How to pronounce the consonant 'k'

This is another time for me to keep my promise. As I told you in one of my previous posts, Indonesian Alphabet, the consonant 'k' is not always pronounced the same way.
The consonant 'k' when put as the first letter of a word is always read just like 'k' in king, kayak, kind, etc. When put at the end of a syllable, there are two ways to pronounce it.

2  ways to pronounce 'k' at the end of a syllable:

1. Clear 'k' sound almost like kayak or block but without trailing 'h' sound like how most English speakers pronounce them. Some of Indonesian words that use this pronunciation are: kotak (box), masak (cook or ripe), kelak (later), kerak (crust), ketiak (armpit), botak (bald), cetak (print), dongkrak (jack (tool)), enak (tasty, delicious, nice, good), gerak (movement, move), taktik (tactics), taksi (taxi), paksa (force (not physics term)), etc. Most 'k' at the end of a syllable are pronounced this way.
2. 'k' pronounced as glottal stop. Example of this are: bakso (meatball), kakak (older brother/sister), kakek (grandfather), bapak (father), tokek (gecko), nenek (grandmother), etc. Most words using the second 'k' pronunciation come from local languages (minangese, javanese, etc.)

I don't know how to determine which 'k' is pronounced the first way or the second way. I just memorized them. Since there are only a few words that are pronounced the second way, you wouldn't have a hard time to do it.

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How to pronounce vowels in words

As I promised in my previous post, I will explain to you the sound of vowels, especially 'e'. Vowel is huruf vokal in Indonesia. There are only two pronunciations (mainly) for 'e' even though there is only one way to write it, which is just 'e'.

2 ways to pronounce 'e':
(1). 'e' sound which similar to e in taken. Also known as schwa. For example: mengapa (why), kenapa (synonym of mengapa), kelas (class), beban (weight), and so on.
(2). 'e' sound which similar to e in best. For example: enak (delicious), bebek (duck), lelang (auction), apotek (pharmacy store), and so on.

Unofficially, there is another type of 'e' sound, the one that doesn't pronounced at all. For example: selamat (in terms of greeting or congratulating, most Indonesian read it as if there is no 'e') sounds like 'slamat' , terima sounds like 'trima' (you can see phrase examples of these words in Greetings and special greetings), etc. But if it's to be spoken clearly then the pronunciation should sound like number (1).

Unlike in English, other vowels are to be pronounced consistently the same as I mentioned it in my previous post. 'A' is always pronounced ah, just like 'u' in buddy, bunny, lust, unknown, etc. You know how to pronounced 'Bali', right? Yeah, it's just like that. I, O and U are also always pronounced as the way you read the Indonesian alphabet (as I taught in my previous post, Indonesian Alphabet).

Examples:
tebak (guess) <=> father (the 'e' pronounced as 'e' in number  (1))
bohong (lie, not telling the truth) <=> in soap
lihat (see) <=> see
bubuk (powder) <=> bluetooth

Just a fun fact: In Sundanese (language that ethnic Sunda in West Java province are using) there is a diphthong, eu, which sounds like the swinged version of schwa. Not all Indonesian can make this sound.

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Indonesian Alphabet

Alphabet is called alfabet or abjad in Indonesia. Alphabet in Indonesia is similar to english alphabet. The difference lies only in the pronunciation.

Unlike in english, in Bahasa you can count on every letter to always sound the same (except for vowel 'e', consonant 'k' and some diphthongs which we will learn later) in any words. In English, 'g' in 'game' is pronounced differently from 'g' in 'magic'. In Bahasa, it's always the 'g' as in 'game' , 'go', 'greet', 'magazine', 'magnet', 'logo', etc.
Let's get started.

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