ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS OF AN ACEHNESE DIALECT: PIDIENESE ORAL MONOPHTHONG VOWELS1

Abstract

This study reports the characteristics of monophthong oral vowels of an Acehnese dialect, spoken in Pidie, Aceh, Indonesia. Ten Pidienese female speakers were recorded to produce ten target vowels using a carrier sentence. Approximately 300 vowel tokens were analysed using Praat version 6.0.19. The data is also compared to the North Aceh dialect vowels. Formant plots and t-tests were done to study their similarities and differences. The results showed that /i/ and /u/ are produced similarly, but the vowels, /ε/, /e/ and /o/ are produced completely different because they are unalike in terms of height and dimension. Meanwhile, the vowels /e/, /w/, /A/, /a/ and // are produced differently, where the Pidienese speakers produced them lower in the vowel space. This study contributes to the documentation and preservation of Acehnese, considering that it is only spoken by the Acehnese ethnic out of hundreds of ethnic groups that exist in Indonesia.