Malay Language for Foreign Students

Malay Language for Foreign Students

Bahasa Malaysia Komunikasi
ULAM1112

Pelajaran I (Lesson 1)

SEBUTAN DAN INTONASI

I. THE ALPHABET

* Bahasa Melayu/Bahasa Malaysia is written in romanised script consists of alphabets A to Z. So Bahasa Melayu is not phonetics. * Words in Bahasa Melayu are syllable. * From all of the alphabets, five letters are vowels while the rest of the alphabets are consonants.

II. THE VOWELS

There are six vowels in Bahasa Malaysia:

a is pronounced as aa/ar

saya (I) ayah (father) adik (younger brother/sister) mana? (where?)

e (taling) is pronounced as a in English letter meja (table) elok (beautiful) ekor (tail) kemah (tend)

e (pepet) is pronounced as eer

peta (map) emak (mother) sentuh (taouch) kelas (class)

i is pronounced as ee

ini (this/these) itu (that) kiri (left) peti (box)

o is pronounced as o

bola (ball) otak (brain) kotak (box) kotor (dirty)

u is pronounced as oo

buku (book) ubat (medicine) lembu (cow) baru (new)

III. THE DIFTHONGS

There are three diphtongs:

ai is pronounced as ie

misai (moustache) kedai (shop) salai (smoked) gadai (mortgage)

au is pronounced as ow

pisau (knife) hijau (green) risau (worry) kalau (if)

oi is pronounced as ouy

amboi (oh!) koboi (cow boy) kaloi (a kind of fish)

IV. THE CONSONANTS

In generals the pronunciation of consonants is the same as in English except for:

c is pronounced as ch

cuci (wash) cawan (cup) cari (find) cantik (beautiful)

g is pronounced hard as in ‘garden’, ‘girl’

garam (salt) gambar (picture) gaji (salary) gajah (elephant)

V. THE ADDITIONAL ALPHABET (CLUSTER)

There are some additional alphabet in Bahasa Melayu. They are counted as single letter such as:

ng is pronounced like sing.

nganga (to open the mouth widely) tangan (hand) jangan