Data Sets

Brunei

ASEAN

Indonesian + Malaysian — Ind1 : 2029

S1 = Indonesian male
S2 = Malaysian female

Context: S1 is talking about religious practices in Brunei.

S1 : for one thing many of the (.) brunei religious elite you call it (.) pehin menteri ugama {the honourable minister of religion}

S2 : hm-mm

S1 : so this is it you’re pehin and (.) awarded er title of datuk too

Intended Words: religious elite, menteri ugama, pehin

Heard as: religiosity, ?? ugama, ??

Discussion: S2 cannot understand religious elite, which is spoken quite fast with little stress on elite. We can perhaps conclude that nuclear stress on elite is missing for this initial phrase.

The term pehin is a noble title used in Brunei but not Malaysia, so S2 could not understand it.

S2 could understand ugama, the Malay word for 'religion'. But she cpuld not hear menteri ugama ('minister of religion'), even though this is standard Malay. One reason perhaps it that S1 pronounces menteri with [æ] (as it would be pronounced in Brunei Malay) rather than the expected [e] in the first syllable.

S1 also refers to datuk, another term of respect, but S2 has no poroblem with this as it is a term used in Malaysia as well as Brunei.