Malaysia 3

Listen to Malaysia 3, a 50-year-old man from Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 50

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1976

PLACE OF BIRTH: Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Muslim/Malaysian/Tausug

OCCUPATION: nature tour guide

EDUCATION: Tour Guide License (Level 3) from Borneo Tourism Institute; certifications from Malaysia’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training system, and Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS: N/A

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject speaks several languages: Bajan (from mother), Tausug (from father), Malay, (Indonesia) Bahasa, and English. As a tour guide, he has been exposed to the accents of tourists from around the English-speaking world.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Phyllis Cohen

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/04/2026

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I work as a nature guide in one of the best place in Sabah. They call it Danum Valley Conservation Area. I start like a training guide, following the senior guide. At first, I learn from them. I see them to do the guiding. It’s like the English words, “Monkey see, monkey do” at first.

My company is sending me to the appropriate institute. So I take my license in Sepilok, Sandakan, to be qualified as a nature guide. Then they’ll be issuing you the, uh, “green badge.”

I’ve been working with that company almost like eight years before I’m quit [sic]. I’m find [sic] another company to work as a tour guide, nature, then started moving from one destination to another destination. You need to have the “gold badge.” And now well known as the “Regional Specific Tour Guide.” So this is like a special license. This is to qualify you to lead the tour. Otherwise, uh, you’re not allowed because considered illegal against the government law.

So I’ve been working with that company as a nature guide for almost like eight years before I’m quit. Then when I’m quit [sic], I find another company, then started moving from one place around Sabah, one destination to another destination. So you need to have the “gold badge.” And now well known as the Regional Specific Tour Guide. So this is like a special license. This is to qualify you to lead the tour.

From tour guide, I’m became tour leader through my experience. So far I’m already lead for six different country [sic]. Yeah, and hoping will be more, especially like Indonesia in the future. I also can speak Indonesian language, their Bahasa. That is like one of my dream, want to lead one more country in Indonesia. …

[Subject speaks Tausug]; Tausug aku, piaganak ha Malysia iban kaingatan kami, tau Suluk atawa orang Suluk.

[English translation: I am Tausug, but Malaysian born and well known as the Suluk tribe.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Phyllis Cohen (with AI transcription)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 18/05/2026

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

This accent has little lip-rounding but more lip-corner tension in its oral posture. Syllables tend to be quite even, with somewhat limited pitch-range. Sometimes you’ll hear strong stress with sharp rising intonation on the final word in a thought group.

The subject uses liquid /u/ in all relevant words, e.g., “Duke” and “tune,” and British rather than more commonly used American word pronunciations, e.g., “futile” [fʲuta͡ɪ̯ɬ].

The subject speaks with light rhoticity, often flapping intervocalic /r/. However, in /r/-coloured vowels, /r/ sometimes seems to disappear when followed by a consonant (“morning,” “normally”, “bird,” “rare form,” “confirmed,” and “warned”). In consonant blends, /r/ tends to flap, especially when the subject gets excited in extemporaneous speech.

Labiodentals [v] and [f] are consistently replaced with bilabial fricatives, and the voiced fricative [z] is replaced with its unvoiced sister sound. The unvoiced postalveolar fricative [ʃ] is palatalized to [ɕ]. Plosives [t] – [d] and fricatives [ð] – [θ] are replaced with dental [d̪] – [t̪]. The unvoiced [p] is lightly voiced. Final consonants are unvoiced

COMMENTARY BY: Phyllis Cohen

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 02/06/2026

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.

• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.

• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.

• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.