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Compared to English varieties spoken in the inner circle (e.g., Australian English and New Zealand English), the English variety spoken in Indonesia, especially in acoustic phonetics, is still understudied. Using the Praat computer program, this acoustic study investigates the English vowel production of fifteen Indonesian females and males. The formants (F1 and F2) of their English vowel in words heed /hid/, hid /hɪd/, head /hɛd/, had /æ/, hod /hɑd/, hawed /hɔd/, hood /hʊd/, who’d /hud/, hud /hʌd/, and heard /hɝd/ are measured and then compared with the vowels produced by American English speakers. Regardless of the speakers’ gender and English skill levels, the vowels [æ] and [ɑ] show the most significant differences between Indonesian and American English speakers. The difference in this study is conditioned more by linguistic factors, i.e., phonetics and phonemics, than by non-linguistic factors, i.e., gender and English skill level. The findings of this study offer a discussion of how acoustic evidence resulting from language education may shed light on possible language contact situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the observed patterns of variation in vowel-final [-ʔ], [-h], and [Ø] in seven function words that are produced in utterance-final position, this study offers a study of linguistic contact between Betawi and Standard Indonesian that together contribute to the emergence of a variety of Indonesian called Jakarta Indonesian. The relationship between these varieties is identified in the patterns of variation that show a general trend toward increased use of the Standard Indonesian-influenced form among educated speakers and females. Using a large-scale speech corpus, this investigation provides evidence of the patterns of variation and sound change that are taking place, their direction, and how their adoption correlates with genders and educational categories represented in the corpus. In addition, this study demonstrates the importance of a naturalistic speech corpus in examining the actual patterns of variation by focusing on colloquial speech, which we know to be the locus of language change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]