going to be “associated with homosexuality.” Sounds like Woodger is caught up in his own little mess of homophonia.
Aside from the revolting notion that an employee could be fired for promoting a gay agenda, it is outrageous that Torkildson was not given a proper chance to explain himself… and that the head of a language institute doesn’t know what a homophone is. This case is a reminder to all of us that closed-minded lunatics still plague the educational institutions in this country.
Let us all pray for the future of this language learning center, whose president clearly has a lot of learning to do himself.
---------------------------------
By Savannah O'Leary
Lifestyle
From: www.bustle.com
Here is the latest in American horror stories: in an ironic and totally ludicrous turn of events, Tim Torkildson, a social-media specialist for a private Provo-based English language learning center, was fired after a misunderstanding when his boss failed to comprehend the difference between “homophones” and “homosexuality.”
Torkildson wrote a blog on the school’s website explaining homophones — words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and mean different things (allowed vs. aloud, their vs. there, eight vs. ate.) He was immediately called into the office of his boss, Clarke Woodger, who expressed frustration that the school was now going to be “associated with homosexuality.” Sounds like Woodger is caught up in his own little mess of homophonia.
Aside from the revolting notion that an employee could be fired for promoting a gay agenda, it is outrageous that Torkildson was not given a proper chance to explain himself… and that the head of a language institute doesn’t know what a homophone is. This case is a reminder to all of us that closed-minded lunatics still plague the educational institutions in this country.
Let us all pray for the future of this language learning center, whose president clearly has a lot of learning to do himself.
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
“Weird Al” Yankovic: “Word Crimes”
This is a fun song by “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Word Crimes.” It pokes fun at the popular trend these days of abbreviating words, misspelling and erroneous grammar in general. I should think English teachers particularly would perhaps find this a useful teaching aid.
All copyrights by alyankovicVEVO.
All copyrights by alyankovicVEVO.
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Pair words with alliteration and rhyme in Bahasa Malaysia
Sound is an interesting feature of a language. While it is not
compulsory for a language to have sound (e.g.: sign language, depending
on how you define “language”), it is a feature closely linked to a
speech community’s world view, common sense and experience in their
environment.
In Bahasa Malaysia (BM), according to Tham (1990), sounds and combination of sounds are to create affectivity. Pair words which employ alliteration and rhyme in particular, play important roles in extension of meaning (mostly) and shift of meaning. Such uses create dramatic effects which ensure interest and sympathy among the interlocutors. This form of reduplication also achieves precision in conveying shades and nuances of meaning of the primary word. Zainal Abidin Ahmad (cited in Tham, 1990) suggested that the use of alliteration in pair words is “to strengthen and intensify the ordinary meaning of the primary word and to imply indefiniteness, continuity, association and inclusion.”
In this study, pair words consist of a primary word (base word) which has semantic values and can occur in other linguistic contexts, and a secondary word which do not. In writing, these pair words are separated by a hyphen.
The following are examples of pair words in BM. The pair words contribute to the extension of meaning of the primary words, unless indicated otherwise. The list is not exhaustive.
Note:
*Examples are from Tham (1990).
# Shift of meaning.
As we can observe, in both groups (pair words with alliteration and rhyme), there is no specific pattern of how the initial or final sounds of the primary words are replaced in the secondary words. Generally, both primary word and secondary word have equal number of syllables. However, we can see the process of affixation in a few of the pair words above. The secondary word in geli-geleman is suffixed with the bound morpheme [eman] and the secondary word in awang-gemawang is prefixed with [gem]. In the pair word tali-temali (all varieties of ropes) bound morpheme [em] is infixed after the first consonant /t/ in the secondary word. We can also observe change of spelling of the secondary word in porak-peranda, where only the consonant sounds /p/ and /r/ of the primary word are retained.
Further detailed analysis is required to see if there is a pattern in the replacement of sounds, affixation process and/or dropping of syllables in pair words with alliteration and rhyme. Worthy to look at is the production of sounds – both place and manner of articulation.
References:
Tham, SC. (1990). A Study of the Evolution of the Malay Language. Singapore: Singapore University Press.
Zainal Abidin Safarwan. (2002). Kamus Besar Bahasa Melayu Utusan. Kuala Lumpur: Utusan Pub.
.
In Bahasa Malaysia (BM), according to Tham (1990), sounds and combination of sounds are to create affectivity. Pair words which employ alliteration and rhyme in particular, play important roles in extension of meaning (mostly) and shift of meaning. Such uses create dramatic effects which ensure interest and sympathy among the interlocutors. This form of reduplication also achieves precision in conveying shades and nuances of meaning of the primary word. Zainal Abidin Ahmad (cited in Tham, 1990) suggested that the use of alliteration in pair words is “to strengthen and intensify the ordinary meaning of the primary word and to imply indefiniteness, continuity, association and inclusion.”
In this study, pair words consist of a primary word (base word) which has semantic values and can occur in other linguistic contexts, and a secondary word which do not. In writing, these pair words are separated by a hyphen.
The following are examples of pair words in BM. The pair words contribute to the extension of meaning of the primary words, unless indicated otherwise. The list is not exhaustive.
Pair words with alliteration in BM
| Primary words | Secondary words |
| gerak (move) | gerak-geri (movement of all sorts)* |
| teka (guess) | teka-teki (crossword/puzzles)* |
| sekali (once) | sekali-sekala (once a while)* |
| tali (rope) | tali-temali (all varieties of ropes)* |
| susup (crawl under) | susup-sasap (to enter stealthily)* |
| kelip (to flicker, to open and close alternately) | kelip-kelap (flashes of light continuously) |
| tabrak (hit, collision) | tabrak-tubrok (all sorts of collision) |
| geli (ticklish) | geli-geleman (repugnance feeling) |
| geliang (to writhe, wriggle) | geliang-geliut (all sorts of wriggling) |
| porak (disorderly) | porak-peranda (chaos) |
Pair words with rhyme in BM
| Primary words | Secondary words |
| senang (easy) | senang-lenang (extreme comfort)* |
| hina (lowly, base) | hina-dina (downtrodden, poor people)* |
| remeh (unimportant, trivial) | remeh-temeh (negligible, superfluous)* |
| sayur (vegetables) | sayur-mayur (all sorts of vegetables)* |
| tunggang (ride) | tunggang-langgang (hurrying in disorderly manner)# |
| tungkus (wrapping) | tungkus-lumus (to toil, work hard)# |
| tetek (breasts) | tetek-bengek (negligible, superfluous)# |
| awang (floating) | awang-gemawang (unreliable, uncertain) |
| kacau (disturbance) | kacau-bilau (chaos) |
| cerai (separate) | cerai-berai (in pieces, beyond repair) |
| segar (fresh) | segar-bugar (new, young, healthy) |
*Examples are from Tham (1990).
# Shift of meaning.
As we can observe, in both groups (pair words with alliteration and rhyme), there is no specific pattern of how the initial or final sounds of the primary words are replaced in the secondary words. Generally, both primary word and secondary word have equal number of syllables. However, we can see the process of affixation in a few of the pair words above. The secondary word in geli-geleman is suffixed with the bound morpheme [eman] and the secondary word in awang-gemawang is prefixed with [gem]. In the pair word tali-temali (all varieties of ropes) bound morpheme [em] is infixed after the first consonant /t/ in the secondary word. We can also observe change of spelling of the secondary word in porak-peranda, where only the consonant sounds /p/ and /r/ of the primary word are retained.
Further detailed analysis is required to see if there is a pattern in the replacement of sounds, affixation process and/or dropping of syllables in pair words with alliteration and rhyme. Worthy to look at is the production of sounds – both place and manner of articulation.
References:
Tham, SC. (1990). A Study of the Evolution of the Malay Language. Singapore: Singapore University Press.
Zainal Abidin Safarwan. (2002). Kamus Besar Bahasa Melayu Utusan. Kuala Lumpur: Utusan Pub.
.
Friday, 21 May 2010
Onomatopoeia in Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia: sounds of animals
Onomatopoeia is present in any language. It’s an interesting aspect
of a language because it mirrors the perception of sounds of the people
of that particular society. Language, after all, is about perception.
The table below is a list of onomatopoeia in Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia, in relation to sounds of animals. Morphemes [me] and [ber] are suffixes used in BM to change part of speech of a word, which carry more weight in terms of grammar function than meaning.
Table 1: List of Onomatopoeia in Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia
Please feel free to add to the list.
Reference
Zainal Abidin Safarwan (2002). Kamus Besar Bahasa Melayu Utusan. Kuala Lumpur: Utusan Publications & Distributors.
.
The table below is a list of onomatopoeia in Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia, in relation to sounds of animals. Morphemes [me] and [ber] are suffixes used in BM to change part of speech of a word, which carry more weight in terms of grammar function than meaning.
| ANIMALS | SOUNDS (verbs) |
| lion/tiger | raung, aum, (meraung, mengaum, mengaung) |
| frog | kuak, dengkung (menguak, berdengkung) |
| dog | ringking, salak, kauk (meringking, menyalak, mengauk) |
| bird (chicks) | ciak (berciak-ciak) |
| bird | kicau, kericau (berkicau, berkericau) |
| hen | ketuk (berketuk) |
| cock | kokok (berkokok) |
| cat | dengkur, miau (berdengkur, mengiau) |
| horse | dengkus (berdengkus) |
| bee | dengung (berdengung) |
| cuckoo | kukur (berkukur) |
| mouse | decit (berdecit) |
| snake | ketur (berketur) |
| deer | dengking (berdengking) |
| quail | dengut (berdengut) |
| bear | deram (menderam) |
| crow/raven | gauk (menggauk) |
| elephant | gunam (menggunam) |
| duck | kakak (mengakak) |
| goat/sheep | kembek, bebek (mengembek, membebek) |
| cow | lenguh, dengus (menlenguh, berdengus) |
| donkey | ringkik (meringkik) |
| pig/boar | tenguh (menenguh) |
| cicada | kerik (mengerik) |
| macaque | kerih (mengerih) |
Table 1: List of Onomatopoeia in Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia
Please feel free to add to the list.
Reference
Zainal Abidin Safarwan (2002). Kamus Besar Bahasa Melayu Utusan. Kuala Lumpur: Utusan Publications & Distributors.
.
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Stages of child’s development of language
One of the tools used for communication is language, and all facets
of language need to be learned. Language acquisition process in infants
is a remarkable process, especially for the speed in which it takes
place. By the age of five or six years old, children are already
sophisticated language user. However, social factor is vital in language
acquisition of children. They need to grow up in an environment where
there is interaction with other language users in order to bring the
“language faculty” into operation (Yule, 1994). Thus, the social context
of responsive and mutual communication has to be provided for proper
communicative development (Baskaran, 2004). The child must also be
physically able to send and receive sound signals in a particular
language. Although all infants make babbling and cooing noises,
congenially deaf children stop after six months (Jannedy, Poletto and
Weldon, 1994; Yule, 1994).
All normal children, regardless of culture, develop language basically at the same time. Researchers suggest that the language acquisition schedule runs in tandem with the development of motor skills. This is tied very closely to the maturation and the lateralization process of the infant’s brain (Yule, 1994).
Infants’ brain and sensory systems are prepared for the task of language acquisition and communication as early as in their mother’s womb. They can hear regular and irregular sounds which are going on outside the womb. When an infant enters the world, it has been suggested that his cries is its first step in communication. From the first day of its birth, an infant goes through various stages in communication development, from meaningless sounds and responses to the utterance of the first word (Baskaran, 2004).
1. Pre-verbal Communication
Although generally no comprehensible words are produced at this stage, it is the most important year in the infant’s communicative stage where the sounds or vocalizations produced are variable and can change dramatically. Language development in infants is not demarcative or rigid. Therefore, the attainment of the first word may occur between 10 and 11 months up to two years (Baskaran, 2004).
At this stage, communication is usually via eye contact, gestures and vocalization. The first recognizable sounds are called babbling and cooing. Other than babbling and cooing, the infant also interacts with the caregiver by crying, laughing, chuckling (Baskaran, 2004). The infant also starts to produce velar consonants such as [k] and [g], and as well as high vowels such as [i] and [u] (Yule, 1994).
Alongside vocalizations, infants also make communicative gestures. For example, at the age of 10 months, pointing is quite common, where the index finger is extended with other fingers curled in. Eye contact or gazing is another feature, where the infant usually gaze at the caregiver while gesturing and attempting to vocalize. Infants gesture a lot in their communicative attempts, such as when gazing or vocalization (Baskaran, 2004).
Most of the forms of pre-verbal communicative functions in infants have a communicative intent to them, such as requesting, rejecting or commenting. In requesting for something, the infant consistently vocalizes or gestures to get the attention of the caregiver, to do or get something, such as wanting to be carried or wanting an object. In rejecting, the infant indicates “nil-sanction” or “disagreement” to what is being offered, such as food or drinks. Commenting on something is also a possible communicative intent. For example, the infant’s gazing or pointing at an object could mean soliciting something or bonding with the caregiver, where the element of “joint understanding” is present (Baskaran, 2004).
Pre-verbal vocalizations soon take on a more consistent and meaningful pattern in a later part of the pre-verbal stage. At this stage, proto-words begin to be produced which are known as “Phonetically Consistent Forms (PCF), such as “ba” for “No” and “ee” for “Yes” (Baskaran, 2004). There are recognizable intonation patterns to the consonant and vowel combinations produced. There are also a lot of ‘sound-play” and attempted imitations. Some psychologists have suggested that pre-verbal stage give children some experience of the social role of speech because parents tend to react or respond to the vocalizations, however incoherent (Yule, 1994).
2. The One-word or Holophrastic Stage
Between 12 and 18 months, infants begin to produce a variety of recognizable single units of utterances. At this stage, a child starts to be able to identify objects close to them, such as milk, cookie and cat. Other forms of utterances such as [asæ] may occur in circumstances which suggest that the child is producing a version of “what’s that”, thus making the term single unit of utterance, or holophrastic more accurate for this stage (Yule, 1994).
3. The Two-word Stage
This stage usually begins around 18 and 20 months. By this time, a child is able to make a variety of combination of two words, such as “No pee”, “See baby” and “More cereal” (Yule, 1994). Using this combination, a child usually announce when objects appear, disappear, and move about, point out their properties and owners, comment on people doing things and seeing things, reject and request objects and activities, and ask about who, what, and where. In 95 percent of them, the words are properly ordered (Braine, 1976, Brown, 1973, Pinker, 1984 & Ingram, 1989 in Pinker, —-).
4. Telegraphic Speech
Between two and three years old, the child begins to produce a large number of multiple-word utterances. This stage is called telegraphic speech because the utterances are telegram-like, containing only content words but not grammatical inflections. For example, “I want ball” and “Cat drink milk”. However, a number of grammatical inflections begin to appear later in the stage, such as prepositions. Again, this stage shows that there is grammatical comprehension on the side of the child, because the words are properly ordered (Yule, 1994).
Baby-talk by the Caregiver
From the first attempt by the infant to vocalize sounds, the caregiver’s role is very important. Because language acquisition is determined by the infant’s surrounding and environment, the caregiver needs to provide the necessary input (all facets of language) and interact adequately with the infant to bring the language faculty in operation (Yule, 1994). The environment also needs to be emotionally rich, where emotional bonding should be strong to help to enhance the infant’s communicative development (Baskaran, 2004).
Adults generally talk differently when they talk to an infant, where the speech is modified in both segmental, which includes the consonant and vowel sounds, and supra-segmental which includes intonation, stress and juncture. In baby-talk, lexemes are also modified to be more onomatopoeic, such as “meow” to refer to “cat” and “bow wow” to refer to “dog”. The use of special intonation patterns with exaggerated stress are a particular feature of baby-talk. Researches have found that infants respond better to the use of higher and varied intonation by the caregiver. Researchers believe that the supra-segmental elements of baby-talk are the foundation towards the infant’s communicative development (Baskaran, 2004).
Another feature of baby-talk is it encourages response and even conversation from the child. This conversational structure provides an interactive role to the child, although the child has not become a speaking participant. It is pragmatically conducive environment for language development, especially in turn-taking and politeness (Baskaran, 2004; Yule, 1994). An example of this is as follows (from Anderson et al., 1984, in Yule, 1994):
Mother : there’s you cup of tea
Child : (takes up)
Mother : you drink it nicely
Child : (pretends to drink)
Mother : oh – is that nice?
Child : (assents)
Mother : will Mummy drink her tea?
Child : (assents)
Mother : I’ll drink my tea
Attention focusing is another feature of baby-talk which encourages pre-verbal communication. Generally, by the age of six to seven months old, a child’s motor ability develops and the child is able to hold or grasp objects. The caregiver should take advantage of this and say something about the object (Baskaran, 2004). For example, when a child holds a rabbit toy, the caregiver can say, “What is that? Is that a rabbit? It’s a rabbit.”
Caregiver speech is also of simple sentence structure and has a lot of repetitions. If a child needs to learn how to put sounds and words together, these simplified models produced by the caregiver in interacting with the child are good models to the basic structural organization involved in the language (Yule, 1994).
Milestones in Language Development
The following is a chart that traces the stages of language acquisition of a child from 12 weeks old to four years old.
Chart 1: Approximate age of Vocalization and Language Development
(adapted from Lenneberg, 1967 in Jannedy, Poletto, & Weldon, 1994)
CONCLUSION
Language acquisition process in infants is remarkable, especially for the speed in which it takes place. By the age of five or six years old, children are already sophisticated language user. Other than social factor, interaction with other language users is also vital in language acquisition of children. Although there is variation among children in terms of the age at which features of language development occur, a child generally goes through several stages, which are the pre-verbal communication, the one-word or holophrastic stage, the two-word stage and telegraphic speech.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baskaran, L. (2004). Developmental Linguistics: Communication and infancy. Language and Linguistics Faculty, UM.
Jannedy, S., Poletto, R. Weldon, T. (Ed.). (1994). Language Files (6th Ed.): Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Department of Linguistics: The Ohio State University.
Pinker, S. (—-). Language Acquisition. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved on 7th January 2004 from http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/papers/pg104/pinker.langacq.htm
Yule, G. (1994). The Study of Language: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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All normal children, regardless of culture, develop language basically at the same time. Researchers suggest that the language acquisition schedule runs in tandem with the development of motor skills. This is tied very closely to the maturation and the lateralization process of the infant’s brain (Yule, 1994).
Infants’ brain and sensory systems are prepared for the task of language acquisition and communication as early as in their mother’s womb. They can hear regular and irregular sounds which are going on outside the womb. When an infant enters the world, it has been suggested that his cries is its first step in communication. From the first day of its birth, an infant goes through various stages in communication development, from meaningless sounds and responses to the utterance of the first word (Baskaran, 2004).
1. Pre-verbal Communication
Although generally no comprehensible words are produced at this stage, it is the most important year in the infant’s communicative stage where the sounds or vocalizations produced are variable and can change dramatically. Language development in infants is not demarcative or rigid. Therefore, the attainment of the first word may occur between 10 and 11 months up to two years (Baskaran, 2004).
At this stage, communication is usually via eye contact, gestures and vocalization. The first recognizable sounds are called babbling and cooing. Other than babbling and cooing, the infant also interacts with the caregiver by crying, laughing, chuckling (Baskaran, 2004). The infant also starts to produce velar consonants such as [k] and [g], and as well as high vowels such as [i] and [u] (Yule, 1994).
Alongside vocalizations, infants also make communicative gestures. For example, at the age of 10 months, pointing is quite common, where the index finger is extended with other fingers curled in. Eye contact or gazing is another feature, where the infant usually gaze at the caregiver while gesturing and attempting to vocalize. Infants gesture a lot in their communicative attempts, such as when gazing or vocalization (Baskaran, 2004).
Most of the forms of pre-verbal communicative functions in infants have a communicative intent to them, such as requesting, rejecting or commenting. In requesting for something, the infant consistently vocalizes or gestures to get the attention of the caregiver, to do or get something, such as wanting to be carried or wanting an object. In rejecting, the infant indicates “nil-sanction” or “disagreement” to what is being offered, such as food or drinks. Commenting on something is also a possible communicative intent. For example, the infant’s gazing or pointing at an object could mean soliciting something or bonding with the caregiver, where the element of “joint understanding” is present (Baskaran, 2004).
Pre-verbal vocalizations soon take on a more consistent and meaningful pattern in a later part of the pre-verbal stage. At this stage, proto-words begin to be produced which are known as “Phonetically Consistent Forms (PCF), such as “ba” for “No” and “ee” for “Yes” (Baskaran, 2004). There are recognizable intonation patterns to the consonant and vowel combinations produced. There are also a lot of ‘sound-play” and attempted imitations. Some psychologists have suggested that pre-verbal stage give children some experience of the social role of speech because parents tend to react or respond to the vocalizations, however incoherent (Yule, 1994).
2. The One-word or Holophrastic Stage
Between 12 and 18 months, infants begin to produce a variety of recognizable single units of utterances. At this stage, a child starts to be able to identify objects close to them, such as milk, cookie and cat. Other forms of utterances such as [asæ] may occur in circumstances which suggest that the child is producing a version of “what’s that”, thus making the term single unit of utterance, or holophrastic more accurate for this stage (Yule, 1994).
3. The Two-word Stage
This stage usually begins around 18 and 20 months. By this time, a child is able to make a variety of combination of two words, such as “No pee”, “See baby” and “More cereal” (Yule, 1994). Using this combination, a child usually announce when objects appear, disappear, and move about, point out their properties and owners, comment on people doing things and seeing things, reject and request objects and activities, and ask about who, what, and where. In 95 percent of them, the words are properly ordered (Braine, 1976, Brown, 1973, Pinker, 1984 & Ingram, 1989 in Pinker, —-).
4. Telegraphic Speech
Between two and three years old, the child begins to produce a large number of multiple-word utterances. This stage is called telegraphic speech because the utterances are telegram-like, containing only content words but not grammatical inflections. For example, “I want ball” and “Cat drink milk”. However, a number of grammatical inflections begin to appear later in the stage, such as prepositions. Again, this stage shows that there is grammatical comprehension on the side of the child, because the words are properly ordered (Yule, 1994).
Baby-talk by the Caregiver
From the first attempt by the infant to vocalize sounds, the caregiver’s role is very important. Because language acquisition is determined by the infant’s surrounding and environment, the caregiver needs to provide the necessary input (all facets of language) and interact adequately with the infant to bring the language faculty in operation (Yule, 1994). The environment also needs to be emotionally rich, where emotional bonding should be strong to help to enhance the infant’s communicative development (Baskaran, 2004).
Adults generally talk differently when they talk to an infant, where the speech is modified in both segmental, which includes the consonant and vowel sounds, and supra-segmental which includes intonation, stress and juncture. In baby-talk, lexemes are also modified to be more onomatopoeic, such as “meow” to refer to “cat” and “bow wow” to refer to “dog”. The use of special intonation patterns with exaggerated stress are a particular feature of baby-talk. Researches have found that infants respond better to the use of higher and varied intonation by the caregiver. Researchers believe that the supra-segmental elements of baby-talk are the foundation towards the infant’s communicative development (Baskaran, 2004).
Another feature of baby-talk is it encourages response and even conversation from the child. This conversational structure provides an interactive role to the child, although the child has not become a speaking participant. It is pragmatically conducive environment for language development, especially in turn-taking and politeness (Baskaran, 2004; Yule, 1994). An example of this is as follows (from Anderson et al., 1984, in Yule, 1994):
Mother : there’s you cup of tea
Child : (takes up)
Mother : you drink it nicely
Child : (pretends to drink)
Mother : oh – is that nice?
Child : (assents)
Mother : will Mummy drink her tea?
Child : (assents)
Mother : I’ll drink my tea
Attention focusing is another feature of baby-talk which encourages pre-verbal communication. Generally, by the age of six to seven months old, a child’s motor ability develops and the child is able to hold or grasp objects. The caregiver should take advantage of this and say something about the object (Baskaran, 2004). For example, when a child holds a rabbit toy, the caregiver can say, “What is that? Is that a rabbit? It’s a rabbit.”
Caregiver speech is also of simple sentence structure and has a lot of repetitions. If a child needs to learn how to put sounds and words together, these simplified models produced by the caregiver in interacting with the child are good models to the basic structural organization involved in the language (Yule, 1994).
Milestones in Language Development
The following is a chart that traces the stages of language acquisition of a child from 12 weeks old to four years old.
| Approximate Age at Onset of Behaviour | Vocalization and Language |
| 12 weeks | At this age, an infant markedly cries less than when it was eight weeks. When talked to or nodded at, the infant smiles, followed by squealing-gurgling sounds, also called cooing. At this stage, an infant can sustain cooing for 15 to 20 seconds. It also starts to produce palatal sounds, such as [j] and [n]. |
| 16 weeks | The infant starts to respond to human sounds more definitely, turn its head and eyes searching for the speaker. It can distinguish between vowels [i] and [a], and the corresponding adult mouth producing these sounds. Occasionally, the infant makes chuckling sounds. |
| 20 weeks | The vowel-like cooing sounds begin to be interspersed with more consonantal sounds. |
| 6 months | Cooing starts to change into babbling, resembling one-syllable utterances. Vowels and consonants do not have very fixed recurrences, with most common utterances such as [ma], [mu], [da], or [di]. |
| 8 months | Reduplication or more continuous repetitions become frequent and intonation patterns become distinct. At this stage, utterances can signal emphasis and emotions. |
| 10 months | Vocalizations are mixed with sound-play such as gurgling or bubble-blowing. The infant appears to wish to imitate sounds, but the imitations are not quite successful. It begins to be able to differentiate between sounds heard by making differential adjustment. |
| 12 months | At this stage, identical sound sequences are replicated with higher relative frequency of occurrence, and words such as “mamma” or “dadda” are emerging. The infant also shows definite signs of understanding some words and simple commands such as “Show me your eyes”. |
| 18 months | The infant has a definite repertoire of words, usually more than three but less than 50. There is still much babbling, but now of several syllables with intricate intonation pattern. Generally, the infant makes no attempt at communicating information and is not frustrated at not being understood. Words may include items such as “come here”, but there is limited ability to join any of the lexical items into spontaneous two-item phrases. At this stage, the infant understanding is progressing rapidly. |
| 24 months | At this stage, the child’s vocabulary is usually more than 50 items, and some children are able to name everything in their environment. The child begins to spontaneously join vocabulary items into two-word phrases, where all the phrases appear to be his own creation. There is definite increase in communicative behaviour and interest in language. |
| 30 months | At this stage, a child’s vocabulary increases the fastest, with many new additions every day. Babbling is not present anymore, and the child gets frustrated if he is not understood by adults. The utterances consist of at least two words, and many have three or even five words. Sentences or phrases have the characteristics of a child’s grammar, rarely repetitions of an adult utterance. Intelligibility is still not yet very good, but it varies among children. A child at this stage seems to be able to understand anything within hearing distance and directed to him. |
| 3 years | Vocabulary at this stage is about one thousand word, with about 80 percent of utterances intelligible even to strangers. Although mistakes still occur, generally, grammatical complexity of utterances is roughly that of colloquial adult language. |
| 4 years | At this stage, language is well-established. Although utterances have the grammatical structure of adult language, a child usually uses his own style. |
CONCLUSION
Language acquisition process in infants is remarkable, especially for the speed in which it takes place. By the age of five or six years old, children are already sophisticated language user. Other than social factor, interaction with other language users is also vital in language acquisition of children. Although there is variation among children in terms of the age at which features of language development occur, a child generally goes through several stages, which are the pre-verbal communication, the one-word or holophrastic stage, the two-word stage and telegraphic speech.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baskaran, L. (2004). Developmental Linguistics: Communication and infancy. Language and Linguistics Faculty, UM.
Jannedy, S., Poletto, R. Weldon, T. (Ed.). (1994). Language Files (6th Ed.): Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Department of Linguistics: The Ohio State University.
Pinker, S. (—-). Language Acquisition. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved on 7th January 2004 from http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/papers/pg104/pinker.langacq.htm
Yule, G. (1994). The Study of Language: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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