Phonology of Malay Language in Karimun Regency, Riau Islands

Article Info ________________ History Articles Received: August 2020 Accepted: Oktober 2020 Published: December 2020 ________________


INTRODUCTION
Language is the most common symbol of nationality and it is seen as the main physical sign of a group's identity . Malay language is the mother tongue of the Austronesian language, with around 20 million speakers in Indonesia .
Malay language of Riau Islands is the parent language of Indonesian language. This is stated by Malik (2013), that Indonesian comes from the Malay language of the Riau Islands. This research is motivated by the discovery of phonological variations on the form of vowel and consonant variations in the Malay language used in Karimun Regency, Riau Islands Province, especially in Karimun, West-Kundur and Moro.
The phonological variations of the Malay language spoken by the society in Karimun, West Kundur and Moro are caused by each observation area which is directly adjacent to other countries, other provinces, and other islands. This opinion is supported by  who stated that language variations come up due to the geographical location that is bordering with other areas; and it is caused by rivers, mountains and forests.  also states that there are several factors causing the emergence of language variations, namely geographical factors, social position factors and language situation factors.
In linguistics, the field of phonological study is about the sounds of language. This opinion is supported by  which states that phonology is a field of linguistic studies that learn and discuss about sounds of language that is produced by human's speech tools. Furthermore, in Arman's research (2013) states that phonology is a science that analyze the differences in utterance.
From a dialectological point of view, sound changes (vowels and consonants) are related with two aspects, namely linguistic aspects and geographical aspects. In linguistics, the occurrence of sound changes is caused by certain environmental factors. Meanwhile in geographically, the change of sound occurs due to the spread of sound that occurs in the same observation area .
To determine the status of a variant into the language level, whether the language belongs to the same or different languages, sub-dialects, or that language belongs to different speech groups; it can be analyzed by using the dialectometric method.  states that dialectometric is a statistical measure used to see how far the differences and similarities or variations are found in the areas studied by comparing a number of materials collected from that place. In addition, Mahsun (in  also emphasized that the most relevant method in dialectology research is the dialectometric method. Research of the phonology of the Malay language in Karimun Regency, Riau Islands has never been carried out. The problem revealed in this study is there are variations in the phonology of the Malay language that occur due to differences in the geographic location of each observation area. The objectives of this study were 1) to analyze vowel variations 2) to analyze consonant variations and 3) to analyze phonological differences between the Malay language in Karimun Regency, Riau Islands.
This study is also related with the previous research which also discusses the study of language variation in phonology that were conducted by , Afidah (2019), Antono (2019), , .
In practical terms, this research is expected to be useful for the regional language development and guidance institutions of the Riau Islands; it can provide information on the phonological variations of the Malay language in Karimun Regency, especially in Karimun, West-Kundur and Moro. It is because there has been no scientific research evidence that states the language differences of Malay language in Karimun Regency.

METHODS
There are two approaches in this research, namely a theoretical approach and a methodological approach. Theoretically, this study uses a dialect geography approach, namely the study of language variations / uniqueness based on regional or geographic elements. Meanwhile, the methodological approach used is a qualitative descriptive approach. The data of this study is the vocabularies of the Malay language.
The data source of this study came from 6 informants at three observation points (TP/Titik Pengamatan), who were selected based on the criteria that is putted forward by Fernandez (1992). This study used an instrument contains of a list 335 questions form. The research data were collected using the field pupuan method or field research by using questionnaire and the listening method with the proficient engaging listening technique or simak libat cakap, the recording technique, and the note-taking technique.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The discussion of the results of phonology of the Malay language research in Karimun Regency, Riau Islands includes vowel variations, variations in consonants and phonological differences.

Vowel Variations
Based on the data obtained, it was found that variations in the BMK vowel sound were used in the three TP, namely variations of the sound Variations in both vowels and consonants in the Karimun Malay language occur because of the different geographical locations between the TPs, which are directly adjacent to other provinces and countries. The TP-1 is directly adjacent to Malaysia, TP-2 borders with Riau Province and TP-3 is on a remote island geographically.
The effect of language use from other countries and provinces adjacent directly to the TP can be proven by the some facts of variations in the vowel sound [i] on TP-1 and variations in the vowel sound [o] on TP-2. This finding is in line with findings in  research on the Malay language of Riau Province which state that the word "ear / telinga " in Indonesian is pronounced as [tәliŋo] in the Bagan Siapi-api area of Riau Province.

Phonological Difference (Distance)
The results of calculating phonological variations using the dialectomy method between TP-1 and TP-2 obtained a difference in 5.6% percentage. Furthermore, the recalculation was carried out on TP-1 which is compared to TP-3 obtained a difference in 6.2% percentage. Meanwhile, the calculation of the difference between TP-2 and TP-3 obtained is 5.6% in percentage. By looking at the dialectometric scale, the phonological difference between TP-1, TP-2 and TP-3 is included in the speech difference category because all three are in the percentage of 4-7%.
By considering of the administrative map, the geographical proximity is the cause between TP-1 and TP-2; hence, TP-2 and TP-3 having the same percentage.
Based on the administrative map, TP-2 is in the middle between TP-1 and TP-3, so according to the distance TP-2 is close to TP-1 and TP-3. Therefore, this causes an equation for the results of calculating the different distances on this TP.
Meanwhile, the ratio between TP-1 and TP-3 had the highest percentage difference, which is 6.2%. The high percentage of phonological difference between TP-1 and TP-3 was caused by the location of the two TP that were far apart. By looking at this finding, it can be concluded that there are phonological variations in both vowel and consonant variations, it can be seen from how far the distance of the TP is; there are more variations are found. However, the closer geographic location of the TP, the fewer phonological variants are found.

CONCLUSION
The phonological variations of the Malay language in Karimun Regency, Riau Islands, which are used at three observation places in this study are vowel variations and consonant variations. Based on phonological difference (distances), the phonological variations of Malay language found in TP-1, TP-2 and TP-3 are included in the speech-difference category.