Malaysia 4

Listen to Malaysia 4, a 27-year-old man from Libaran Island, 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: 27

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 1999

PLACE OF BIRTH: Libaran Island, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Bajau Cagayan/Muslim

OCCUPATION: Libaran Island in-house guide

EDUCATION: secondary school

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject’s mother tongue is Mapun, but he had to leave the island to attend high school on the mainland. From 2017 to 2025, he was a restaurant manager and met a variety of people. As the island guide, he now interacts with many tourists from different countries.

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:

OK, so today I would like to talk a bit about how to live, I mean, how my daily routine is in this island. So, basically, we are working as usual when we actually have guests or tourists coming into this island. But if not, usually in the morning, we will do like a very healthy activity. We will get a few villagers, especially, uh, the elders. We will bring them to do healthy activities, such as jogging. Sometimes we will, I will ask them to do Zumba, anything that make them feel healthier, OK. And then usually I would like go to the — um, after that, all the activity been done, and then I will go straight to the kitchen. Usually I was the one who prepped for our foods and everythings [sic], mm-hmm. And then after that, we will have our breakfast a bit. Well I also have like quite a big family, I guess, mm-hmm. So, usually we will like, um, cook in a very, very large portions, and we will share the meals with everyone.

And then after that, usually, we will just like have free and easy time – chilling time – and then prepare for lunch. And then, after lunch, usually we’ll play a bit of board game. We have so many board game, um, in our houses. And then after that, free and easy again.

Then during evening, in the evening, we will do beach cleaning around – just around our houses – in front of our houses. We will do the cleaning and a bit of gardening ‘cause we have, like, a lot, like not a lot, not that big, but I guess medium sizes of gardens, which like — it’s actually my mom’s idea. So I was like, just follow her, you know. So, yeah so, basically we will maintain in the garden while actually collecting the plastic bottles and everythings. And then again, we will bring all the kids to cut the bottle and everythings. And then we will kind of like ask them to paint it, just to giving them like extra activity. So not too much gadget in their daily activity. So we bring the kids to do that with us.

And then, during nighttime, usually we will go for fishing with my other siblings, so usually just me and my younger brother, yeah. We’ll go fishing with the pole with the rods and everything. And that’s pretty much the whole day when we actually don’t have guests coming in. Usually, we’ll fishing until like midnight, 12 something, yeah 12ish something. And then be back here around 1, and then that is, that is the end of the day. …

[Subject speaks Mapun]: Kami lai nessod sik lupus looi meka tekita kami daing maka saha, mimon jama gembira.

[English translation: We have a perfect time just now doing our snorkeling, and we saw a lot of different fish and corral.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Phyllis Cohen (with AI transcription)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/05/2026

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

There is more lip-corner tension than lip-rounding in this accent. The prosody is quiet and “bubbly” with limited pitch range. The rhythm is syllable-stressed, with frequent glottal-reinforcement of initial-vowel words following words that end, either by design or as the result of final consonant-dropping, in a vowel. Final consonants /d/ and /t/ are also sometimes replaced with a glottal stop [ʔ] before a word beginning with a consonant. Here are examples of both: “has been, got here” [haʔ bin, gɔʔ hiəː] and “only expect to see it” [ɔnli ʔɛ̝ksp̬ɛʔ tʊ̝ si ʔiʔ]. The subject exhibits frequent light rising intonation and vowel stretching at the ends of sentences in extemporaneous speech.

Word pronunciation is inconsistent. He uses British pronunciation for “futile” [fʲuta͡ɪ̯ɬ] and uses liquid /u/ in “news” and “tune,” but drops the yod in “Duke Street.”

Inconsistency continues with the pronunciation of /r/. Intervocalic /r/ is sometimes tapped [ɾ], sometimes not, e.g., “story” [st̬ɔɾi] and “Sarah [saɹa] Perry [p̬ɛ̝ɾi].” It is usually dropped after a vowel but is clearly an alveolar approximant in some words, e.g., “administered, effort, cure, bird, first, elders” [adminis͡t̬ɝ̪d̪, ɛ̝fɔ̴t̪, kjɝː, bɝd, fɝs, ɛ̝ɬdɝs]. It remains approximant in initial position, /r/-blends, and when linking words.

Unvoiced initial consonants are lightly voiced, but there are exceptions, e.g., “porridge, kit, sentimental, Comma” [pɔrid͡ʒe, kit, sɛ̝̃ntimɛ̝̃ntal, co̞ma]. However, dental /d/ and /t/ consistently replace the voiced and unvoiced fricatives /th/ [ð] and [θ], respectively. Alveolar and postalveolar fricatives [z] and [ʒ] are replaced with their unvoiced counterparts [s] and [ʃ]. Final voiced /s/ [z] is unvoiced.

His close-back lip-rounded GOOSE [u] vowel favors a more open and slightly central position with little, if any, lip-rounding, e.g., “you, zoo,” [jʊ̝, zʊ], whereas the FOOT [ʊ] vowel raises with slight lip-rounding toward GOOSE [u], e.g., “put, woman, cook” [p̬ʊ̝̹t, wʊ̝̹mən, k̬ʊ̝̹k]. The fronted KIT vowel [ɪ] is mostly raised or replaced entirely by the fronted close FLEECE [i] vowel. The fronted TRAP vowel [æ] is raised toward DRESS [ɛ]. The GOAT [o͡ʊ] diphthong is usually pronounced as a monophthong with the more open-mid slightly lip-rounded CLOTH [ɔ] vowel sound.

COMMENTARY BY: Phyllis Cohen

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 26/05/2026

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.