Abstract:
To study the acoustic characteristics of vowels in the stressed and unstressed syllables of Pattani Malay and in Urak Lawoi. The intensity, duration and fundamental frequency values were investigated to test the hypotheses that the difference between the fundamental frequency values of vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables in both languages is statistically significant while the intensity and duration values are not. This finding indicates a close relation between pitch and the accentual system as in pitch-accent languages. The data used in this research was recorded from 7 male native speakers of Pattani Malay and from 7 female native speakers of Urak Lawoi, was acoustically analysed using Praat 5.1.20 and statistically analysed using t-test (0.05 level of significance). The research results are presented in tables and figures with descriptions. These findings reveal that, in Pattani Malay, only the difference between the fundamental frequencies of vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables are statistically significant, while in Urak Lawoi, all three acoustic characteristics; i.e. the intensity, duration and fundamental frequency values of vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables are statistically significant. Some behaviour of stressed syllables in Pattani Malay resembles that of accented syllables in pitch-accent languages, while the behaviour of stressed syllables in Urak Lawoi is similar to that of accented syllables in stress languages.