ACOUSTIC STUDY OF KEDAH DIALECTS

This paper aims to examine the acoustic differences of bilabial plosive sounds that exist in the Kedah dialect through the Acoustic Phonetic approach. Based on the method of spectrograph analysis, the analysed spectrogram data shows the acoustic characteristics of the plosive sound uttered by Kedah dialect speakers. Acoustic signals for plosive sounds include Voice Onset Time, Closure Duration, Voicing During Closure Duration, Vowel Length and Voice Bar. Voice Onset Time in acoustic phonetic studies is divided into three categories namely Long Voicing Lag (LVL), Short Voicing Lag (SVL) and Voicing Lead (VLd). The findings indicate that Kedah Dialect belongs to the group of languages that have an SVL vs. VLD pattern, similar to that of a standard Malay language. In addition to the Voice Onset Time (VOT) variable, this study also confirms several other acoustic cues that are able to highlight the plosive sound in the Kedah Dialect, namely Voicing During Closure Duration and Closure Duration. VOT turned out to be very wary of being used in distinguishing between voiced and voiceless plosive sound at the initial and medial of word in Kedah Dialect and standard Malay language. Acoustic analysis shows that Kedah Dialect and standard Malay language have no significant differences in voiced and voiceless plosive, though still showing a slight difference in the VOT values. This study has significant implications on the aspect of standard and non-standard variant pronunciation. It also highlights the importance of acoustic scrutiny in the context of of presenting phonetic and phonological questions in the Kedah dialect more appropriately.