Help talk:IPA/Malay

Vocalic allophones
Hi,

We've needed this for a while, but I'm dubious about the vocalic allophones. You don't use them in the transclusions, with a single exception; IMO they should either be used consistently or not at all. Also, how representative are they? In many varieties [e] and [o] are allophones of [i] and [u]; indeed, we transcribe them according to the orthography, which is itself variable. Shouldn't they be in the 'allophones' section? — kwami (talk) 07:19, 27 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I only edited transcriptions on two pages, and all of the others existed before this page did—the "policy" here has yet to be rigorously applied. We should probably sort through points like yours before we do so, anyway.
 * The source I used for much of this was this page, which while focusing on Indonesian does seem to include Malay. I had no preexisting knowledge on this topic, so my reading of it may well be faulty.
 * About the name (your edits to IPA-may): it seems that both the macrolanguage and its standardized form used in Malaysia are called Malay. "Malaysian language" redirects to Malay language, for instance.  This is far from ideal—I'd much prefer to clearly separate the macrolanguage and its two standardized forms—but it is what it is.
 * On the vowel allophones, I just don't know well enough to be sure. I thought about calling that section "checked vowels" or somesuch, but that doesn't quite fit.  If they are indeed used similarly in Malay, they seem to be common (and salient) enough that we should try to use them consistently.  Also, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information about the diphthongs (no source had more than three of them, but all four of these popped up repeatedly), so please have a look at them.  Also the Malay  may be phonemic for all I know.  — ˈzɪzɨvə (talk) 08:30, 27 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Malaysian Malay was once called 'Malaysian', but recently a switch to 'Malay' was made. The term 'Malaysian' will still be understood, however. (I doubt we'll often need to specify in any case.) In Indonesia, 'Malay' is used for traditionally native speaking areas in Sumatra, and perhaps in Riau (I'm not sure), but the national second language is 'Indonesian'. Indonesian can be rather variable depending on the local native language, so best IMO to stick to the two standards. (Or three, if we count Brunei Malay.)
 * Malay originally had three full vowels, /a i u/, plus schwa. Schwa is allophonic with /a/ in some cases, but AFAIK needs to be posited as a separate phoneme. [e] and [o] are allophones of /i/ and /u/; there was a lot of variation in spelling for a long time (telor and tilur, etc.) until it was standardized. If I remember correctly, the difference is simply which consonant is adjacent, and is rather arbitrary. However, in many parts of Indonesia where the native languages have 5-6-vowel systems, Indonesian has phonemic /e/ and /o/. I don't know about going into more detail than that--I imagine it might be overkill, but we should get a more expert opinion.
 * /oi/ is not a common diphthong. I've never heard of /ua/ being a diphthong; that seems dubious to me. — kwami (talk) 18:45, 27 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The Malay language article has, so something's gotta give. That table also lists  as a phoneme, so your dubiousness seems warranted.
 * So do you propose something like this?:
 * {| class="IPA wikitable" style="margin: 1em 2em; text-align: center;"

! colspan=44 | Vowels ! colspan=2 | IPA !! rowspan=2 | Examples !! rowspan=2 | nearest English equivalent ! 🇮🇩 !! 🇲🇾 ! colspan=4 | Diphthongs
 * colspan=2|
 * align="left"| ajar, buka
 * align="left"| father
 * rowspan=2 |
 * align="left"| serong, kare
 * align="left"| clay
 * align="left"| teh, bebek
 * align="left"| festival
 * rowspan=2 |
 * align="left"| bila, ini
 * align="left"| see
 * align="left"| kirim
 * align="left"| bin
 * rowspan=2 |
 * align="left"| roda, toko
 * align="left"| sole
 * align="left"| pohon
 * align="left"| sort
 * rowspan=2 |
 * align="left"| upah, baru
 * align="left"| moon
 * align="left"| rumput
 * align="left"| foot
 * colspan=2 |
 * align="left"| gelak, tante
 * align="left"| about
 * align="left"| sole
 * align="left"| pohon
 * align="left"| sort
 * rowspan=2 |
 * align="left"| upah, baru
 * align="left"| moon
 * align="left"| rumput
 * align="left"| foot
 * colspan=2 |
 * align="left"| gelak, tante
 * align="left"| about
 * align="left"| rumput
 * align="left"| foot
 * colspan=2 |
 * align="left"| gelak, tante
 * align="left"| about
 * align="left"| gelak, tante
 * align="left"| about
 * colspan=2 |
 * align="left"| kalau
 * align="left"| how
 * colspan=2 |
 * align="left"| capai
 * align="left"| bye
 * }
 * Or are the lax vowels even standard in Indonesian? And you are saying that Malaysian, while allophonic, are in the standard, correct?  — ˈzɪzɨvə (talk) 20:38, 27 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The table by zɪzɨvə looks good. Crisco 1492 (talk) 03:29, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * }
 * Or are the lax vowels even standard in Indonesian? And you are saying that Malaysian, while allophonic, are in the standard, correct?  — ˈzɪzɨvə (talk) 20:38, 27 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The table by zɪzɨvə looks good. Crisco 1492 (talk) 03:29, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

Rhotic in Malay.
"Malay may have a uvular fricative [ʁ], which can be elided in the coda."

Since when? Is there a source on this? AlexanderKaras (talk) 07:12, 16 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't recall ever hearing it, but then I was only exposed to a few dialects across Malaya (Kelantan, Terengganu, etc.). — kwami (talk) 07:15, 16 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Still, unless we can find a source on this, I recommend removing it. The article on Malay language doesn't mention it. AlexanderKaras (talk) 20:43, 17 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I drew that conclusion from the bottom of this page. I can't speak to its veracity personally.  — ˈzɪzɨvə (talk) 02:06, 18 August 2010 (UTC)


 * As a general statement, they presumably mean the speech of the capital. AFAIK, the statement is false with that reading, but I spent very little time there. — kwami (talk) 06:19, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Malaysia and Indonesia
Malaysians pronounce their /v/ as /v/ and not as /f/ like most Indonesians do (got something to do with British and Dutch occupations, maybe). In Indonesia, we don't pronounce word-final /a/ as /ə/ like Malaysians do. People in Jakarta pronounce word-final /a/ as /ɛ/ but I'm talking about Bahasa Indonesia here, not about local dialects. Word-final /a/ always pronounced as /a/ in formal Bahasa Indonesia. There are still so many differences between Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia that it would only confuse foreigners if these languages are seen as one entity. Jiwa Matahari (talk) 10:45, 21 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka has produced a guide for standard Malay pronunciation. It seems very much the same with standard Indonesian (for instance: the final 'a' is always prononuced as /a/), although I know this is not always the case in Malaysia. I think I'll buy it and see what I can help here. Gombang (talk) 11:26, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Allophones of [e], [i], [o], and [u] in Indonesian
Sorry to bother you again Kwami, but as I was taking a look at IPA for Malay I remembered that (in Indonesian, at least) the vowels [e], [i], [o], and [u] have the allophones /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɔ/, and /ʊ/ respectively when in closed syllables at the end of a word (for example, 'catfish', but  'melt';  'cheek' and  'to pee (informal)';  'soto' and  'cuttlefish'; and  'know' or 'tofu' and  'year'). Would that be worth including at IPA for Malay? Thanks. Crisco 1492 (talk) 03:21, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * An online reference can be found here, although it's not the exact same as what I was taught. Crisco 1492 (talk) 03:24, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Check out the talk page. This was brought up before but never resolved.
 * What distinguishes [i] from [e] and [u] from [o] in Indonesian? Are they allophonic, predictable from adjacent consonants? — kwami (talk) 03:25, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree with zɪzɨvə's table. As for what distinguishes [i] from [e] and [u] from [o] as phonemes (in Indonesian), we were taught the the occurrences of minimal pairs like 'beak' and  'match' demonstrated that [u] and [o] are separate phonemes since the meaning changes with the sound. I can't remember any for [e] and [i] right now. Sounds like /o/ and /ɔ/ were said to be allophones because they could be switched without changing the meaning (we could say  instead of the formal  and it would still mean 'cuttlefish'). Crisco 1492 (talk) 03:44, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * [e] and [i]: 'map' vs.  'tape' or 'ribbon'. Crisco 1492 (talk) 03:49, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Kamus Lengkap (Wojowasito) gives cucuk as a variant of (men)cocok. They don't list a similar word for 'beak'. And in the case of peta vs. pita, it's really pəta vs. pita, not *péta. That's what I've generally found: when s.o. claims a phonemic difference, a little digging will show it isn't that straightforward, at least not in native words. On the other hand, Poedjosoedarmo says that these distinctions (and also a o–ɔ distinction) were introduced from Javanese.) I don't have a problem with the extra allophones, but you should probably restart the talk-page discussion. — kwami (talk) 03:58, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (National Education Department, Fourth Edition [2008]) gives cucuk as 'thorn', with some Javanese loan meanings as well. I will try and find more examples, but I agree that this should be moved to the talk page. Doing so now. Crisco 1492 (talk) 04:08, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * And (men)cocok is 'to prick'. They're presumably the same root.
 * Because it's written with five vowel letters, it's been standardized as having five (or six) vowels. But that's always struck me as rather artificial. What we really seem to have is a four-vowel system, /i u ə a/, with /i/ being [i~e] and /u/ being [u~o], and an introduction of a high–mid distinction from English, Dutch, and Javanese loans—and according to Poedjosoedarmo, also /ɔ/ as a distinct vowel in Javanese loans, including a lot used for administration. So we have /i u ə a/ in native words, and /i u e ə o ɔ a/ in loan words. But the [i~e] and [u~o] distinctions in native words, even if set out as absolute in dictionaries, are not stable, and seem to reflect a top–down decision rather than the language as it's spoken.
 * When Malaysia and Indonesia coordinated their national standards, one of the things they had to agree on was which words should have i u, and which should have e o. They couldn't go by the actual words, because the difference was meaningless in native vocabulary. So they set out rules where they decided based on the adjacent consonants. — kwami (talk) 04:22, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Possible. However, for the different versions aren't we using the standard to establish IPA? By the way, I've added more pairs for [e] and [i] at the talk page. Crisco 1492 (talk) 04:29, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but the standard is primarily one of orthography. The distinction is largely meaningless for actual pronunciation, which is what the IPA is supposed to transcribe. — kwami (talk) 04:30, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * For [i] and [e], from Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (National Education Department, Fourth Edition [2008]) we have 'shirt' (possible loan word) and  'aunt',  'to open' and  'lips',  'different' and  'angel' (an abbreviation of bidadari) or 'a nurse at a palace', and  'stingy' and  'meat on the leg of a cow, ox, or goat' Crisco 1492 (talk) 04:25, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Pretty much what I've got, though kikir is also 'stingy'. I wonder how many of these are actually minimal pairs in speech, and how many of them are simply the choice of the dictionary. — kwami (talk) 04:37, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * That would depend on the dialect and accent. For example, people from Medan generally don't use [ə], while Javanese tend to turn [a] into [ə] at the end of a word (like Suharto was famous for). I think formal Indonesian (as described by the National Education Department) would be differentiated. Crisco 1492 (talk) 04:49, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * For [o] and [u], Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (National Education Department, Fourth Edition [2008]) gives us 'sleep (informal)' and  'powder',  'pattern' and  'also, too',  'attack' and ' 'outside edge' or 'payment of debt (archaic)', and  'alternative term for party' and  'palace', 'city', 'location for Hindus to pray'. Crisco 1492 (talk) 04:45, 5 June 2011 (UTC)
 * My objection before was that the articles did not reflect these allophones. I'm going through and adding them in. You might want to check my edits; I'm changing a lot of stress patterns on the assumption that they're just wrong (common enough), but they maybe were correct to begin with. — kwami (talk) 03:04, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Why are you marking all final syllables as stressed? Even when they're /ə/? Stress varies dialectically, but AFAIK that never happens in any dialect. — kwami (talk) 03:48, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh, sorry. I misunderstood the footnote at the bottom of this project page. Thanks for working with the allophones. Crisco 1492 (talk) 11:23, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for fixing the table. However, wouldn't it be better to indicate that [ʊ], [ɔ], [ɛ], and [ɪ] are allophones of [u], [o], [e], and [i]? Crisco 1492 (talk) 11:31, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Unnecessary notes
I am taking attention to reducing the number of footnotes in some of these IPA for X pages. These pronunciation keys are designed primarily for readers wanting to understand the language-specific IPA transcriptions they encounter in Wikipedia articles. We shouldn't swamp them with irrelevant details. Because this information may still be pertinent to the project, I have duplicated the notes below rather than try to find a place for them. This is irrespective of whether I think these claims are true or whether they are sourced. I will leave it to other editors to move the information to the appropriate article space or check that it already is. — Æµ§œš¹  [ãːɱ ˈfɹ̠ˤʷɪ̃ə̃nlɪ] 23:57, 28 December 2011 (UTC)
 * is dental, as in French, whereas is alveolar as in English.
 * are pronounced with the tip of the tongue further forward than in English (alveolar), and without the lip rounding of English.
 * clearly pronounced between like vowels, as in Pahang. Elsewhere it is a very light sound, and is frequently silent, as in hutan ~ utan "forest", sahut ~ saut "answer". (It is not, however, dropped when initial from Arabic loans such as hakim "judge".) In dialects which retain final, it may engage in liaison, as in sudah itu "after that".

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Help talk:IPA which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 16:17, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

Malay and Indonesian
There are two key questions here: My answers are simple: –Austronesier (talk) 13:38, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
 * 1) Do we need two keys for the two standardized languages, i.e. Indonesian and Standard Malay (aka "Malaysian")?
 * 2) If we only need one key, should it bear "Indonesian" in the title (cf. Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu)?
 * 1) No. Indonesian has emerged from Standard Malay as used in Dutch East Indies in the first half of the 20th century. So initially, it was identical to Standard Malay as spoken in the British realm, except for minimal differences in spelling and lexicon. Both standards have subsequently gone their own ways, especially lexically, but the basic proscribed pronunciation has changed little, and whatever difference there is in educated standard speech, it falls may below the variation found with the three major English varieties (which are transcribed using one key).
 * 2) Yes. Inspite of Indonesian technically being a variety of Malay, in common discourse (which is relevant for our readers) Indonesian ≠ Malay. In the Indonesian context, and also for every outsider with a minimal connection to the region, Indonesian refers to the standard Indonesian language, and also to various colloquial varieties, most notably colloquial Jakarta Indonesian. "Malay" then refers to two things: a) the standard language of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore and b) numerous vernacular regional languages of ethnic Malays in Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula (and the islands in between) which are phonologically quite different from Indonesian and Standard Malay: everyone who has been e.g. to Bangka, Bengkulu, Ketapang or Kelantan knows what I mean. So renaming this one key to Help:IPA/Malay and Indonesian or Help:IPA/Indonesian and Malay (yes I know: what a potential for a chauvinist battleground!) makes sense, as in the case of Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu.
 * A move to "Indonesian and Malay" (let's go with the alphabetical) makes sense to me, unless there is an umbrella term for Indonesian and Standard Malay. Nardog (talk) 16:12, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Vote for "No". Indonesian language is part of Malay language family along with other Malay languages (includes Malaysian language). And I don't think the spelling and lexicon difference between Indonesian or other Malay languages are "different" enough to justify two keys. Ckfasdf (talk) 07:39, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
 * What about the second question then? Nardog (talk) 08:34, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Inclined to say "no" for the second question, as Indonesian language is variety of Malay. But, refer to Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu case, maybe it's better to put "Indonesian" in title. Ckfasdf (talk) 08:52, 1 February 2022 (UTC)