Sound Changes in Bahasa: What Does Really Matter

Have you ever been in the situation when you're order Starbucks, and then the guy were asking your name, and you say "Kelly" but then the guy just wrote your name "Keli"?

And you feel sucks?

Yeah. I know that feeling.

It is actually the matter of the sounds of language and the situation explained above was the big picture how sounds of language were matter. Not merely matter, but it is important.

What is the sound of language?


Basically, when we're speaking we produce a series of sounds which ended up formed some words that'll turn out into sentences. Sounds were the smallest unit of language. So, this smallest unit was, let's say, the most important one.

Every language has different sound language characteristics, but also sometimes a same sound language characteristics. This smallest unit of language does change.

Sometimes it is a lot of change, sometimes it is just a small change. The sound change happens all the time because language is a dynamic thing.

This writing talking about the sound change in Bahasa that I often found in everyday life. There are couples of the sound change that I classify into groups. But before we move on, there are four cases that commonly observed but not the reverse (Yule, 2008: 184).

(1) Final vowels often disappear (vino → vin)
(2) Voiceless sounds become voiced, typically between vowels (muta → muda)
(3) Stops become fricatives (ripa → riva)
(4) Consonants become voiceless at the end of words (rizu → ris)

But those four cases just a handful of example. Here are what I found.

1st
In the first group there are diphthongs change into a single vowel at the final position.

satai → sate   'satay'

pakai → pake  'use'

kalau → kalo    'if'

atau → ato   'or'

I'm not very sure whether it's monophthongziation or fusion. Crowley says that fusion is two original separate sounds become a single sound. And it is a fairly frequent kind of sound change (1992: 46). It is frequently found in Bahasa. These four examples that I could find on the daily basis situation.

I nearly never found any satai anymore especially in the food stall. All the written form from satai is now a sate. In everyday conversation, nearly I never found the person that saying satai. For the three other form that listed above, I usually found in colloquial Bahasa and for the last form I usually found in the texting form (messaging, chatting, etc.).

The form pakai and kalau is a colloquial form. The form which was usually use for formal situation is gunakan and apabila. I'm not really sure if those fact give some hint or not, but presumably this sound change happens in the colloquial situation. 

All the diphthong in Bahasa is rising diphthong which means the position of tongue is higher in the second vowels than the first vowel. From the words listed above, I would say that all the ai diphthongs change into one vowel that is e. However, the diphthongs au will change to single vowel that is o. The change from ai showed that the vowel is fall into a central vowel which is e. It also happened from au falls into a back vowel which is o. It seems that the diphthongs will change from the original final vowels into a lower vowel.  

2nd
The vowel between consonant in final words change.

macam→ macem   'kind of variation'

dapat → dapet    'got'

tetap → tetep   'still'

sopir → supir   'driver'

This kind of sound change is called lenition or weakening. This type of sound change is typically positioning the voiced sounds (b, d, g) stronger than voiceless sounds (p, t, k). It also happen in the vowel section. Usually the front and back vowels (i, u, o) rank higher than central vowels (e for early) (see Crowley, p. 39). 

From the words listed above the sound change is from a to ə* and it location is in the second syllables. The exception for the last word that change from o to u and it location is in the first syllables.

For macem, dapet, and tetep I would say this is a frequent sound change because this case found in the various words in Bahasa. However, I'm not so sure about sopir to supir. I would say that this situation is about misperception. Sopir is a standard form, but people usually use the supir form instead of sopir. So that's why I considered this case as misperception and not as a sound change. But I do have a little concern here. Why does people more likely use the form supir instead of sopir? Does it tell that the sounds u is more "easier" than o? 

3rd
The addition of vowel in the beginning of words.

ngga → engga    'no'

The 3rd process is called prothesis that is the addition of a sound at the beginning of a word (Crowley, p. 45). For this case, the addition is a vowel. I would say that this case sometimes showed up more in a written form than an oral form. However, I also have the determination that the words ngga has the orthography form ngga but in the phonetic form, it's actually engga [əŋga].

4th

The loss of consonant in the beginning of words

memang → emang

sudah → udah

saja → aja

This sound change is commonly found that is the loss of the sound whether only one sound or more. For this case, the loss is a consonant and in the initial position, usually called aphaeresis. I am not sure about this, but for now aphaeresis apparently only occur in the sound m and s. 

I also found the sound change below.

baiklah → beklah   'alright'

soalnya → soale    'it's because'

This kind of sound change is most likely found in the written form, especially in the chatting situation. For the change from baiklah to beklah is understandable, because of it similar to the sound change that I explained before. However, the change from soalnya to soale is, I would say, abnormal.

The sound change we discuss here is just handful phenomena that are happening now.

Another thing I could sum up is the original form before the change is a standard form and after the change takes place it becomes a colloquial form.

*ə for early or senang