SOUND CHANGE AND SYLLABIFICATION: The Interlanguage of Korean Speakers Studying Indonesian

Abstract

Second language (L2) learners tend to apply their first language (L1) patterns over the second language (L2) when practicing the L2(Kager, 2004, p. 23): what is known as the Language Transfer or Interference and the language is known as Interlanguage. This is quite normal and can obviously be observed in the earliest stage of L2 learning. The paper aims on describing the Korean sound system interference to Indonesian. The data is obtained from Korean speakers (KSs) studying Indonesian. Korean and Indonesian are two different languages, relatively unrelated. They have some distinct consonants and vowels in their consonants and vowels inventories. The incorrect pronunciation of Indonesian can be described in terms of sound change and syllabification with reference to Korean sound pattern. Syllable internal structure modifications are performed by KSs. In terms of sound change, the language transfer can be categorized into segment addition, deletion, and feature change. In consequence, the number of syllable might change.One might perceive the interlanguage as a type error, but in this paper, I consider the interference as an inevitable effort of studying L2.