Pronunciation and Grammar of English in

Malaysia
by
Yuichiro Sakiyama
A research paper submitted to the
Faculty of Arts
Of Kumamoto Gakuen University
In part fulfilment of the requirements
For the degree of
Bachelor of Arts
in
English Studies

ABSTRACT

This is about the way to speak English in Malaysia in respect of

pronunciation and grammar.
Malaysian can speak English because of Britain's rule as a colony, they are
influencedby them,
but their pronunciation and grammar are a little different from the Standard
British English. Why?
It comes from their mother tongue. They all have the different ways of it. This
paper presents the
differences between Malaysian and British.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER1
CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

INTRODUCTION
PRONUNCIATION OF MALAYSIAN ENGLISH
2-1

Vowels Different from the Standard British English

2-2

Word-Final Consonants

2-3

Word-Initial and Medial Consonants

GRAMMAR OF MALAYSIAN ENGLISH

3-1

CHAPTER 4

Suffix "-Lah" Is Put Together

3-2

Perfect Tense, "Already"

3-3

The Way of the Word "Got " in Malay

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

This paper presents some aspects of spoken and written English in Malaysia.
Today, there are
a lot of races, Malay, Chinese, Indian, e.t.c., in Malaysia. Though they have
their own languages,
most of them can speak English as the main language in Malaysia. Why is English
used widely ?
It is related with their history. In the end of 19th century, Britain ruled
Malaysia and influenced
their culture, educational systems, and vocabulary. However they don't speak
English as British
people do. They have different ways of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary in
every races.
Here, Malay's ways of pronunciation and grammar.
CHAPTER 2

PRONUNCIATION OF MALAYSIAN ENGLISH

In Malaysia, as several nations live in Malaysia now, they speak Malaysian

English in
different ways. Thus, Malaysian English pronunciation is quite different from
Standard English in
a lot of ways because it was influenced by their mother tongues.
In general, people who can not get the good education, speak English which is
pronounced
in their own mother tongue's ways. In contrast, educated people speak English
like British

English. Here, some noticeable differences between Malaysian and the Standard
British
English are described.
2-1

Vowels Different from the Standard British English

Malaysian pronunciation varies from the Standard British English. They tend
to pronounce not
long vowels but short vowels, for example:
food: [u:] [u]
law: [:] []
leave: [i:] [i]
Also, they do not pronounce diphthongs, and do it as monophthongs. This is
one of the most
unique characteristic parts of Malaysian English.
so: [ou] [o]
cap: [a] [a]
right: [ai] [a]
take: [ei] [e]
choice: [i] [o]
2-2

Word-Final Consonants

In Malaysian English, they do not pronounce the word-final consonants (p, t,

k, d, g, b,

e.t.c.). It is called glottal stop. This is from the influence of people who
speak Malay and
southern Chinese dialects (e.g. Cantonese).
they pronounce :

jus instead of just

tol instead of told

2-3Word-Initial and Medial Consonants
Initial consonants // and // often change into /t/ and /d/. Examples are
as follows,
thing [ti]

the[d]

Also the word-medial consonants /s/ change into /z/, for example,
December: [disembr] [dizemba:]

assembly: [sembli] [azembli]

Then, the sounds of // are sometimes changed into the ones of / /.

diversion: [daiv:n] [daiv:n]

excursion: [iksk:rn] [iksk

:n]
CHAPTER 3

GRAMMAR OF MALAYSIAN ENGLISH

Malaysian grammar is a little different from the Standard English because of

influence of
their own mother tongue,for example, they do not have the way of perfect tense
as British uses.
So they use the present participle instead of the past one, and "do" is dropped
in the interrogative.
In this section, these features are divided into three parts.
3-1

Suffix "-Lah" Put Together

The suffix "-lah" is put together on the end of the words. This is the most
famous
characteristic of Malaysian English. Its origin is possibly from language which
is spoken in
southern China (e.g. Cantonese). "-Lah" is not only at the end of sentences, but
also in the
middle of sentences. It is put together with nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other
parts of speech, and
it emphasizes them. "-Lah" at the end of sentences has the meaning of emphasis,
confirmation,
and asking for agreement. It is used in daily conversations to convey speakers'
emphatic and
emotional attitudes to listener, for example,

"I live in Kuala Lumpur, lah."

Two phrases concluding"-lah", used often by Malays, and they came from the
word of
Chinese and Malay. One is,
No need-lah

(I do not need it.)

"d" of "need" is glottal stop, so you can hear like this, "no nee lah." This is
the literal translation
from the word of Chinese and Malays',
Long time no see-lah

"tak payah." The other one is,

(I have not seen for a long time!)

This is also based on literal-translated Chinese phrase.

3-2

Perfect Tense, "Already"

Malays put the word "already" on the end of the sentences, and emphasize what
the sentences
are the perfect tense, for instance,
Eight years she works already. (She has been working for eight
years.)
This is the literal translation of the ending in Chinese word which means the
perfect tense.
Also, in Malay, they have the adverb "sadah" and "telah," which means the
perfect tense. They
are put before the verbs, but the endings do not change. In addition, Thai uses
the same way of
speaking English.
3-3

The Way of the Word " Got " in Malay

Malays use the word "got " when expressing the meanings of "be," "exist," and
"have."
It comes from the abbreviation of "have got," but they use the same ways as
Chinese and
Malays' "ada", so they use "got," not "get" regardless of tense. For example,
In China, where got people go to English school ?
(In China, where are there people who go to English-medium schools ?)
And then in case of negative sentences, they use "no got."
CHAPTER 4

CONCLUSION

Nowadays, Malay speaks English, including Malaysian English, in daily

communications
much more than Japanese. In broadcasts on TV, radio programs, and making
speeches in
Malaysia, they use British ways of expressions and pronunciations. Some
Malaysian announcers
on TV about English news speak "King's English," which means Standard English in
Britain. So,
it is quite easy for everyone to hear their English broadcasts. On the other
hand, in the informal
situations, most of them talk to their family and friends by Malaysian English,
just like, Japanese
chat with their friends by their dialects and slang, while using "Standard"
Japanese in their offices.
Thus, they choose right words according to circumstances, so it is not good for
us to think of
people who could have the good education, as speaking British English and, who
could not, as
speaking Malaysian English. But they used it less and less, moreover, those who
did not have
much English classes, so their ability to speak and write English is declined
now because of the
policy that changed from English to national language of Malaysia, and that made
English
complete foreign language for the sake of improving educational in equality.
However, Malaysian
government knows the importance of English because English remains as main

important
language to develop their own country's future in the world and it is still used
in Malaysia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY :
AJIA NO EIGO

in Japanese (Asian English) by Nobuyuki Honna, - Kuroshio

Publishers,
1990
"Singapore and Malaysia" by Jhon Platt, Heidi Weber, and Mian Lian Ho.- J.
Benajmins
Publishers, 1983
"Konshuu no Malaysia" (This Week's Malaysia) 1998 July-August
(http://www.big.or.jp/ aochan/column/98jlyaug.html manglishlast)
"Indonesian-Malaysian "(The Language of the World by Computers and the
Internet)
(http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/logos/indomalay.html rlang)