How do you pronounce erat ('close')? Is it [erat] or [ərat]? The pronunciation of most words in Malay is predictable from their spelling; but it is often not possible to determine if 'e' is pronounced as [e] or as [ə].
I have asked lots of people, and nearly everyone says [erat]. However, it appears that the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Language and Literature Bureau) stipulates that it should be [ərat]. But then we have an issue: if nearly everyone says [erat], on what basis does the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka insist that it should be [ərat]?
The situation for Malay is similar to that for French, for which the Académie Française stipulates what is right and what is wrong. In contrast, for English, we allow popular choice to determine norms: if most people say a word in a certain way, then that is how it is said. And sometimes there is not a single "correct" way of saying a word.
For example, 'ate' can be pronounced as [et] or as [eɪt], and the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (Wells, 2008, p. 54) reports that 55% of people in Britain prefer the former while 45% prefer the latter. In other words, there is no single standard pronunciation, and either [et] or [eɪt] is acceptable.
But it seems that Malay and French work don't work like this, and instead they look towards an authority to stipulate what is correct.
