FINAL PROJECT

Name : Rania Mutia Edison

NIM / Class : 17320037 / E

Lecturer : Nur Latifah, S. S. M.

Phonological Analysis of English Phonotactics : A case study of

Sundanese learners of English

Abstract
This study purposed to analyze the English consonant system of Sundanese speakers
on Dindin Rasdi’s youtube video and also to find out the most common mistakes in the
pronunciation of English consonants produced by Dindin Rasdi. From the results of
the analysis, it can be seen that Dindin Rasdi as a Sundanese person has made 10
mistakes that he made. It can also be seen that the biggest mistake made by Dindin
Rasdi is mispronouncing the minimal pair / f / and / v /, / p / and / b / /. Misuse of the
sound "p" instead of "b" is a common mistake for Sundanese because there is no
difference between the sounds "f", "v" and "p" in the Sundanese phonological system.
Keywords: English phonotactics; Declusterization; Phonological processes; Second
language acquisition; Pronunciation errors; Sundanese learners

Introduction
A language is a communication tool used by humans to be able to interact with
other humans. The first time human acquires a language to use verbal dialogue which
is known as language acquisition. By a large number of human populations in the
world, certainly creating a variety of languages used by humans to interact, so that the
diversity of it may a human being to acquire more than one language. The first
process that humans acquire is known as a mother tongue or first language, while the
language acquisition process when humans already have a language that is known as
the second language or Second Language Acquisition (Tatat Hartati, 1981).
 More than half of the world's population is bilingual. Billing first language
acquisition means that two languages are being learned in parallel (Judith F. Kroll,
2014). This means that most people on this earth use two languages as a means of
communication. Americans of French, Italian, Jewish, Indian, Spanish descent use
two languages as communication tools namely mother tongue (first language) and
English (second language) (wolfgang, 1986).
In Indonesia, although the national language used is Indonesian and regional
languages as mother tongue, but because there is the absorption of foreign languages
in Indonesia, it may a person to have languages other than regional languages or
national languages, such as the English language. So, it is very possible to use English
as an acquisition language that is obtained after the regional or national language.
The Sundanese are one of the tribes in Indonesia who use Sundanese
language as their mother tongue before acquiring English or Indonesian language.
With these many languages that are acquired by the Sundanese, so there tends to be a
pronunciation error by Sundanese speakers when they have to use English because
there are several consonants in English that are not used in Sundanese, such as F, V,
P, and others, so there is an anecdote that Sundanese cannot distinguish F, V, with P,
or Z vowels with J. One of the negative effects of the practice of using two languages
alternately is the occurrence of language use disorder, or it is known as interference.

Objectives and Methodology

The writer uses Dindin Rasdi's video on youtube as an object to analyze.
Dindin Rasdi is a Sundanese person who speaks English in his video. To analyze this
reasearch, the author uses descriptive methods. The writer analyzes 10 English
vocabularies errors that Dindi Rasdi made.

Discussion

Pronunciation problem, Indonesians who learn foreign languages, especially

English will find a problem. One of the problems that will disturb them is
pronunciation. The pronunciation of English is indeed more complicated for
Indonesian people. Indonesians usually have difficulty reciting words in English.

Here are 10 errors pronunciation found in Sundanese people.

 English Sundanese
Confide /Kənˈfaid/ /Kän’paid/
Love /Ləv/ / Ləp/
Have /Hæv/ /Hæp/
Tap /tæp/ /tæb/
Stomach /ˈstʌm.ək/ /ˈstʌm.ədʒ/
Ban /Bæn/ /bɒn/
She /∫i:/ /si:/
Fed /Fed/ /Fıt/
Beach /biːtʃ/ /bɪtʃ/
Wrap /wræb/ /ræp/
Minimal Pairs /f/ and /v/ “/si:/” whereas the correct one is
“/∫i:/”
A Sundanese person made an error
in pronouncing the word “Confide” Minimal Pairs /æ/ and /ɒ/
to be “/Kän’paid/” whereas the
In pronouncing the word “Ban” to
correct one is /Kənˈfaid/.
be “/bɒn/” whereas the pronounce
Pronouncing the word “Love” to be
is /bæn/
“/Ləp/” whereas the correct one is
/Ləv/. And the word “Have” to be Minimal Pairs /k/ and /ʤ/
/Hæp/ but the correct one is /Hæv/
A Sundanese person made an error
Minimal Pairs /p/ and /b/ in pronouncing the word
“stomach” to be “/ˈstʌm.ədʒ/”
A Sundanese person made an error
whereas the correct one is
in pronouncing the word “Tap” to
“/`stʌm.ədʒ/”
be “/Tæp/” whereas the correct one
is /Tæb/. Pronouncing the word Minimal Pairs /e/ and /i/
‘wrap” to be “/wræb/ whereas the
A Sundanese person made an error
correct one, it should be “/ræp/”
in pronouncing the word “Beach”
Minimal Pairs /s/ and /∫/
to be “/bɪtʃ/” whereas the correct is
A Sundanese person made an error /biːtʃ
in pronouncing the word “she” to
be
 Conclusion and Suggestion

The errors of using English vocabulary for speakers of Sundanese is one of the
phenomena that occur in first language acquisition which is influenced by the dominance of
mother tongue, in this case, Sundanese Language. On the other hand, there are also those
caused by the rules in the English language itself which are still not well organized so there is
still an ambiguity in the use of English language that suitable spelling.

These errors are expected to be minimized through the provision of information about
language errors made by the learner, giving correct examples of errors that occur. This
research still needs to be followed up to find out the cause of the problem in more detail.

References

Judith F. Kroll, S. C. (2014). Two languages in mind: Bilingualism as a tool to investigate

language, cognition, and the brain. Curr Dir Psychol Sci.

Wolfgang, k. (1986). Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tatat Hartati. (1981). PEMEROLEHAN DAN PERKEMBANGAN BAHASA ANAK Tatat.

3(September), 1–50. Retrieved from http://file.upi.edu/Direktori/DUAL-
MODES/PENDIDIKAN_BAHASA_DAN_SASTRA_INDONESIA_DI_SEKOLAH_D
ASAR_KELAS_RENDAH/BBM_2.pdf