التحجر الصوتي في نطق الأصوات الملايوية عند الناطقين باللغة العربية

Abstract

This study explores the issue of phonological fossilisation among native Arabic speakers in acquiring and articulating unfamiliar Malay phonemes as a second or foreign language. In second language acquisition, learners typically navigate between their first language (L1) and the target language (L2); however, an essential phase often overlooked is the interlanguage process a transitional linguistic system characterised by persistent and resistant errors known as language fossilisation. This research aims to identify the types of phonological errors that have become fossilised in the speech of native Arabic speakers when pronouncing five distinct Malay phonemes that do not exist in Arabic sounds. The study adopts a descriptive qualitative approach, involving an analysis of Arabic and Malay phonological systems. Participants consist of native Arabic speakers residing in Malaysia. Their speech was recorded and analysed using Praat software, focusing on aspects such as formants, duration, and spectrograms. Findings indicate that the five Malay sounds were perceived as strange by the participants, and not all these sounds exhibited characteristics of phonological fossilisation. These results have important implications for teaching pronunciation in Malay as a second language, especially in addressing prolonged interlanguage phenomena among foreign learners.