Voiceless Stop Consonants in Malaysian English

Abstract

This paper studies the nature of voiceless stop consonants with a special focus on a change from [θ]/[ð] to [t] at the word-initial position in Malaysian English (ME). Drawing on the acoustic phonetic measurement of stop consonants produced by 12 speakers, we maintain that ME is creating a new system of stop consonants. More precisely, we state the following: First, the new alveolar stop [t] originating from voiced and voiceless dental fricatives (e.g., that, think) is always shorter than the original [t] (e.g., teach) in terms of the voice onset time (VOT) values. That is to say, ME possesses two acoustically different alveolar stops. Second, because of the presence of the new [t], the generally agreed phonetic values of VOT for [p] and [t] are reversed. Third, although ME is often characterised by the speakers’ ethnic differences, the acoustic quality of the new [t] is consistent independent of the first language. Fourth, the use of the new [t] is, overall, less frequent than the standard pronunciation of dental fricatives. Fifth, the occurrence and frequency of the new [t] is sporadic, partly because it is speaker specific.