4/4/2017

The Indonesian Vowels

Erika Agustiana, M.Hum.

English Education Department
Indraprasta University
Jakarta

The Indonesian Vowels

• How many vowels of English?

• 12 vowels.
• How many vowels of Indonesian?
• 8 vowels.

1
 4/4/2017

Front Central Back

i
High u

Mid I ǝ o

Low  a ɔ

The Indonesian Vowels

High and Mid Front Vowels [i] – [I]

• [i] as in ini ‘this’

• [I] as in enak ‘delicious’

Minimal pairs:
[tiga] tiga ‘three’ vs [tIga] tega ‘have the heart to’
[bila] bila ‘when’ vs [bIla] bela ‘defend’

2
 4/4/2017

High and Mid Front Vowels [i] – [I]

• When the sound occurs under a strong stress

and followed by nasal, it’s pronounced as [i].
• When the sound occurs under a weak stress
and followed by nasal, it’s pronounced as [I].
Examples:
‘bintang [bintaŋ] ‘banting [bantIŋ]
‘bimbang [bimbaŋ] ‘kambing [kambIŋ]
‘simpan [simpan] ‘batin [batIn]

Mid and low Front Vowels [I] – []

• Minimal Pairs:
genting [gentIŋ] – genteng [gentŋ]
banting [bantIŋ] – banteng [bantŋ]
• The words below where the grapheme <e> is
pronounced in two different ways:
besok [bIsɔk] or [bsɔk]
repot [rIpɔt] or [rpɔt]
sore [sorI] or [sor]

3
 4/4/2017

High and Mid Back Vowels [u] – [o]

• High and Mid Back Vowels [u]

• In the IMF positions is spelled with the
grapheme <u>.
Examples:
ubin bumi rambu
umat sumber madu
uban bunyi bisu
uji bujang sapu

High and Mid Back Vowels [u] – [o]

• High and Mid Back Vowels [o]

• In the IMF positions is spelled with the
grapheme <o>, <u> or <au>:
Examples:
obat bola calo
orang pola kalau
opa sabun Rabu
ogah kebun kerbau

4
 4/4/2017

Mid and Low Back Vowels [o] and [ɔ]

Examples:
bola [bola] pola [pɔla]
kota [kota] toko [tɔkɔ]
roda [roda] soal [sɔal]

Pronounce as [ɔ] where the second syllable has

the [ɔ] sound:
pokok pohon
rokok borok
kosong bolong

Mid Central Vowels [ǝ] and [a]

• Vowel [ǝ] is pronounced with [ǝ] or [ I ],

such as:
besar [bǝsar] [bIsar]
benar [bǝnar] [bInar]
tegas [tǝgas] [tIgas]