Formant Analysis of Diphthong for Standard Malay Language and Northern Regions’ Dialects

The diphthong /ai/, /au/ and /oi/ are sounds that are widely used in the pronunciation of the language and dialects of Malay language. However, the pronunciation of the diphthongs is claimed to vary between standard Malay language and northern regions dialects, Kedah, Perlis, and Penang. Previous studies of Malay diphthongs were done impressionistically; thus, the variations in diphthongs were done subjectively. In this paper, the diphthongs of standard Malay and northern regions of Malaysia were empirically studied using acoustic measurements. Three diphthongs were collected from local males and females residing in Selangor for standard Malay language and from Kedah, Perlis and Pulau Pinang for dialects in the Malay language. The analysis of the diphthong was done based on spectrogram extracted from the spoken words of the locals. Three formant frequencies (F1-F3) were extracted from the spectrogram of the diphthongs. The pronunciation variations of the diphthongs were analyzed, and a new diphthong /ui/ was discovered based on the formant frequencies. It is a variation of the standard Malay diphthong /oi/ spoken by the locals residing in the northern region of Malaysia.