E-Journal of English Language and Literature Volume 7 No.

4
E-Journal of English Language & Literature
ISSN 2302-3546
Published by English Language & Literature Study Program of
FBS Universitas Negeri Padang
available at http://ejournal.unp.ac.id/index.php/jell

SEGMENTAL PHONEMES OF MINANGKABAUNESE LANGUAGE

SPOKEN IN INDROPURO DIALECT
Peri Dani Putra1, Hermawati Syarif2, Leni Marlina3
English Department
Faculty of Languages and Arts
Universitas Negeri Padang
email: [email protected]

Abstract

Even though Indropuro dialect is a variation of Minangkabau language, they

both have basic difference such as in Segmental phoneme. Hence, this research
investigates the segmental phonemes of Indropuro dialect in Pesisir Selatan and
how it is different from standard Minangkabaunese. The aim of this research is the
identification and the distribution of consonant, vowel, and diphthong sound.
Descriptive method is used as the methodology of this reearch. In this research,
the writer uses interview with talk face by face strategies to collect the data. The
result of this research shows that there are 31 phonemes of Indropuro dialect.
They are divided into 20 phonemes consonant; /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /č/, /ǰ/, /k/, /g/, /?/,
/s/, /h/, /m/, /n/, /ῆ/, /ŋ/, /r/, /l/, /w/, /ɰ/, and /y/, 6 phonemes vowel; /a/, /i/, /u, /e/,
/o/, and /ǝ/, and 5 diphthongs; /Ia/, /ay/, /aw, /ua/, and /uy/. Moreover, the
distributions of consonant, vowel, and diphthong sounds have variant distribution.
Some of the consonant and the vowel have complete distribution, but all
diphthongs are incomplete distribution. It is different from standard
Minangakbaunese, which has 32 phonemes; 20 consonants, 5 vowels, and 7
diphthongs. The result shows that there are differences of them. It is because
Indropuro dialect is not fully the same with standard Minangkabaunese even
though they are in the same langauge. Based on that fact, it can be concluded that
the segmental phoneme of a dialect in Indropuro is not fully the same with the
standard one.

Key words: Segmental Phoneme, Consonant, Vowel, Diphthong, Indropuro

A. INTRODUCTION
Language is a system to communicate for human. According to Febbi
(2017:91), in Indonesia, there are at least 700 local languages. One of them is
Minangkabau language. Except Mentawai, most people in West Sumatera speak
Minangkabaunese. However, it does not mean that they will speak in the same
dialect. The people who live in the south of Pesisir Selatan, such as Indropuro

1
English ELLSP of English Department of FBS Universitas Negeri Padang graduated on December
2018
2
Lecturer of English Department of FBS Universitas Negeri Padang
3
Lecturer of English Department of FBS Universitas Negeri Padang

© FBS Universitas Negeri Padang

 JELL Vol. 7 No. 4 December 2018

speak Minangkabaunese with dialect that is different enough from standard

Minangkabaunese. According to Maksan, et al (1984:17-18), the dialect is
different because it is influenced by language contact from Bengkulu and Jambi.
Beside lexical differences, Indropuro dialect is also different in phonological
aspect. Phonologically, each different language has different way to produce
sound. Refnaldi (2008:3) explains that phonology is the study of how sounds that
are produced by people in particular language are organized and arranged into
patterns and systems. There are two scopes of phonology. Those are phonetics and
phonemics. Demolin (2005:95) states that phonetics describes how the speech
sound are created, received, and transmitted in language. On the other hand,
Dardjowidjojo (2009:17) explains that phonemics is the study of sounds in order
to determine whether the certain sounds is contrast or not with other sounds, or
the certain sounds differentiate meaning or not.
Related to this research, phonemics is the point of the research analysis. In
this research, the writer analyzes the phonemes that can be found in Indropuro
dialect. Phonemes are the smallest unit of a language which can differentiate
meaning. Idsardi (2003) says that phonemes are the phonetic alphabet of the mind.
Phonemes are how human mentally represents speech and how human stores the
sounds of words in human’s memory. Phonemes are divided into two categories.
Those are primary phoneme which is known as segmental phoneme and
secondary phoneme which is known as supra-segmental phoneme. Rosa (2013:56-
65) states that phoneme is categorized into segmental phoneme including
(consonant, vowel, diphthong) and supra-segmental phoneme including (stress,
pitch, intonation, and juncture).
The segmental phoneme is an individual sound or an individual phoneme
which is produced on one segment of speech which work on the segmental level.
The term segment is any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or
auditorily, in the stream of speech (Hussain and Sumaiya, 1:2015). The segmental
phoneme is categorized into consonant, vowel, and diphthong sounds.
Consonant is a sound of a language that is produced because of the air
stream from the lungs blocked by one of vocal tracts such as lips, teeth, etc.
Fromkin et al (2007: 195) explains that the consonant sounds is made because of
there is an obstruction in the vocal tract when the air flows from the lungs. The
sound is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. For
examples are sound [p] is produced because of an obstruction with the lips, sound
[t] is produced because of an obstruction with the front of the tongue, sound [k] is
produced because of an obstruction with the back of the tongue, etc.
In contrary to consonant sound, there are sounds that are produced without
any obstruction in the vocal tract when the air flows from the lungs. This kind of
sounds is called as vowel sounds. Jufrizal (1999:39) states that the vowel is sound
that is produced with no interruption of the air passage through the oral cavity, as
the result the sounds become voiced continuous sounds. Whenever the vowel
sounds are produced, the air stream from the lungs is not blocked in any way in
the mouth, so that, it is no easy to feel exactly where the vowel sounds are made.
Moreover, diphthong is known as a gliding vowel which is combination of
two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Moreover, according to

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Dardjowidjojo (2009:33), a diphthong is the sound of combination of two

different vowels in the same syllable, and then the stronger stress falls on the first
vowel. Thus, it can be said that a diphthong is the sound of words which is
pronounced as two different vowel sounds in the same syllable.
Naturally, the distribution of phoneme can be found in the initial position,
middle position, and final position (IMF). However, not all phonemes can be
found in the initial, middle, and final position. Sometimes, some phonemes only
can be found in the initial and middle position, or in the initial and the final
position, or even in some languages, the phoneme only can be found in the initial
position.
Crane, Yeager and Randa 1981 (1981:72) discover how to find and identify
a phoneme in language. They developed the concept of minimal pairs in order to
identify a phoneme in language. A minimal pairs is any two words that contain
the same number of segments, but differ in meaning, and exhibit only one
phonetic difference. Furthermore, Strassler (2003) explains that there are three
steps about how to identify phoneme in a language.
Basically, the best step to identify phoneme is using the concept of minimal
pair. Two words which differ in only one sound in a given position. For example,
the words tin [tin] and sin [sin] which have different meaning. These two words
are categorized into minimal pair. The difference of phoneme /t/ and phoneme /s/
differ the meaning of the two words.
If there is no minimal pair, look for possible contextual influence
(allophones). Allophones are the variant of phonetic realizations of one and the
same phoneme. Allophonic variants are the variants that are conditioned by the
environments in which they occur. They occur in mutually exclusive
environments, i.e., they never overlap, they are in complementary distribution.
If there is no contextual influence, then look for the free variation. Two
phonemes which may appear in the same context without causing a charge in
meaning. For example, phonemes /p/, /t/, /k/ are aspirated phoneme when they
appear in the initial position in English language.
At last, related to the explanation above, the writer of this research
analyzed about the segmental phoneme of Indropuro dialect in Pesisir Selatan.
The writer identified the phonemes that occur in Indropuro dialect using the
concept of minimal pairs and see the place of their distribution in a word. It can be
found in the initial position, middle position, or final position, and even can be
found in all of the position.

B. RESEARCH METHOD

This research was conducted by using the descriptive method, where this
research described the identification and the distribution of segmental phonemes
(consonant, vowel, and diphthong) of Minangkabau language spoken in Indropuro
Pesisir Selatan. Descriptive method is the process of describing the data based on
accurate data which is collected from the informants or participants by using
interviewing, questioning, observation, etc. The data of this research were words

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that were pronounced by native speakers of Indropuro dialect which contain of

consonant, vowel, and diphthong substance.
In this research, the researcher himself was the key instrument to collect the
data. Thus, the researcher directly went to the field to collect the data from the
informants.Moreover the addition instruments of this research was swadesh list
(300 words), writing tools (including pen and notebook), and tape recorder. The
swadesh list was used as the interview guideline. The writing tools were used to
write the specific words from the utterances of the informants. The tape recorder
was used to record the interview between the researcher and the informants.
The data of this research were collected by using direct method. The
researcher went to the field to gather the information. The researcher talked and
asked questions directly to the informants in face to face. The technique of data
collection used in this research was an interview through technical talk by face to
face strategy (Sudaryanto, 1988:7). Researcher asked about vocabularies based on
the Swadesh list and basic vocabularies that have been prepared. Then, the data
which contain information were recorded and wrote in the notebook. Recording
was done in order to provide a more accurate data.

C. FINDING AND DISCUSSION

1. Finding
Basically, there are three methods that can be used to identify phoneme of a
language such as using minimal pairs, possible contextual influence (allophones)
and free variation. Luckily, in Indropuro dialect, the phonemes can be identified
only by using the concept of minimal pairs.
There are forty pairs phonemes consonant of Indropuro dialect that can be
identified using minimal pair concept. These pairs of phoneme can be seen in two
words that have similar pronunciation. It can be seen in one of identification
processes below. The following pairs of phonemes belong to two separate
phonemes, because they function to differentiate meaning.

Phoneme /ɰ/ and /t/

Data:
aghing [aɰiŋ] ‘Day’ - ating [atinŋ] ‘Hearth’
bughung [buɰuŋ] ‘Hunting’ - butung [butuŋ] ‘Blunt’

Based on the data analysis, there are 31 phonemes of Indropuro dialect in

Pesisir Selatan. They are divided into 20 phonemes consonant; they are /p/, /b/, /t/,
/d/, /č/, /ǰ/, /k/, /g/, /?/, /s/, /h/, /m/, /n/, /ῆ/, /ŋ/, /r/, /l/, /w/, /ɰ/, and /y/, 6
phonemes vowel; they are /a/, /i/, /u, /e/, /o/, and /ǝ/, and 5 diphthongs; they are
/Ia/, /ay/, /aw, /ua/, and /uy/. This tables below show the classification of
consonant sound based on place and manner of articulation and and vowel sound
of Indropuro dialect.

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Table 1: The classification of consonant sound of Indropuro dialect based on

place and manner of articulation.
Place of articulation
Alveolar
Bilabial Palatal Velar Glottal
dental
Manner of articulation
Voiceless p t č k ?
Stop
Voiced b d ǰ g
Fricative Voiceless s h
Nasal Voiced m n ῆ ŋ
Lateral Voiced l
Trill Voiced r
Glide/Approximant Voiced w y ɰ

Table 2: The classification of vowel sound of Indropuro dialect.

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ǝ o
Low a

Indropuro dialect has variant distribution. There are 6 consonants that have
complete distribution. They are /p/, /t/, /s/, /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/. The rest of them are
incomplete distribution. Moreover, there are 3 vowels that have complete
distribution. They are /i/, /e/, and /a/. Vowels /u/ and /o/ occur in the middle and
final position, but vowel /ǝ/ only occurs in the middle position in word.
Furthermore, all diphthong of Indropuro dialect are incomplete distribution.
Diphthong /Ia/, /oa/, /ua/ and /uy/ only occur in the middle position in word, and
diphthong /aw/ only occurs in final position.
This table below shows the distribution of phoneme consonant of Indropuro
dialect in Pesisir Selatan.

Table 3: The distribution of consonant sounds of Indropuro dialect.

Phon Position in Word
emes Initial Middle Final
/p/ pendek [pende?] ‘Short’ sepo [sepo] ‘Who’ slop [sǝlop] ‘Sandal’
/b/ banyak [baῆ?] ‘Many’ ambo [ambo] ‘I’ -
/t/ taling [taliŋ] ‘Rope’ atok [ato?] ‘Roof’ gigit [gigit] ‘Bite’
/d/ duduk [dudu?] ‘Sit’ tidu [tidu] ‘Sleep’ -
/č/ clik [čǝli?] ‘See’ acak [ača?] ‘Good’ -
/ǰ/ jait [ǰait] ‘Sewing’ tujuh [tuǰuh] ‘Seven’ -
/k/ kcik [kǝci?] ‘Small’ iko [iko] ‘This’ -
/g/ galo [galo] ‘All’ agih [agih] ‘Give’ -
/?/ - - asok [aso?] ‘Smoke’
/s/ sepo [sepo] ‘Who’ asok [aso?] ‘Smoke’ es [es] ‘Ice’
/h/ - - basah [basah] ‘Wet’
/m/ mak [ma?] ‘Mother’ kumuh [kumuh] ‘Dirty’ itam [itam] ‘Black’

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/n/ nam [nam] ‘Six’ sinan [sinan] ‘There’ lapan [lapan] ‘Eight’
/ῆ/ nyasah [ῆasah] ‘Wash’ inyu [iῆu] ‘They’ -
/ŋ/ ngan [ŋan] ‘Don’t’ angik [aŋi?] ‘Hot’ gdang [gǝdaŋ] ‘Big’
/r/ - krjo [kǝrjo] ‘Work’ -
/l/ lamu [lamu] ‘Long’ clik [cǝli?] ‘See’ -
/w/ uwan [uwan] ‘Uncle’ - kalau [kalaw] ‘If’
/ɰ/ ghambut [ɰambut] ‘Hair’ aghing [aɰiŋ] ‘Day’
- ayi [ayi] ‘Wate’ balai [balay]
/y/ ‘Market’
/a/ acak [aca?] ‘Good’ nam [nam] ‘Six’ kida [kida] ‘Left’
/i/ icek [ice?] ‘Seed’ clik [čǝli?] ‘See’ ayi [ayi] ‘water’
/u/ - duo [duo] ‘Two siku [siku] ‘Tail’
/e/ etek [ete?] ‘Aunty’ kaek [kae?] ‘Cut’ embe [embe] ‘Pail’
/o/ - atok [ato?] ‘Roof’ apo [apo] ‘What’
/ǝ/ - kbut [kǝbut] ‘Dust’ -
/Ia/ - anjinag [anǰIaŋ] ‘Dog’ -
- maili [mayli] ‘Flow’ balai [balay]
/ay/
‘Market’
/aw/ - - ijau [ijaw] ‘Green’
/ua/ - iduang [iduaŋ] ‘Nose’ -
- mbuih [mǝbuyh] -
/uy/
‘Blow’

In the other side, standard Minangkabaunese language has 32 phonemes.

There are different phonemes occur in Indropuro dialect. Both standard
Minangkabaunese and Indropuro dialect have 20 phonemes consonant. However,
there is no phoneme /z/ found in Indropuro dialect and there is no phoneme /ɰ/
found in standard Minangkbaunese language. Moreover, standard
Minangkabaunese language has 5 vowels, but Indropuro dialect has 6 vowels with
phoneme /ǝ/. Furthermore, standard Minangkabaunese language has 7 diphthongs,
but Indropuro dialect only has 5 diphthongs. There is no diphthong /ea/ and /oy/
found in Indropuro dialect.

2. Discussion
This study analyzes about the segmental phoneme of standard
Minangkabaunese language spoken in Indropuro in Pesisir selatan. The focus of
this study is the distribution of the segmental phonemes (consonant, vowel and
diphthong). Then, the findings of the study are compared with standard
Minangkabaunese language, and see the understanding of native speakers of
standard Minangkbaunese of Indropuro dialect.
There are twenty phonemes consonant found in Indropuro dialect in Pesisir
Selatan. They are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /č/, /ǰ/, /k/, /g/, /?/, /s/, /h/, /m/, /n/, /ῆ/, /ŋ/, /r/, /l/,
/w/, /ɰ/, and /y/. They are different from standard Minangkabaunese language.
Ayub, et al (1993:22-28) state that there are also twenty consonants of standard
Minangkabaunese language. However, there are two differences of consonant
sound found in standard Minangkabaunese and Indropuro dialect. Firstly, there is

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no velar glide voiced sound “/ɰ/” found in standard Minangkabaunese language,

but it is found in the Indropuro dialect such us in word bgheh [bǝɰeh] which
means ‘rice’. Secondly, in the other side there is no alveolar fricative voiced
sound “/z/” found in Indropuro dialect, but it is found in standard
Minangkabaunese language.
Velar glide voiced sound “/ɰ/” in standard Minangkabaunese is just an
allophone of dental trill “/r/” such as in word baghe [baɰe] and bare [bare] which
have the same maning (rice). It means that, the phoneme /ɰ/ in standard
Minangkabaunese is a varian of phoneme /r/ which does not function to
differentiate meaning. Moreover, one cause the phoneme /z/ is not found in
Indropuro dialect is because of native speakers of Indropuro dialect seldom and
even never using sound /z/ in their conversation. If it is found in Indropuro dialect,
it may be just a borrowing word that is spoken by speakers that have been
influenced by Indonesian language.
Same as other languages, the phonemes of Indropuro dialect are also
classified into two classifications. According to Rosa (2013:43), the consonant
sound is classified into place and manner of articulation. Thus, the explanation
below shows the classification of consonant sound of Indropuro dialect based on
place and manner of articulation.
Based on place of articulation, consonant sound of Indropuro dialect is
divided in to bilabial sounds such as /p/, /b/, /m/ and /w/, alveolar dental sounds
such as /t/, /d/, /s/, /n/, /l/ and /r/, palatal sound such as /č/, /ǰ/ and /ῆ/, velar sounds
such as /k/, /g/, /ŋ/ and /ɰ/, and glottal sounds such /?/ and /h/. In the other side,
based on manner of articulation, the consonant sound of Indropuro dialect is
divided in stop sounds such as /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /č/, /ǰ/, /k/, /g/ and /?/, fricative
sounds such as /s/ and /h/, nasal sounds such as /m/, /n/, /ῆ/ and /ŋ/, lateral sound
such as /l/, trill sound such as /r/, and glide sounds such as /w/, /y/ and /ɰ/.
The phonemes consonant of Indropuro dialect in Pesisir Selatan have
variant distribution. Based on finding, there are six phonemes consonant which
have complete distribution. It means that they occur in initial, middle, and final
position in word. The rest of them are incomplete distribution. It means that they
only occur in two positions and even only occur in one position in word. It is
different from standard Minangkabaunese language. (Ayub, et al, 1993:30-32)
found that phoneme consonant of standard Minangkabaunese have nine complete
distribution and the rest of the incomplete distribution.
Moreover, there are six phonemes vowel found in Indropuro dialect in
Pesisir Selatan. They are /a/, /i/, /u, /e/, /o/, and /ǝ/. There is one vowel of
indropuro dialect that cannot be found in standard Minangkabaunese language.
That is central mid sound “/ǝ/”. In indropuro dialect, this phoneme only occurs in
the middle position after consonant sound such as in word klak [kǝla?]. Based on
the word kelak, it can be seen that phoneme /ǝ/ occurs after consonant /k/.
According to Dardjowidjojo (2009:107), there are four parameters to
classify the vowel sounds. Those are the height of the tongue, the position of the
tongue, the rounding and not rounding of the lips, and the tense and lax state of
the muscles. However there is no tense and lax state of the muscles occur in
Indropuro dialect, because they do not influence anything toward the phonemes.

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The phoneme which is given long pronounced (tense vowel) does not influence
the meaning at all.
Beside consonant and vowel, Indropuro dialect also has diphthong sound.
Dardjowidjojo (2009:33) explains that a diphthong is the sound of combination of
two different vowels in the same syllable, and then the stronger stress falls on the
first vowel. Based on the finding, Indropuro dialect has five diphthong sounds.
They are /Ia/, /ay/, /aw, /ua/, and /uy/. There are also differences of diphthong
sound of Indropuro dialect with the standard Minangkabaunese. Standard
Minangkabaunese language has seven diphthongs (Ayub, et al, 1993:25).
However, there is no diphthong /ea/ and /oy/ found in Indropuro dialect.
The distribution of diphthong sound of Indropuro dialect has variation.
There is none diphthong which have complete distribution. It means that the
distribution of diphthongs of Indropuro dialect only occur in two positions and
even only in one position in word.

D. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Based on the findings of this study, it is found that there are 31 phonemes in
Indropuro dialect. They are divided into 20 phonemes consonant; they are /p/, /b/,
/t/, /d/, /č/, /ǰ/, /k/, /g/, /?/, /s/, /h/, /m/, /n/, /ῆ/, /ŋ/, /r/, /l/, /w/, /ɰ/, and /y/, 6
phonemes vowel; they are /a/, /i/, /u, /e/, /o/, and /ǝ/, and 5 diphthongs; they are
/Ia/, /ay/, /aw, /ua/, and /uy/. The distribution of phonemes in Indropuro dialect
has variation. There are nine phonemes that have complete distribution including
consoant and vowel. It means that they can be found in the initial, middle and
final position in word. They are consonants /p/, /t/, /s/, /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ and vowels
/i/, /e/, and /a/. In the other side, all diphthongs in indropuro dialect are incomplete
distribution.
The result of this study brings suggestion to a lot of side. This study may be
used as a reference related to the segmental phoneme of a particular language to
the linguistic students. It is suggested that the next researchers can developed this
research related to this subject in different perspective.

Note: This article is written based on Peri Dani Putra’s thesis under the advisors
of Prof. Dr. Hermawati Syarif, M.Hum., 1st advisor, and Leni Marlina, S.S.,
M.A., 2nd advisor.

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