This article explains the phonology of Malay language and Indonesian based on the pronunciation of Standard Malay, which is the official language of Brunei and Singapore, "Malaysian" of Malaysia, and Indonesian the official language of Indonesia and a working language in Timor Leste. There are two main standards for Malay pronunciation, the Johor-Riau standard which is derived from the influential Johor-Riau accent, used in Brunei and Malaysia, and the Baku (lit. 'standard' in Malay/Indonesian) standard which follows a "pronounce as spelt" approach to pronunciation where each letter represents only one phoneme (e.g. is always unlike in Johor-Riau Malay where it can also be ), used in Indonesia and Singapore.
Consonants
The consonants of standard Bruneian Malay,
Malaysian Malay,
and also Indonesian
are shown below. Non-native consonants that only occur in borrowed words, principally from Arabic, Dutch, English and Sanskrit, are shown in parentheses. Some analyses list 19 "primary consonants" for Malay as the 18 symbols that are not in parentheses in the table as well as the glottal stop .
[Asmah Haji Omar (2008). Ensiklopedia Bahasa Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, page 108.][Yunus Maris, M. (1980). The Malay Sound System. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn. Bhd, page 52.]
| + Consonant phonemes of Standard Malay and Indonesian |
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Orthographic note:
The sounds are represented orthographically by their symbols as above, except:
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is written as before a vowel and as before and .
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is written as .
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is written as syllable-final or an apostrophe .
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is written as . Before 1972, this sound was written as in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore and as in Indonesia.
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is written as . Before 1972, this sound was written as in Indonesia.
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is written as . Before 1972, this sound was written as in Indonesia.
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is written as . Before 1972, this sound was written as in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore and as in Indonesia.
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is written as . Before 1972, this sound was written as ⟨ch⟩ in Indonesia.
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is written as . Written as in Indonesia.
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is written as or .
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is written as . Before 1972, this sound was written as or in Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore.
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is written . Before 1972, this sound was written as in Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Notes
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, , are unaspirated, as in the Romance languages, or as in English spy, sty, sky. In syllable codas, they are usually unreleased, with final generally being realised as a glottal stop in native words. There is generally no liaison, that is, no audible release even when followed by a vowel in another word, as in kulit ubi (tapioca skins) , though they are pronounced as a normal medial consonant when followed by a suffix.
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In Brunei Malay, unlike in Malaysian Malay and Indonesian, final has velar and uvular realizations so that a word like peluk (hug) could be pronounced as either or instead of as as in Malaysian Malay and Indonesian. That said, the Malaysian or Indonesian pattern is sometimes found in Brunei too due to Malaysian and Indonesian influence.
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// is dental or supradental in most varieties of Malay and in Indonesian, but not in Brunei Malay where it is alveolar.
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At prefix-stem boundaries, when the prefix ends in a vowel (e.g. ke- and di-) and the stem word starts with a vowel, a glottal stop is epenthesized as a way of avoiding vowel hiatus, so a word like diangkat (to be lifted) which is formed by combining the di- prefix with the stem angkat (to lift) would be pronounced as .
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Epenthesizing a glottal stop as a way of avoiding vowel hiatus is found at stem-suffix boundaries too but only when the final vowel of the stem is not or such as in the word cubaan (attempt) which is formed by combining the stem cuba (to try) with the suffix -an and is pronounced as in Johor-Riau pronunciation or in Baku pronunciation. In the case that the final vowel of the stem is or , a homorganic glide (respectively and for and ) is inserted so a word like rayuan (complaint) which is formed by combining the stem rayu (to send a complaint) with the suffix -an would be pronounced as , not .
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The glottal stop may be represented by an apostrophe in Arabic-derived words such as Al Qur'an. In some words like diangkat (to be lifted) that are derived from vowel-initial words with a vowel-ending prefix, the glottal stop is not reflected in writing.
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is pronounced clearly between like vowels, as in dahan (tree branch). Elsewhere it is a very light sound, and is frequently silent, as in ~ (forest), ~ (answer), ~ (beautiful). The exception to this tendency is initial from Arabic loans such as hakim (judge).
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varies significantly across dialects. In addition, its position relative to schwa is ambiguous: kertas (paper) may be pronounced or . The trill is sometimes reduced to a single vibration when single, making it phonetically a flap consonant , so that the pronunciation of a single varies between trill , flap and, in some instances, postalveolar approximant ɹ̠. In the syllable coda, is silent in Johor-Riau ( Piawai) Pronunciation, but audible in Northern Peninsular and Baku Pronunciation.
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Voiced stops do not occur in final position in native words. In loanwords, and are generally devoiced in final position ( sebab (cause) , masjid (mosque) ) to conform with the native phonological structure. Some pronunciation guides consider this devoicing nonstandard and prescribe to pronounce final b and d as written, i.e. voiced.
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, , , , , and only appear in loanwords. Some speakers pronounce in loanwords as , otherwise it is . can also be an allophone of before voiced consonants, although this is rare. Since and are written identically in Malay, as with and and and , , and tend to only occur in speakers who speak the source languages the words are loaned from (e.g. Arabic and English) and are aware of the original pronunciations of the words.
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The affricates are variously described as /, /,
[ To Tap or Not To Tap: A Preliminary Acoustic Description of American English Alveolar Tap Productions by Indonesian Bilingual Adults] in the literature.
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Hoogervorst (2017) argues that initial and did not exist in Old Malay and were respectively substituted with and until the instilling of learning Arabic through eventual spread Islamic education amongst local populations.
Loans from Arabic:
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Phonemes which occur only in Arabic loans may be pronounced distinctly by speakers who know Arabic, otherwise they tend to be substituted with native sounds.
| + Table of borrowed Arabic consonants |
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| khabar خَبَرْ , kabar ('news') |
| reda, rela ('good will') |
| lohor, zohor ('noon prayer') |
| Selasa ('Tuesday') |
| ghaib ('hidden') |
| makam ('grave') |
Nasal assimilation
Important in the derivation of Malay verbs and nouns is the assimilation of the nasal consonant at the end of the derivational prefixes
meng- , a verbal prefix, and
peng- , a nominal prefix.
The nasal segment is dropped before sonorant consonants (nasals , liquids , and approximants ). It is retained before and assimilates to obstruent consonants: labial before labial , alveolar before alveolar , post-alveolar before and , velar before other sounds (velar , glottal , all vowels).[This is the argument for the nasal being underlyingly : when there is no place for it to assimilate to, it surfaces as . Some treatments write it to indicate that it has no place of articulation of its own, but this fails to explain its pronunciation before vowels.]
In addition, following voiceless obstruents, apart from (that is ), are dropped, except when before causative prefix where the first consonant is kept. This phoneme loss rule was mnemonically named kaidah KPST "KPST rule" in Indonesian.
| { class="wikitable"
! root !! meaning !! meng- derivation !! meaning !! peng- derivation !! meaning
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| cook (n) |
| |
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| confiscator |
| buyer |
| supporter |
| answerer |
| roller |
| sender |
| teacher |
| filler |
| chooser |
| writer |
| puller |
| identifier |
| correspondent |
|}
Vowels
It is usually said that there are six vowels in Standard Malay
[Asmah Haji Omar (2008). Ensiklopedia Bahasa Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, page 97.] (Malaysian and Brunei) and Indonesian.[ These six vowels are shown in the table below. However, other analyses set up a system with other vowels, particularly the open-mid vowels and .][Yunus Maris, M. (1980). The Malay Sound System. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn. Bhd, page 2.]
| + Vowel phonemes in Standard Malay and Indonesian |
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Notes
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One source of variation in Malay is whether final in open final syllables of root morphemes (for example saya 'I') is pronounced as or as . So called ' a varieties', such as Indonesian or the varieties of Sarawak Malay, Sabah Malay, Brunei Malay and Kedah Malay pronounce it as , while 'schwa varieties' such as some Peninsular Malaysian varieties (e.g.Terengganu Malay and the prevalent Kuala Lumpur/Selangor accent) and the varieties of Singapore and Riau pronounce it as .
[Asmah Haji Omar. (1977). The phonological diversity of the Malay dialects. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.] In schwa varieties, of the penultimate syllable is also modified if it is followed by , as in usaha . There are also some Malay varieties where the open final /a/ is pronounced as neither such as Kelantan-Pattani Malay where it is pronounced as an open back unrounded instead.
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One other noticeable (albeit minor) difference between a varieties and schwa varieties is in the qualities of the and and and phonemes. In a varieties, and are opener, approaching the qualities of and so that words like elak (avoid) and orang (person) would be pronounced as and , instead of as and as in schwa varieties. In the other way around, and are opener in schwa varieties than in a varieties, especially in closed syllables.
[Omar, A. H. (1971). Standard Language and the Standardization of Malay. Anthropological Linguistics, 13(2), 87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30029277]
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In poem declamations and in singing, speakers of schwa varieties often switch to an a variety-type accent.
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is an occasional allophone of after emphatic consonants, and including , , and from Arabic words. Example: qari .
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In Bruneian Standard Malay, in closed final syllables of root morphemes, the front vowel and back vowel can have mid or even open realisations so giling and burung can be pronounced and , respectively. and on the other hand never have close realisations so geleng 'shake' can be pronounced as but never and similarly, borong 'buy in bulk' is never .
[ In Indonesian, closed final syllable and often only get realised as and .][
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When or appear next to a vowel of a different colouring, an approximant or can be epenthesized in between those two vowels, so that words like cium (kiss), duit (money) and bau (odour) would be pronounced as , and . This epenthesization is sometimes represented in writing too with an inserted ⟨y⟩ or ⟨w⟩ so that the three aforementioned words would be spelt as ciyum, duwit and bawu instead.
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The vowels of , , and are commonly written without diacritics as ⟨e⟩. The vowel is allophone of , while is not. The diacritics are only used to indicate the correct pronunciation, for example, in dictionaries. In Indonesian, the vowels are marked with diacritics as ⟨é⟩, ⟨è⟩ and ⟨ê⟩ from 2015 to 2022 and as , ⟨e⟩ and ⟨ê⟩ since 2022.
[ Indonesian also uses the vowel (spelled eu) in some loanwords from Sundanese and Acehnese, e. g. eurih, seudati, sadeu.][
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The above allophony notwithstanding, the vowels and must be accorded phonemic status, as they occur in native words in all Malay dialects and in Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, English, Dutch, and Javanese loan words, and in foreign names.
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Word-final e and o are rare in Malay, except for loanwords, like teko (teapot, from Hokkien 茶鈷 tê-kó͘), toko (small shop, from Hokkien 土庫 thó͘-khò͘), semberono/sembrono (careless, from Javanese sembrana), gede (Javanese of big), konde (from Javanese kondhe, bulbous hairdo or hair extension on the back of the head), kare (Indonesian term for curry, variation of kari, from Tamil kai), mestizo (from Spanish), kredo (creed, from Latin credo), risiko (risk, from Dutch risico), and non-Malay Indonesian names, like Manado and Suharto.
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Some words borrowed from European languages have several note:
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Some words borrowed from European languages have the vowels and , such as p ek (pack) and k os (cost). Words borrowed earlier have a more nativized pronunciation, such as p esta (fest), which is pronounced . Some systems represent as ⟨ó⟩.
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Some words borrowed from European languages reflect the language origin, generally Dutch (for Indonesian) and English (for Standard Malay), specifically as vowels of , , and are commonly written without diacritics as ⟨e⟩. For example, the word presid en (president) is pronounced as /prɛˈsid ɛn/ in Indonesian and /prɛˈsid ən/ in Standard Malay which reflect on /prezi'd ɛnt/ in Dutch and /ˈpɹɛzɪd ənt/ in English.
+Comparison of several pronunciation standards of Malay[
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! style=text-align:center] | Example
! style=text-align:center | Johor-Riau ( Piawai)
Pronunciation
! style=text-align:center | Northern Peninsular
Pronunciation
! style=text-align:center | Baku & Indonesian
Pronunciation |
| ⟨a⟩ in final open syllable | ⟨keret a⟩ | /ə/ | /a/ | /a/ |
| ⟨i⟩ in final closed syllable with final ⟨n⟩ and ⟨ng⟩ | ⟨sal in⟩ | /e/ | /i/ | /i/ |
| ⟨i⟩ in final closed syllable with other final consonants | ⟨it ik⟩ | /e/ | /e/ | /i/ |
| ⟨u⟩ in final closed syllable with final ⟨n⟩ and ⟨ng⟩ | ⟨ag ung⟩ | /o/ | /u/ | /u/ |
| ⟨u⟩ in final closed syllable with other final consonants | ⟨lump ur⟩ | /o/ | /o/ | /u/ |
Diphthongs
Some analyses claim that Malay has three native diphthong phonemes only in open syllables; they are:
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: ked ai ('shop'), pandai ('clever')
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: kerb au ('buffalo')
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: dod oi , amboi
Others assume that these "diphthongs" are actually a monophthong followed by an approximant, so represents , represents , and represents . On this basis, there are no phonological diphthongs in Malay.[
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Words borrowed from Dutch or English with , such as M ei ('May') from Dutch and survei ('survey') from English, are pronounced with as this feature also happens to English which becomes . However, Indonesian introduced forth diphthong of since 2015, such as in ⟨M éi⟩ ('May') /m ei̯/.
Diphthongs are differentiated from two vowels in two syllables, such as:
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: e.g. r ai ('celebrate') , air ('water') ~
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: b au ('smell') , l aut ('sea') ~
Two vowels that could form a diphthong are actually pronounced separately:
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when the two vowels belong to a closed syllable, i.e. a syllable that ends with a consonant. E.g. a + i in air (water) are pronounced separately a.ɪr, because the syllable ends with an "r" consonant — and thus is a closed syllable.
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when the word would be only one-syllable long if pronounced with a diphthong. E.g. a + u in mau (to want) are pronounced separately ma.u, because a diphthong would result into a single-syllable word.
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when the two syllables belong to two different . E.g. a + i in gulai (to sweeten) are pronounced separately gu.la.i, because the word is made out of two morphemes: gula (sugar) + -i (transitive/causative verb-forming suffix), distinct from gulai (kind of curry) ɡu.lai̯.
Even if it is not differentiated in modern Rumi script, diphthongs and two vowels are differentiated in the spelling in Jawi alphabet, where a vowel hiatus is indicated by the symbol hamzah , for example: لاوت laut ('sea').
Stress
Malay has light stress that falls on either the final or penultimate syllable, depending on regional variations as well as the presence of the schwa () in a word. It is generally the penultimate syllable that is stressed, unless its vowel is a schwa . If the penult has a schwa, then stress moves to the ante-penultimate syllable if there is one, even if that syllable has a schwa as well; if the word is disyllabic, the stress is final. In disyllabic words with a closed penultimate syllable, such as tinggal ('stay') and rantai ('chain'), stress falls on the penult.
However, there is some disagreement among linguists over whether stress is Phonemic stress (unpredictable), with some analyses suggesting that there is no underlying stress in Malay.[Zuraidah Mohd Don, Knowles, G., & Yong, J. (2008). How words can be misleading: A study of syllable timing and "stress" in Malay. The Linguistics Journal 3(2). See here]
Rhythm
The classification of languages based on rhythm can be problematic.[Roach, P. (1982). On the distinction between 'stress-timed' and 'syllable-timed' languages. In D. Crystal (Ed.), Linguistic Controversies (pp.73–79). London: Edward Arnold.] Nevertheless, acoustic measurements suggest that Malay has more syllable-based rhythm than British English,[Deterding, D. (2011). Measurements of the rhythm of Malay. In Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Hong Kong, 17–21 August 2011, pp. 576–579. On-line Version] even though doubts remain about whether the syllable is the appropriate unit for the study of Malay prosody.[
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Syllable structure
Most of the native lexicon is based on disyllabic root morphemes, with a small percentage of monosyllabic and trisyllabic roots.[
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Syllables are basically consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC), where the V is a monophthong and the final C may be an approximant, either or . (See the discussion of diphthongs above.)
Baku pronunciation in Malaysia and Singapore
The Baku pronunciation started being implemented in Malaysia in the year 1988, but this ceased in 2000. The Malaysian Minister of Education had been quoted saying that the Baku pronunciation "is different from the pronunciation commonly used by the people of this country". Singapore started using the Baku pronunciation for official purposes in 1993. Ever since then, there have been various protests from Malay Singaporeans, calling for the return of the Johor-Riau standard as the official standard for Malay pronunciation. One prominent critic of the use of the Baku pronunciation is Berita Harian editor, Guntor Sadali, who noted that "members of the Malay community generally find that Sebutan Baku ( Baku Pronunciation) is very awkward".[
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Bibliography
