Marilah Omong Melayu
A key to pronunciation in Standard Malay
(Part I)
Note : The complete study of a language entails Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.
Starting with the consonants ↓↓
→ B D F H L M N P S Y Z are all more or less as in English. Listening to native speakers, radio and television, will help refine your articulation of these sounds. Listen, then imitate. We’ll look at exceptions to this rule and study them as we get to them.
→ C unlike in English, is consistently ‘ch’ as in chair, child
e.g. cari, cabut, cepat, cium, coba, cuci
→ F appears mostly in words of Arabic origin faéda, fakir, and in borrowings such as fisik, forum, fosil
→ G is as in get, gift, good, NEVER as in gin, gym
→ Q is rare, and you’ll see it in words of Arabic origin Qur’an, qari
→ V only in words of foreign origin, and assimilates to English “f”, vidéo, visa, usually pronounced “fidéo, fisa”
→ W is precisely as in English, sounded with rounded lips, not confused with the English “v”
→ X there is no X in the alphabet
→ A special note about the letter T. Unless this has never been brought to your attention in the English courses you took in Sri Lanka, the letter “T” in English is mostly INTERDENTAL, i.e. pronounced while placing the tip of your tongue between your upper and your lower teeth, and with a slight escape of air.
They are of two types:
- unvoiced, as in thank, think, thirst, both, path, pith, (“unvoiced” because your vocal chords do not play any part in the process)
- voiced, as in that, the, there, this, thus, father, mother, brother, bother (“voiced” because your vocal chords vibrate when you pronounce it).
The “t” sounded with the tip of your tongue pressed against the back of your upper front teeth, is rare in English. For a true comparison we have only Sinhala “tuna” = three, “bat” = rice, “pot” = books (pl) AND Tamil “tambi” = younger brother, “tāiy” = mother, “téru” = street. And that represents but one Malay “T’ — as in tapi, batu, batuk (cough), kata.
There is another Malay “T”, pronounced with the tip of your tongue curved upwards to tap the palate (roof) of your mouth, as seen in batok (coconut shell), batok kepala (skull), peti, kota, botak.
Next time we’ll look at the digraph, two letters that combine to form one sound.
