Menghormati perbezaan, meraikan persamaan

-
Saling memahami. Tidak perlu penyeragaman sebutan. Presiden Joko Widodo dengan sebutan standard bahasa Melayu Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia) dan Perdana Menteri Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim dengan sebutan standard bahasa Melayu Tanah Melayu (Bahasa Melayu Standard). Setiap orang dengan identiti bahasa Melayu masing- masing yang dicirikan sebutan (loghat/aksen). Kalaupun timbul salah faham, kemungkinan besar atas sebab lain dan bukan sebutan kerana penyeragaman aspek bahasa yang lebih penting -- nahu, peristilahan dan ejaan -- antara Bahasa Indonesia dan Bahasa Melayu Standard belum tercapai.
In contrast, the standardisation of English has been successful, without accent/pronunciation being subjected to any standardisation. When PM Lee Hsien Loong and PM Jacinda Ardern held a joint press conference in Singapore last year, they both spoke Standard English but their distinctive linguistic identities remained intact -- PM Lee with his Singapore accent and PM Ardern with her New Zealand accent. Similarly when you watch or listen to CNA journalists reporting from their respecrive locations, they speak the same standard English but through a rich variety of different accents.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sebutan Baku Bite-Size 7: Murid sukar membaca dan mengeja tanpa Sebutan Baku?

-
Image
Terkandung di dalam pernyataan yang dipersoalkan di atas ialah masalah yang murid hadapi – kesukaran membaca dan mengeja. Ia membabitkan persoalan pedagogi dan memerlukan huraian bersifat pedagogi - apakah cara mengajar yang terbaik untuk membantu murid membaca dan mengeja? Malangnya, bukan cara mengajar yang diperbaiki, bahasa pula yang tergadai apabila sistem sebutannya diubah untuk 'memudahkan' murid. Akibatnya, murid kini ‘lebih mudah’ membaca dan mengeja tetapi tidak lagi bercakap seperti ibu bapa dan datuk nenek mereka; terputus daripada identiti bahasa warisan yang sebahagian besarnya terletak pada sebutan atau loghat. Kembali kepada soalan di atas, adakah benar Sebutan Baku membantu murid membaca dan mengeja Bahasa Melayu yang sedia ada atau Bahasa Melayu yang telah diubah?  ( Mukhlis, 2019 ; Mukhlis & Wee, 2021 ;  Mukhlis & Sa’eda, 2021 )
Read more

Linguistic accommodation

-
Image
An interesting commentary  by Assoc Prof Tang Ying Ying of NTU  on TikTok CEO's use of American features in his speech at the US Congress. In her commentary, Prof Tang makes reference to linguistic accommodation, a linguistic phenomenon where the speaker assimilates to the speech patterns of his/her speech partners for specific reasons. In this instance, the CEO accommodated to the American accent to close the gap between him and the US lawmakers and make himself more acceptable to them, or that's what he thought. Worth a read, I think. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/tiktok-chew-shou-zi-singaporean-ceo-speech-accent-american-features-3395481 I'm with Prof Tang with regards to her observation that there seems to be a preference for the American accent over the British accent. It's like as if you have arrived if you speak English with the post-vocalic 'r' typical of the American accent. But historically, Singaporeans grew up with the Singapore version
Read more