LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 27 OBAMA AND NATASHA: HOW THE LAST LETTERS OF THEIR NAMES ARE PRONOUNCED Alim Sukrisno Semarang State University ABSTRACT This is a study about English pronunciation, particularly dealing with the pronunciation of the letter –a in final position of English words. The aim is to find a certainty of how to pronounce this letter, whether to be pronounced as [Ə], [] or any other sound. The data under observation are an exhausted list of words ending in -a letter collected from Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (OALD). The result of the observation indicates that there are 847 words ending in –a. Those words consist of 683 general words, 75 names of persons, 74 names of countries, and 17 names of states in the United States. Out of the 847 words, 30 (0.03%) words have a deviating pronunciation pattern in their final –a letter. The majority of the words, 817 (96.45%) words demonstrate the sound [Ə] in their final –a letters. The final –a letter in most of the 30 words is pronounced as long [a:], and not as short [] as often heard in the pronunciation of quite a few people. Since all of these 30 words are words of very low frequency of occurrence, they are not significant in contributing something of value to English pronunciation, so they can be neglected. Based on the result above, it can be concluded that all of the final –a letters in English words should be pronounced as [Ə]; thus representing other English words, Obama is pronounced as [oƱ ba:mƏ] and Natasha as [nƏta:∫Ə]. A suggestion coming out of the above finding is that we should, beyond doubt, pronounce the final letter –a in English words as [Ə]. This suggestion will bear a teaching-learning consequence in the classroom. Key words: pronunciation, Obama, Natasha, letter, –a letters, [Ə] INTRODUCTION This introductory section deals with a number of issues relevant to the topic of my research report. The issues to be discussed are as follows: On numerous numbers of occasions, as an English lecturer handling English Phonetic course as well as English Pronunciation Practice course at the English Department, I often hear English pronunciation not only from the conversations of students but also from those of my teaching colleagues at the department. On other occasions, intentionally I observe the pronunciation of other people to make sure whether their English pronunciation is in conformity with the appropriate English pronunciation concepts (as recommended by a reliable dictionary) which I have so far studied and taught to my students, secondary school English teachers following a training course and whoever I happen to teach. 28 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 The focus of my observation whenever I am listening to someone‟s conversation in English is on his/her pronunciation, especially in the pronunciation of segmental and supra- segmental speech sounds. During my observations, there is the pronunciation of certain letters in the context of English words which is not in consonance with the pronunciation analogy I have got, studied and concluded from the pronunciation study originated from an English dictionary which displays pronunciation guide; for example, Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (Hornby, 2005). As an English teacher, specifically teaching English Pronunciation Practice course, I pay a great and keen interest on the appropriateness and preciseness of pronunciation. Therefore, a slight inaccuracy of English pronunciation which I happen to hear and observe will become the focus of my attention. The result of my observation will give a very valuable input to me in improving my own pronunciation as part of my personal and professional development and in delivering the teaching materials which always involve the use of English pronunciation. Quite recently, my attention has been concentrated not on the pronunciation of English words or sentences as a whole, but on the pronunciation of a certain letter in the alphabet which is sometimes present in English words. The thing confiscating my attention is the letter ‘-a’ which is distributed in the final position of a word, for example, in the last name of the president of the USA, OBAMA, and his daughter, NATASHA (which become the title of the research and they represent the other English words ending in ‘-a’, i. e., visa, data, schema, etc.). The problem arising from my observation is that there is often inaccuracy in the pronunciation of that letter in the context of English words. Quite many students, SMP/SMA teachers, applicants for English lecturers at the English Department of UNNES with S2 qualification, pronounce this ‘a’ letter occurring in the final position of a word as [], instead of [Ə]. Probably, this is a kind of interference of Indonesian pronunciation into English. The reason is that in Indonesian, letter ‘a’ regardless of its distribution is always pronounced as []. Therefore, it is quite natural when a lot of English lecturer candidates in the 2009 period and in the previous periods, pronounced the „schema‟ as [skim], and data as [dt]. Based on this pronunciation pattern, it can be expected that OBAMA will be pronounced as OBAM[], and similarly NATASHA will be pronounced as NATASH[]. The pronunciation of English letters of Indonesian native speakers differs from that of English native speakers, which is represented by the pronunciation of the Secretary of State of the USA, Hilary Clinton, who visited Indonesia in February 2009. On a number of occasions, she LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 29 mentioned the name of OBAMA by pronouncing it OBAM[ə], and not OBAM[]. For other people or English teachers/lecturers who are not teaching pronunciation, this slight mispronunciation will certainly escape attention. However, the mispronunciation above, though very small and trivial, for me constitutes an important problem because a model of precise and accurate pronunciation will be a warrantee of English pronunciation which is accountable in the teaching of pronunciation. Based on the principle that hesitation, let alone, consistent error in pronunciation is a disaster for the teaching of English, because a wrong model of pronunciation will always be copied by our students. Related to the above background information, the pronunciation of the final ‘- a’ in English words, whether to be pronounced as [] or as [ə] becomes an interesting problem to be solved in this research. In keeping with the discussion presented in the introduction, the problems attempted to be solved in this research are as follows: (1). How many English words ending in ‘-a’ are there in an English dictionary? (2). Do we have to pronounce this letter ‘- a’ as [] or [ə]? (3). If one type of the pronunciation can be used as a pronunciation pattern, is there any deviation in the pronunciation of the letter „-a‟ occurring in the final position of English words? Related to the above statement of the problem, this research is aimed at: (1). finding out the number of English words ending in ‘-a’ available in Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (Hornby, 2005), (2). seeking accuracy in the pronunciation of the letter ‘-a’ occurring in the final position of any English word, and (3). offering a deviation of pronunciation pattern if it really exists. Hopefully, the result of this study will be useful for several parties involved in the teaching and learning of English pronunciation. First, this study will give a considerable input, especially in the accuracy of the pronunciation of English words in general and that of English words ending in the letter ‘-a’ in particular. With this input, anyone, including us, English teachers, can teach the pronunciation of the letter „-a‟ with absolute confidence, because accurate pronunciation can be determined and modeled to the students. Second, whenever the result of this study is disseminated to as many teachers and lecturers of English as possible, those 30 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 teachers and lecturers can have a proper and accurate pronunciation model which has been empirically examined. Third, the target of teaching of English pronunciation, i.e. English students, can have a good and accurate pronunciation model which can be concretely applied in their daily conversation. REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE This study originates from casual and intentional observation outside of a classroom: they are things present beyond teaching-learning activities in the classroom. Therefore, this activity is in harmony with the article of Bendazzoli and Escalante (1992) entitled „From “Real Life” Problems to Research.‟ According to Bendazzoli and Escalante, out there or outside of the classroom, there is „environment space‟ where inside it there is a „problem space‟. Within the environment space, problems either light or heavy are scattered around; they are either light or rather heavy, or even very heavy ones, which can be used as a material source for researches (researchable phenomena). These problems await our professional action (Bendazzoli and Escalante, 1992) to be picked up as our research problems. As has been mentioned somewhere in the introduction, the problem of this research does not pop us from an empty space, but it appears from an „environment space‟ (Paez-Urdaneta‟s Model of Professional Competence in Action adapted by Bendazzoli and Escalante, 1992). For teachers of English, this environment space of course exists within the environment domain of our real and daily life which is heavily engaged in the educational world and in the teaching of English. From the conversation among friends, interviews with candidates of new students, interviews with new recruits of teaching staff, unintentionally I came across problems which are worth paying attention to. These problems, according to Bendazzoli and Escalante, wait for our professional competence in order to be handled by developing them into research problems. In this research, the problem appearing from the environment space is concerned with English pronunciation. Regarding the problem of English pronunciation, there are two contradictory opinions (Goodwin, 2001). On the one hand, quite a few opinions or research results demonstrate that there has been no proper attention paid to the teaching of pronunciation. This is proved by Bobda (1993) who stated that pronunciation evaluation found no place in the classroom in Cameroon. To confirm this fact, Purcell and Suter (1980: 286) concluded that pronunciation exercise in class did not affect the pronunciation skill of the students. Furthermore, they went on adding that „the attainment of accurate pronunciation in a second language is a LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 31 matter substantially beyond the control of educators‟ (Purcell and Suter, 1980: 286). In keeping with this fact, Pennington and Richards (1986) supported by Stern (1992: 112), also reported the absence of proof confirming the practice of pronunciation training. Contrary to the above reports, several research results indicate the presence of attempt to teach pronunciation in the teaching of English. Robertson (2002) reported in a laboratory observation that Korean children and adults experienced a significant improvement after obtaining a 6- hour pronunciation training. Therefore, Goodwin (2001: 117) said that „… the teaching of pronunciation is so crucial to our students.‟ In line with Goodwin‟s opinion, the English Department of the State University of Semarang (UNNES), feels mandated to give its students a provision of appropriate English pronunciation. For this, the English Department of UNNES (Kurikulum Bahasa Inggris 2008) explicitly includes Pronunciation Practice course in its curriculum. The aim is to give an adequate training and exercise for one semester to the students of English Literature and Education programmes. In this way, the English Department hopes that its graduates will have an adequate competence in their speaking skill which is supported by appropriate English pronunciation which refers to Standard Pronunciation or „Received Pronunciation‟ (info@angloscene.com). In harmony with the mission of the English Department of UNNES to produce qualified graduates adequately skilled in speaking, this pronunciation research will to some extent engender a teaching model for English pronunciation. This model of teaching pronunciation will be reliable and valid since it is acquired from an empirical study which bases itself on the pronunciation model recommended by a reliable English Dictionary (Hornby, 2005). METHOD OF INVESTIGATION This study is to a slight degree quantitative in nature. This is due to the fact that it involves the counting of a number of a certain group of English words together with their percentage. The rest of the research is to make an attempt of describing the pronunciation of the letter ‘- a’ occurring in the final position of English words. The object of this study is all English words ending in ‘-a’ which are available in an English dictionary. The dictionary which becomes the source of the data is entitled „Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary‟ (Hornby, 2005). The data were derived by means of inventorising all English words which end in „-a‟ available in the above-mentioned dictionary, from the letter A up to Z. The data analysis was conducted by transcribing the collected words into mailto:info@angloscene.com 32 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 phonetic transcription by paying a special attention to the pronunciation of the final „- a‟ letter. From the result of this transcription effort, the pronunciation of the words ending in ‘-a’ was identified and documented. In order to gain a more accurate result, the pronunciation appearing in phonetic transcription (offered by OALD, Hornby, 2005) of the inventorised words were compared with the phonetic transcription recommended by another dictionary. The way on comparing the pronunciation was by choosing in a random manner a certain number of the inventorised words and then comparing them with the pronunciation of the randomly selected words offered by another dictionary which is equally reliable and representative. For this purpose, the dictionary used as a pronunciation comparison was The Macquarie Dictionary (1990). The result of comparing the pronunciation of the inventorised words between two dictionaries would demonstrate accuracy and consistency of the pronunciation of the observed English words so that the result of the study can be determined to be the pronunciation pattern which should be taught to the students. The result of the word inventory serving as the data of this study and its subsequent analysis and comparison produce the findings of the present study. They will be available in the next section. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS From the analysis of the inventories and the observed English words ending in ‘-a’ found in Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (Hornby, 2005), there are several findings. Each of the findings will be discussed as follows: Lexical Item in the Form of Nouns LETTER A 1. acacia 2. academia 3. abracadabra 4. Africa 5. agenda 6. agora 7. agoraphobia 8. agraphia 9. aha* 10. aka 11. a la 34. antenna 35. Arabia 36. Arabica 37. Arcadia 38. arcana 39. area 40. arena 41. areola 42. aria 43. armada 44. arnica 45. aroma 46. arugula 66. barista 67. barracouta 68. barracuda 69. basilica 70. bazooka 71. begonia 72. begorra 73. belladonna 74. beluga 75. beta 76. bhangra 77. bilhaizia 78. biretta LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 33 12. alfalfa 13. algebra 14. Alaska 15. alleluia 16. alpaca 17. alpha 18. alumna 19. America 20. ammonia 21. amnesia 22. amoeba 23. Anna 24. anaconda 25. anaemia 26. anesthesia 27. analgesia 28. anathema 29. angelica 30. angina 31. angora 32. angostura 33. anorexia 47. asphyxia 48. aspidistra 49. asthma 50. ataxia 51. aura 52. azalea LETTER B 53. baa* 54. baba* 55. bacteria 56. baklava 57 balaclava 58. balalaika 59. ballerina 60. balsa 61. banana 62. bandanna 63. Bangla 64. bania 65. baraza 79. Black Maria 80. Bodhisatva 81. bologna 82. boma 83. bombora 84. bonanza 85. bonsella 86. bravura 87. brouhaha 88. Buddha 89. bulimia 90. burkha 91. bursa 92. burnt sienna 93. bwana LETTER C 94. cadenza 95. caesura 96. cafeteria 97. camellia 98. camera 99. Canada 100. canasta 101. candela 102. candelabra 103. candida 104. cannula 105. cantata 106. capoeira 107. capybara 108. carbonara 109. carcinoma 110. Casanova 111. Cassandra 112. cassava 144. concertina 145. conga 146. contra 147. copra 148. copula 149. cornea 150. cornupia 151. corolla 152. corona 153. corpora*** 154. cowpea* 155. cupola 156. cuppa 184. dysphoria 185. dyspraxia 186. dystopia LETTER E 187. echidna 188. Echinacea 189. eclampsia 190. eczema 191. edema 192. egomania 193. Eid ul Adha 194. enchilada 195. encyclopedia 34 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 113. cataphora 114. catatonia 115. cava 116. cedilla 117. celesta 118. chacha* 119. charisma 120. chi hua hua 121. chikungunya 122. chimenea 123. chimera 124. china 125. chin-chilla 126. chipolata 127. Chlamydia 128. cholera 129. chorea 130. chroma 131. chukka 132. ciabata 133. cicada 134. Cinderella 135. cinema 136. citronella 137. coca 138. Coca-Cola 139. cochlea 140. cocoa* 141. coda 142. coma 143. comma LETTER D 157. Dada* 158. dagga 159. data 160. deca- 161. delta 162. dementia 163. dhania 164. dharma 165. dharna 166. diarrhea 167. diglossia 168. dilemma 169. diploma 170. docudrama 171. donga 172. Donna 173. dopiaza 174. dosa 175. doula 176. drachma 177. Dracula 178. drama 179. dupatta 180. dyslexia 181. dysmorphia 182. dyspepsia 183. dysphasia 196. enema 197. enigma 198. ephemera 199. era 200. erotica 201. errata 202. etcetera 203. euphoria 204. eureka 205. euthanasia 206. exa 207. excreta 208. exgratia 209. exotica 210. extra 211. extravaganza LETTER F 212. fantasia 213. fashionista 214. fauna 215. favela 216. fedora 217. fella 218. fermata 219. fibroma 220. fibula 221. fiesta 222. fistula LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 35 223. floribunda 224. flotilla 225. formula 226. forsythia 227. fuchsia LETTER G 228. gaga* 229. Gaia 230. gala 231. gamma 232. gangsta 233. Garda 234. gardenia 235. geisha 236. Geneva 237. ghagra* 238. gharara 239. gondola 240. Gondwana 241. gonna 242. gonorrhea 243. gora 244. gorgonzola 245. gorilla 246. gotcha 247. grandma 248. grandpa 249. granita 250. granola 251. grappa 252. guava 253. guerrilla 254. guinea 255. gurdwara 256. Gurkha 257. gutta percha 261. haka 262. Hakka 263. halma 264. halwa* 265. Hare Krishna 266. harissa 267. harmonica 268. hernia 269. hexa 270. hiragana 271. hiya 272. honoris causa 273. hoopla* 274. hosanna 275. hydra 276. hydrangea 277. hyena 278. hyperbola 279. hypermedia 280. hypnopaedia 281. hypothermia 282. hypoxaemia 283. hypoxia 284. hysteria LETTER I 285. idea 286. ikebana 287. iguana 288. impala 289. in absentia 290. inamorata 291. indaba 292. inertia 293. influenza 294. insignia 295. insomnia LETTER J 302. jacaranda 303. jaffa 304. jambalaya 305. japonica 306. jeboa 307. jibba 308. jojoba 309. junta 310. juvenilia A. LETTER K 311. Kaaba 312. kahuna 313. Kannada 314. kappa 315. karma 316. katakana 317. Kejia 318. kiaora 319. khanga 320. kinesthesia 321. kippa* 322. kleptomania 323. koala 324. kofta 325. kookaburra 326. kora 327. korma 328. krona 329. Kurta 330. Kwanzaa 331. Kwela LETTER L 332. labia 333. lacuna 36 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 LETTER H 258. ha* 259. hacienda 260. haematoma 296. intarsia 297. intelligentsia 298. intra 299. inyanga 300. iota 301. ischaemia 334. ladida* 335. ladolcevita 336. Lahnda 337. laksa 338. lama 339. lambada 340. La Nina 341. lapa 342. larva 343. Latina 344. Laurasia 345. lava 346. leukemia 347. Libra 348. limba 349. listeria 350. llama 351. lobelia 352. loggia 353. Lolita 354. Lycra 355. lymphoma LETTER M 356. macademia 357. Madonna 358. madrasa 359. mafia 360. magenta 361. magma 362. Magna Charta 363. magnesia 364. magnolia 365. maharaja 381. marina 382. Marsala 383. masala 384. mascara 385. Matilda 386. maxilla 387. mazurka 388. meaculpa 389. Mecca 390. media 391. mega 392. melanoma 393. meladica 394. melodrama 395. Menza 396. mestiza 397. meta 398. miasma 399. mica 400. militia 401. mimosa 402. miraa* 403. Miranda 404. miscellanea 405. mocha 406. momma 407. mompara 408. monomania 409. moussaka 410. mozzarella 423. neuralgia 424. neurasthenia 425. ninja 426. nirvana 427. nostalgia 428. novella 429. nova LETTER O 430. obscura 431. ocarina 432. Oceania 433. oedema 434. Ojibia 435. okra 436. Olestra 437. omega 438. onomatopoeia 439. opera 440. operetta 441. orca 442. orchestra 443. organza 444. Oriya LETTER P 445. Paedophilia 446. paella 447. pagoda 448. paisa** LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 37 366. mahatma 367. Mahayana 368. malaria 369. mama 370. mamba 371. manana 372. mandala 373. manga 374. mania 375. manila 376. manna 377. mantra 378. margarita 379. marginalia 380. marijuana 411. multimedia 412. mwethya 413. myalgia 414. myeloma 415. myopia LETTER N 416. negana 417. nana 418. nappa 419. nausea 420. nebula 421. necrophilia 422. neplus ultra* 449. Pakeha* 450. pakora 451. panacea 452. panama 453. panatela 454. panda 455. Pandora 456. panga 457. Pangaea 458. panorama 459. pantsula 460. papa** 461. papaya 462. papilloma 463. paprika 464. para 465. parabola 466. paranoia 467. paraphernalia 468. paraplegia 469. paratha 470. parka 471. pashmina 472. pasta 473. patella 474. patina 475. pavlova 476. payola 477. pea* 478. peach Melba 479. pelota 480. peninsula 481. Pennsylvania 482. penta 508. poppa 509. porphyria 510. prana 511. presbyopia 512. prima ballerina 513. primadonna 514. primula 515. proforma 516. propaganda 517. samba 518 samoa 519. sangoma 520. sangria 521. sapodilla 522. prorata 523. psychedelia 524. pudenda 525. puja* 526. pukka 527. puma 528. pupa 529. putonghua* 547. rota 548. rotunda 549. rubella 550. r(h)umba 551. rutabaga LETTER S 552. saga 553. saliva 554. salmonella 555. salsa 556. sarcoma 557. sarsaparilla 558. Satsuma 559. Saturnalia 560. sauna 561. savanna 562. Scandinavia 563. scapula 564. schema 565. schemata 566. schizophrenia 38 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 483. penumbra 484. Peoria 485. per capita 486. pergola 487. persona 488. persona non grata 489. peseta 490. peta 491. petunia 492. phobia 493. pianola 494. piazza 495. pica 496. Pima 497. pinta 498. pinacolada 499. piranha 500. pizza 501. pizzeria 502. plasma 503. plaza 504. plea* 505. plethora 506. pleura 507. poinsettia LETTER O 530. qibla 531. qua* 532. quagga 533. quanta LETTER R 534. raga 535. ragga 536. raita 537. realia 538. recta 539. regalia 540. regatta 541. Regina 542. replica 543. retina 544. retsina 545. ria 546. Roma 567. schwa* 568. sciatica 569. scintilla 570. seborrhea 571. semolina 572. Seneca 573. sepia 574. septicaena 575. sequoia 576. sevika 577. shamba 578. Shangri-la* 579. sharia 580. Sheila 581. Sherpa 582. siena 583. sierra 584. siesta 585. sigma 586. silica 587. ska* 588. skua 589. soca 590. soda 591. sofa 592. solfa*** 593. soya 594. spa* 595. spatula 596. spaza 597. spectra 598. spermatozoa 599. stamina 600. stanza 628. tessitura 629. tiara 630. tibia 631. tikka 632. toccata 633. tombola 634. tortilla 635. tosa 636. trattoria 637. trauma 638. trivia 664. vicuna 665. villa 666. viola 667. visa 668. Visakha 669. viscera 670. vista 671. vita 672. viva 673. Viyella 674. vodka LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 39 601. stigma 602. stigmata 603. stoma 604. strata 605. subpoena 606. suburbia 607. sufuria 608. suggestopaedia 609. sultana 610. sutra 611. swastika 612. syntagma LETTER T 613. tabla 614. tabularasa 615. tafetta 616. taiga 617. tala 618. tanga 619. tantra 620. tapioca 621. taramasalata 622. tarantula 623. tata* 624. tempera 625. tempura 626. tequila 627. terra-cotta 639. troika 640. tsarina 641. tuba 642. tuna 643. tundra 644. tympana LETTER U 645. ujamaa* 646. ulna 647. ultra 648. umbra 649. urea 650. urethra 651. urticaria 652. utopia 653. uvula LETTER V 654. vagina 655. Valhalla 656. vanilla 657. Veda 658. vendetta 659. verbena 660. verruca 661. vertebra 662. via 663. Viagra 675. vulva LETTER W 676. wanna 677. Wicca 678. wisteria LETTER X 679. xenophobia 680. Xhosa LETTER Y 681. yada 682. yakka 683. yoga 684. Yoruba 685. yotta The table above demonstrates that 685 English words ending in „-a‟ managed to be inventorized from OALD. These words can be categorized as follows; Words normally printed (not bolded or not given asterisk) The words with no asterisk are English words whose final „-a‟ letter is always pronounced as [Ə]. Let‟s take two random examples: 40 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 marijuana diucapkan [ ma:rI'hƱa:nƏ ] vendetta diucapkan [ vn'dtƏ ] The rest of the words belonging to this group receive a certainty in the pronunciation of their „-a‟ ending; that is, the „-a‟ letter must be pronounced as [-Ə]. At this stage of analysis, this word group covers 95.62% (685 of the entire words managed to be collected, subtracted by 28 ending in „-a‟ which have a deviating pronunciation patterns plus 2 omitted words). These 30 words will be discussed later in sub-sections 4.3 and 4.5. Whenever the above group of words (obtained from OALD) are randomly compared with the same words which are listed in another dictionary, that is The Macquarie Dictionary (TMD), the pronunciation of these randomly chosen words will read as follows: OALD TMD data [ 'deItƏ ] [ 'deItƏ ] marijuana [ma:rI'hƱa:nƏ] [mærƏ'wanƏ] vendetta [ vn'dtƏ ] [ vn'dtƏ ] schema [ 'ski:mƏ ] [ 'skimƏ ] tapioca [ tæpI'oƱkƏ ] [ tæpi'oƱkƏ ] uvula [ 'ju:vyƏlƏ ] [ 'ju:vyƏlƏ ] The above random comparison demonstrates that both OALD and TMD present precisely the same pattern of pronunciation for the letter ‘-a’; that is, both dictionaries pronounce the final letter ‘-a’ as [Ə]. If this pattern is applied to a wider population covering the whole population available in OALD, the result will certainly be the same, except for the 28 words with a deviating pronunciation pattern. The bolded words in 4.1 with a single asterisk (*) The words belonging to this group receive varying pronunciation patterns on the ‘-a‟ at the end of each word. The words, which are marked -* and arranged in an alphabetical order, amount to 28 words. Below they will be listed together and phonetically transcribed so that the variation of the pronunciation of their final letter ‘-a‟ can be clearly seen. 1. aha [ a:ha: ] 10. ha [ ha: ] 20. puja [ 'pu:dʒa: ] LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 41 2. baa [ ba: ] 3. baba [ 'ba:ba: ] 4. chacha [ 't∫a:t∫a: ] 5. cocoa [ 'koƱ koƱ ] 6. cowpea [ kaƱpi: ] 7. Dada [ 'da:da: ] 8. gaga [ 'ga:ga: ] 9. ghagra [ 'ggra: ] 11. halwa [ 'hælwa: ] 12. hoopla [ 'hu:pla: ] 13. kippa [ 'kIpa: ] 14. ladida [ ˌla: 'dIda: ] 15. miraa [ 'mIra: ] 16. neplus ultra [ ˌneI plƱs 'Ʊltra: ] 17. Pakeha [ 'pa:kI ha: ] 18. pea [ pi: ] 19. plea [ pli: ] 21. putonghua [ pu: 'tɔŋhwa: ] 22. qua [ kwa: ] 23. schwa [ ∫wa: ] 24. Shangri-la ['∫æŋgrI 'la: ] 25. ska [ ska: ] 26. spa [ spa: ] 27. tata [ tæ 'ta: ] 28. ujamaa [ Ʊdʒa: 'ma: ] If we pay more attention, the above listed words are words which are not common, if not very foreign, in the English lexical inventory, except for one or two words, such as cocoa and spa, which are familiar to our ears. Therefore, we can easily anticipate that those words will rarely appear, or even never be encountered by learners of English. As a consequence, the pronunciation of the last letter of those words cannot be used as a pattern or guide in our English pronunciation. Words Marked with Doubled Asterisks (**) In the table of sub-chapter 4.1, we can see two (2) words which are printed in bold letters and marked with double asterisks (- **). Those words are paisa** and papa**. Both words receive two kinds of pronunctiation. paisa can be either pronounced as ['paIsa:] or ['paIsƏ] papa can be either pronounced as [pƏ'pa:] or ['pa:pƏ] Therefore, the two words are included into the words which are ended with the sound [Ə]. Words which are Bolded and Given three Asterisks (---***) 42 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 In the table 4.1, we can also see two (2) words which are bolded and marked with triple asterisks (---***). The words are solfa*** and corpora***. In OALD (Hornby, 2005), the two words are not supported with phonetic transcription. Threrefore, these words are omitted from the list of the inventorised words. As a result, the total words collected and analysed becomes 683; that is 685 words subtracted by 2 words. Words in the Forms of People’s Names Apart from the common words listed in sub-section 4.1, OALD also introduces words which serve as the names of people. The words above can be seen in the following table. 1. Alexandra 2. Alyssa 3. Amanda 4. Amelia 5. Angela 6. Anita 7. Anna 8. Antonia 9. Barbara 10. Belinda 11. Brenda 12. Brianna 13. Christina 14. Clara 15. Claudia 16. Cynthia 17. Delia 18. Diana 19. Edna 20. Eliza 21. Ella 22. Emma 23. Fiona 24. Georgia 25. Georgina 26. Glenda 27. Hilda 28. Jessica 29. Joanna 30. Julia 31. Laura 32. Linda 33. Lisa 34. Liza 35. Lorna 36. Lucinda 37. Lydia 38. Maria 39. Martha 40. Martina 41. Melinda 42. Melissa 43. Mia 44. Miranda 45. Moira 46. Monica 47. Nadia 48. Natasha 49. Nicola 50. Nora 51. Norma 52. Olivia 53. Pamela 54. Patricia 55. Paula 56. Philippa 57. Priscilla 58. Rebecca 59. Samantha 60. Sandra 61. Sheila 62. Silvia/Sylvia 63. Sophia 64. Stella 65. Susanna 66. T(h)eresa 67. Thelma 68. Ursula 69. Vanessa 70. Vera 71. Veronica 72. Victoria 73. Virginia 75. Joshua LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 43 The analysis of the above-mentioned names indicates that the final letter –a in all of those those names is pronounced as [Ə]. Words which are Names of Countries OALD also includes names of countries all over the world and their pronunciations are phonetically transcribed. The following table contains the above mentioned words: 1. Africa 2. Albania 3. Algeria 4. America 5. Andorra 6. Angola 7. Antarctica 8. Antigua and Barbuda 9. Argentina 10. Armenia 11. Asia 12. Australasia 13. Australia 14. Austria 15. Bolvia 16. Bosnia-Herzegovina 17. Bostwana 18. Bulgaria 19. Burkina 20. Burma 21. Cambodia 22. Canada 23. China 24. Columbia 25. Costa Rica 26. Croatia 27. Cuba 28. Dominica 29. Eritrea 30. Estonia 31. Ethopia 32. Gambia 33. Georgia 34. Ghana 35. Grenada 36. Guatemala 37. Guinea ['gIni:] 38. Guyana 39. India 40. Indonesia 41. Jamaica 42. Kenya 43. Korea 44. Latvia 45. Liberia 46. Libya 47. Lithuania 48. Malaysia 49. Malta 50. Mauritania 51. Moldova 52. Mongolia 53. Namibia 54. Nicaragua 55. Nigeria 56. Panama['pænəma:] 57. Romania 58. Russia 59. Rwanda 60. Samoa 61. Saudi Arabia 62. Serbia 63. Slovakia 64. Slovania 65. Somalia 66. Sri Lanka 67. St Lucia 68. Syria 69. Tanzania 70. Tonga 71. Tunisia 72. Uganda 73. Venezuela 74. Zambia Of the 74 names of the countries of the world in the table above, all of them are spelled with ‘-a’ ending. All of the ‘-a’ endings in these words are pronounced with the sound [Ə]: for example, „Korea [kƏ'rIƏ], Uganda [yu: 'gændƏ], etc., except for the states of Guinea ['gIni:] and Panama ['pænəma:]. 44 LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 Therefore, the above fact also facilitates learners of English in pronouncing English words ending with the letter „-a.‟ Words which are Names of the States in USA Below are 17 words bearing the names of the states in the United States of America. These words are included in OALD. 1. Alabama 2. Alaska 3. Arizona 4. California 5. Florida 6. Georgia 7. Indiana 8. Louisiana 9. Minnesota 10. Montana 11. Nebraska 12. Nevada 13. North/South Carolina 14. North/South Dacota 15. Oklahoma 16. Pennsylvania 17. (West) Virginia Seventeen (17) out of the 50 names of the states in USA are spelled with final –a. Interestingly enough, the pronunciation of the 17 states ends with [Ə]; for example, Oklahoma is pronounced as ['oƱklƏ'hoƱmƏ]. This fact confirms the assumption that most of the English words with –a ending are always pronounced with the sound [Ə] and not []. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS From the data analysis and the discussion of the research findings presented in the previous section, conclusions and suggestions are offered. Conclusions First, as the answer of the first reseach question, there are 847 English words spelled with –a ending. Second, as the answer of the second research question, 817 (96.45%) inventorised words receive pronunciation in their final letter. It is to be confirmed here that there is no [] sound in the final –a letter of the collected words as have often been heard so far. Third, the answer of the third research question is that there are 30 English words ending with –a letter whose pronunciation deviates from the general pattern, that is [Ə]. However, because the 30 English words have a very low frequency of use, learners of English can ignore those words. The last conclusion of this research is that the last letter of the names of Obama and his daughter Natasha, representing the other words with the same final –a spelling, must be pronounced as [Ə], that is [oƱ'ba:mƏ] and [nƏ'ta:∫Ə ] instead of [oƱ 'bm] and [n't∫] LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. VI/2 April 2012 45 Suggestions Based on the above conclusions, I offer two suggestions. First, learners of English should not hesitate to pronounce [Ə] for the final letter of the majority of the English ending in -a. Second, teachers or lecturers of English should make use of the result of this research in teaching their students how to learn English pronunciation, expecially in teaching the pronunciation of the English words ending in -a. REFERENCES Bendazzoli, G.M. and G.B. Escalante. 1992. From “Real Life” Problems to Research. Forum, Volume 30, Number 1, January Bobda, A. S. 1993. Testing Pronunciation. Forum, Volume 31, Number 3, July 1993. Hornby, A.S. 1995. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ---------------, 2005. (7th edition) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Purcell, E. and R. Suter. 1980. Predictors of Pronunciation Accuracy: A Reexamination, Language Learning, 30/2, pp. 271-287. Pennington, M. and Richards, J. 1996. “Pronunciation Revisited”. TESOL Quarterly, 20:2 pp. 207-225. Stern, H. 1992. Issues and Options in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Goodwin, J. 2001. Teaching Pronunciation. In Celce-Murcia (Ed.) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 3rd edn., Heinle and Heinle, pp. 136-153. Robertson, P. 2002. „Asian EFL Research Protocols‟, The Asian EFL Journal. (On line at http://www.asian-efl- journal.com/decart2002a.htm. Kurikulum Bahasa Inggris, UNNES. 2008. The Macquarie Dictionary. 1990. 2nd Revised Edition. Sydney: The Macquarie Library Pty. Ltd. http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/decart2002a.htm http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/decart2002a.htm