HINTS
ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH
FOR THE INTERESTED STUDENT
Certain things should be made quite clear at the beginning. First, these are no more than hints. English pronunciation cannot be described in
a few pages. Conventional
English spelling is no great help : just think of the spellings of
the words rough, friend, colonel !
The intention of these hints is merely to help you to make
a better and fuller use of some good dictionary that gives a phonetic
spelling also for ach word. For example, there is :
The Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English, by
Hornby, Gatenby, and Wakefield. London : Oxford University Press,
Second Edition, 1963
If
you turn to the first page you will find the following :
ab bey ['bi] n
(pl. abbeys)
1 building(s) in which men etc. etc.
Now you may have seen or
in Devanagari; the phonetic spelling in [
] will help you to
find out the right pronunciation only if you know what [ ' ] and [
] and [ b ] and [ i ] sand for.
Secondly,
these are hints for the students.
If you are a teacher, or if you intend to specialize in English,
then of course they will not be enough ; you should go to some good
book. At the least read an elementary book like :
Colloquial
English Pronunciation, by Julian T. Pring, London : Longmans,
1959.
Thirdly,
the hints are strictly for the interested student. If you are lazy or if you dont care, they
are not for you. You will
have to make some effort listening to the radio, turning to your
pronouncing dictionary whenever there is doubt, practising conversation,
reading aloud, and so on. If you do all this, you can not only read
better or spell better (for example, writing pronunciation
and not pronunciation) but also converse more effectively with
those who speak English but come from other parts of India or from
other parts of the world. Marathi
English, for example, is perfectly all right between two Marathi
speakers but trouble starts when a speaker starts using Marathi English
(or Gujarati English, and so on) to somebody not familiar with it.
English is not your native language and the influence of your
mother-tongue is always going to be there : you need not be ashamed
of it. But if you succeed
in cutting down the distance between your English and the educated
Englishmans English, you will make yourself a more useful person.
What
are the things that you should know in order to do this? There are four kinds of things:
(a) Every language has its own way of putting the
sounds of an utterance into boxes Tamil, for example, puts [p] sounds
and [b] sounds in the same
box with the result that a Tamil speaker pronounces simple
and symbol in the same way, [simbәl], and this makes it difficult
for others to understand him. A
Marathi speaker on the other hand boxes the sounds of idol and
idle in different ways actually, though the spellings are
different, the two words are pronounced alike.
Obviously if you want to speak English in a way that will be
understood by an Englishman, you should have a general idea of the
boxes in the Englishmans English an idea of the sound units of
English. So, abbey
is not divided into five units a, b, b, e, and y but
into four sound units or phonemes as they are technically called,
namely, [],
[ b ], [ i ], and the accent [ ' ] which begins with [
] and binds the word together.
(b) The proper binding together of phonemes is
equally important. Just as
writing is not complete without punctuation, speech has its own kind
of punctuation and arrangement. If
you say equivalent, you should not chop it into equi
with the accent on e and valent with the accent on val
as many Indians do, but you should say [i'kwivәlәnt]
with a single accent that begins with [ k ] and continues through
[ v ]. If you are changing your house on Saturday,
it will be all right for you to say
Ill 'move on
' Saturday
binding on to Saturday. But if you say
Ill
move 'on |
' Saturday
there will be a break between on and Saturday,
and your listener will understand that you are going to the next place
in your tour. Indeed it will
be at all right even if you say :
Ill move 'on | '
Saturday
with two ons one linked with move
and the other with Saturday.
Good pronunciation will help your grammar.
(c)
It is not enough to know what the phonemes are : it is also necessary
to know what sounds correctly represent them. You should put your lips, tongue, sound box
(which is concealed in your wind pipe), and so on in the right position
in order to produce a particular phoneme in a particular position.
(d)
But what is the use of producing the phoneme correctly if you do not
know where to use it properly? You
know perfectly well how to utter the [ f ] phoneme you put your
lower lips against the upper teeth (and not against the upper lip,
as some Indians do), etc. etc. But what is the use if you pronounce
the name Stephen as [sti:fәn] ? That
name has no use for [ f ] phoneme; it has a [ v ] phoneme instead.
There is no difference of pronunciation between Stephenson
and Stevenson.
Let
us begin with the English consonants they are somewhat easier than
the other phonemes.
The Consonant Phonemes
This
table of English consonants is given below with some Devanagari equivalents
:
|
[
k ]
[
t ʃ ]
[
t ]
[
p ]
|
[
g ]
[
dз ]
[
d ]
[
b ]
|
[
η ]
[
n ]
[
m ]
|
[
ʃ
]
[
s ]
[
θ
] ?
[
f ]
|
[
з ] ?
[
z ] ?
[
] ?
[
v ] ?
|
[
j ] [ r ]
[ l ] [
w ] ? [ h ] :
Some
comments necessary. You will
perhaps be surprised at finding
in
the first column and not
. This is just to remind you that is found not only Christ but also in
crime and that and are put in the same box by the Englishman
skin, steam, spin and other examples of [ s ] combinations
have ,
, , otherwise [k], [t], [p] tend to be , ,
. Putting [j] and not [y]
for the
sound in the phonetic alphabet is simply an international convention. South Indians should guard against pushing
the tongue too far back in saying [n], [r], [l] they should not
make them sound like , , . The
sounds in the last two columns are a constant source of trouble
they all depend on leaving an open passage in the mouth through which
air can be blown with friction. This
is what happens when you hiss with [s] or hush with [ ʃ ], for example. Note the difference between [p]
and [f] . If you master
[ ʃ
], [s], [f] you can also master the question marks against [з] (as in pleasure),
[z] (as in please, pleasant), and [v] (as in seven)
by simply adding voicing in the sound box to the sounds [ ʃ ], [s], and [f]. Do not be satisfied with substitutes for
example, for the [з]
sound in pleasure Marathi speakers use , Hindi speakers
use
(rhyming pleasure with major), and Panjabi speakers
use
(confusing measure with mayor). South Indians should
guard against mixing up [s] in race, basic, hence with [z]
in raise, rays, busy, hens.
The sounds of thigh [θ] and thy [ ] are of the same family if you cannot master
them by imitation, and are tolerable substitutes.
For [h] we have put the visarga sign rather than just to remind you that it is normally without
voicing in the sound box. [w]
as in wine, [hw] as in whine, and [v] as in vine
(the plant that wine comes from) should not be confused in saying
wine begin with a -sound, in saying whine begin with a
who [hu] sound, and in saying vine begin exactly like
fine but adding voicing. Many
Marathi speakers wrongly use
for the sound in whine as well as the sound in vine.
Joining
consonants to other sounds can be a problem sometimes. In saying chalk or orange juice
we should avoid the temptation of merging the two [ tʃ ] sounds or the two [dз] sounds. We
should not indulge in sand his of the type found in Sanskrit and say
bagdoor when we mean back door, thizboy when we mean
this boy. Sandhis of this kind inside a word are
quite all right in English osmosis is [ɔz'mousis];
cats is ['kts] but dogs is ['dɔgz]; stopped is ['stɔpt]
but robed is ['rɔbd]. This last word should not be uttered with a vowel at the end; many
Indians are in the habit of attaching a short [ә]
sound at the end of words ending in a consonant and making two syllables
out of post or leg.
The temptation to attach unwanted vowels is particularly strong
with conjunct consonants in the beginning or the end of a word we
all know about the confusion between estate and state
(similar troubles about spin, skin, smile, and snow)
and the rhyming of film with alum (similar troubles
about bolt, farm, bulb). Others get out of the difficulty by dropping consonants or changing
their order ask becomes axe and texts becomes ['teks]
in place of ['teksts]. If
you detect any trouble about conjunct consonants (many North Indians
have it) in your own English, you should make a list of the words
that trouble you and practise the correct pronunciation daily for
some months.
Do
not worry too much about the habit of some native speakers of English
of dropping their rs at the end of the word (making tidier
rhyme with idea) or when not protected by a following vowel
(making farther exactly like father). Speakers of English are not agreed upon this
they drop their rs in London and Boston but not in Chicago
or Glasgow; in New York they do not seem to have made up their mind. Most Indians use them and this helps them to
spell better.
English
spelling leaves many points unsettled and misleads you on others. Your pronouncing dictionary is your best friend
dont take any chances. If
someone were to tell you that gesture and exaggerate
have a [g] sound and that target has a [dз] sound, he is wrong. The
sounds of th can be a problem [θ] in thin, wealthy,
[ ] in then, breathing, smooth,
but [t] in Thomas, Thames.
Other bad cases are ch (orchard, Chicago, Michael),
s (use as noun and verb, loose, basis, bases, assert,
dessert), x (exit, exist, luxury, luxurious with four different
sounds), cc (succumb, succinct).
Look up all these words and see for yourself.
Finally, do not pay any attention to the silent letters h
in honour, ghost, rhyme or d in judge (not ֛͕ but ֕ ['dзΛdз], Wednesday ['wenzdi]
and so on.
The Vowel Phonemes and Word Accent
The
heading of this section tells you that you cannot understand and master
English vowels without understanding at the same time the accent in
a word. When you learn the phonetic spelling of a word,
you not only take in the consonants and the vowels and their arrangement
but also the rhythm and balance of the word.
The rhythm and balance of the word is shown in phonetic spelling
by two things by showing the beginning of the accent in the word'
(for example ['bi]], [ɔz'mousis]) and by the choice of vowels.
The English vowels fall into two groups full and reduced.
Full vowels are found in al accented syllables and the some
unaccented syllables. The remaining unaccented syllables have reduced
vowels. Some typical examples of word rhythm are given
below ( r shows a reduced vowel, f a full vowel; the capital letter
shows the vowel bearing the accent) :
F pot, paw, pawed
Ff issue, programme, record (noun),
coupon
Fr potter, injure, accent (noun),
marriage
Frr lovable, relative, separate
(adjective), parliament
Frf gratitude, alcohol, separate
(verb)
fF cartoon, intense, payee
rF retire, accent (verb), record
(verb), relate
frF refugee,
represent
fFf chimpanzee, osmosis
rFr external, relation, develop,
advantage
frFr economics, advantageous
rFrr economy, particular, photography
Read
this list aloud with the guidance of your teacher or your pronouncing
dictionary. Then it will be seen how tricky the whole thing is there
are rules about word accent, but they are so many, so complicated,
and with so many exceptions that the best single rule to adopt is
to look it up. Even words of the same family do not go alike look
at: record (noun and verb); relate, relation, relative;
accent (noun and verb); separate (adjective and verb);
etc.
Now
we are ready for the table of the full vowel phonemes of English;
some of these are checked vowels:
|
[]
short
[e] short
[i]
short
|
[Λ] short
|
[ ɔ ] short
[u] short
|
|
The checked vowels are always checked by
some consonant that follows them, as in : cut, cat, cot,
get, kit, put. The remaining full vowels can be called non-checked;
they may or may not be followed by a consonant in the same syllable
:
|
|
[ei ]
long
[i:] long
|
[a:]
|
[ɔ:] long
[ou]
long
[u] long
|
|
[ai]
|
[ɔi]
|
[au]
|
|
Examples are: baa, paw, bay, beau, bee,
boo, buy, bough, boy. Notice
that these non-checked vowels are either long (the phonetic
mark is [:]) or lengthened by a very very short finishing vowel
which may be of the [ ] type or of the [u] type. The
finishing vowel should not be turned into a full or a full
fine ['fain], final ['fainәl]
should not be turned into և, ևֻ ; or rail
['reil] into . The non-checked vowels also
occur with [ ә ] as a finishing
vowel:
|
|
[εә ]
long with
[iә]
|
[a:]
[ә:] long
|
[ɔ:] long
[ɔә] long
[uә]
|
|
[aiә]
|
[ɔiә]
|
[auә]
|
Most
of the examples will have an r following : starry, Laura,
dairy, story, furry, hero, tourist, Irish, dowry, coir.
Errors
about full vowels are of various kinds.
Some Indians confuse checked vowels with non-checked vowels
[ Λ ]
with [ә:
] (rhyming must with
first),
[
e ] with [ ei ] (wet with wait),
[ɔ
] with [ɔ: ] and both with [ ou ] (cot with
caught, and both with coat),
[
i ] with [ i: ] (live with leave)
[
u ] with [ u: ] (full with fool).
Some have other confusions
[
] with [ e ] ( sand : send ),
[
] with [εә ] (marry : Mary).
Some drop the finishing vowel [ә]. South Indians do not open their mouths enough
at the beginning of [ ai ], [aiә],
[au], [auә]. Others insert unwanted and : ָ for [flauә] in flower, ָ
for [louә] in lower.
English
spelling is likely to give you wrong ideas : consider the group plough,
dough, cough, rough or the group tear (2 words), fear,
bear, pear, wear or the group row, sow, bow, (2x3 words), now, know or the group live (2 words),
alive, enliven or the group nation, national or the
group due, true, blue, flew, dew or the group matter, material.
The
table of reduced vowel phonemes is much smaller.
[ ә
] short
[ o ] short
[i] ?
[ u ] short
Examples in the last syllable of a word are : sofa,
lovers; sorrow, sorrows; berry, landed; into. Examples in other syllables are : accept; obey; except; today. The question mark after [ i ] reminds you that
the vowel is not quite like nor like short but
something in between ,
short, and short. All
these vowels are rather short so reduced sometimes that they change
into consonants as in
William [ wiljәm] ( [ i ] into [ j ]),
Casual ['kзwәl] ( [
u ] into [ w ]);
sometimes they make consonants vowel-like as in
little
['litl ] not י,
sudden
['sΛdn]
not ֛,
prism
['prizm] not ׯϕ̴ ;
sometimes they disappear altogether as in
business
['biznis ] by the side of busyness ['bizinis ] with a different
meaning.
If
we put full vowels in place of reduced vowels or reduced vowels in
place of full vowels, the whole rhythm and balance of the word is
disturbed even if we place the accent correctly : principal
should be like principle [ 'prinsipәl ] or ['prinsipl ] and not end like Paul; coupon
should be ['ku:pɔn ] and not ֭
. Indians make the first of
these two errors more commonly.
Building Phrases and Sentences
We
have already seen how each word has a rhythmic pattern in English;
some words have the pattern rF, some Fr, some Frr, some frF and so
on. We now come to larger units like sentences.
Every
sentence has at least one sentence accent, which can be shown as [
"
]. If the sentence is very
short and has only one word in it, the F syllable in that word will
take this sentence accent :
" Yes
" Better
If the sentence
is not very long, but has two or more words in it, what happens to
each word? One word gets the
sentence accent it is the centre of the sentence.
Out of the remaining words, the important ones will get only
the word accent especially nouns, verbs, adjectives, and most adverbs
these carry the load of meaning.
The remaining words will get attached to these important words
carrying word accent; their F syllables will not carry even the word
accent. In the extreme case
there will be no full vowel in such attached words.
'head
F; but baldhead Ff (meaning person with a bald head; compare
his-
'
bald ' head was-
" shining)
berry
Fr, but "strawberry
Frr ['strɔ:bәri]
'
did F, ' he F; but rrF did he - '
come
'in F, 'some F; but rrF in some - 'books
'not F, 'at F; but frF not-at-'all
'a F, 'of F; but rFr F a -'piece-of ' chalk
'for F but F rF 'tea for - ' three
Some
determiners (like a, the), some pronouns (like he, him,
his), some helping verbs (like is, has, did), some adverbs
(like there in there is/are, like not
in isnt), some prepositions (like to, of, from), and
some conjunctions (like and, that) are commonly used in such
weakened forms and attached to other words.
The examples above with did, he, etc. illustrate this
point.
Here
are some more example of how each word is fitted into the whole
with ["], or with ['], or with no accent.
' John-was ' walking a"bout. (about has the sentence accent)
It-is-about-a-"mile. (about is rf, not weakened)
' What-is-he " talking a'bout? (about has only the word
accent)
We-shall-'move 'on "Saturday.
(on is accented)
We-shall-'move on-"Saturday. (on is f, not weakened)
The
placing of the accents and the grouping and attaching of words help
the listener in understanding the grammatical arrangement of words.
Indians
speaking English very often completely ignore this side of pronunciation
and put the word accent and the sentence accent in the wrong place
and group the words wrongly. Once
you become conscious of these features, listen to good speakers, and
try to imitate their phrases. This
will help you to improve your pronunciation.
In a sense this is even more important than getting the consonants
and the vowels right. If you get the accent right then errors of
vowels and consonants very often do not interfere with the understanding
by your listener; also the grammar of your sentence becomes more transparent
to your listener.
There
is one last point intonation. If
we compare speaking to singing, the features of accent and rhythm
are like ֻ
in music and the features of intonation are like - both ָ
and ָ. It will not be possible to describe even the
main features of English intonation here.
Some very very broad comments are made here :
(1) We have already seen the distinction between
attached words and important words.
As a rule the last important word in the sentence gets the
sentence accent. The syllable bearing ["] is the centre
of the intonation piece. If
there are two or more sentence accents in a sentence, this simply
means that the sentence has correspondingly two or more intonation-pieces
in it.
We-shall-'move
'on "Saturday \
(one piece)
We-shall-'move
"on \
"Saturday (with the same meaning but with two pieces).
(2)
Statements normally end in a fall.
The fall begins at ["].
Ive-not-'met-her
so-"far \
But if the statement conveys some suggestion the
fall is capped with a rise.
Ive-not-'met-her
so-"far \
/
(Suggestion : I may meet her, however, in future.)
(3) Commands normally end in a fall.
"Leave-me
a'lone \
But if the command is to be softened down to a
request the fall is capped with a rise.
(The fall in request begins on the verb.)
"Leave-me
a'lone \
/
(4) Questions are of two types : yes-or-no questions
and question-word questions. Yes-or-no
questions end in a rise.
Have-you-'met-her
so-"far /
(5) Question-word questions beginning with who,
what, when, etc. end in a fall. Indians
frequently go wrong on this point.
'What-do-you
" think-of-it \
"
What-do-you 'think-of-it \
If the person that receives this question merely
throws it back like an echo, he will say :
"
What-do-I 'think-of-it /
This is an echo-question which means : Are you
asking me what I think of it? The rise belongs to this hidden yes-or-no
question. Your own language probably has a similar distinction.
(6) If some item in the sentence is to be specially
emphasized, the sentence accent [ " ] will
be placed on that word rather than the last important word which would
normally get it.
"
Ive-not ' met-her so' far \
( We can call this spoken italics or underlining.
)
Have
" you met-her so" -far\
"
Leave - ' ' me-alone
(7)
When a long sentence is broken up into convenient intonation-pieces,
one of them will carry the main intonation and the other pieces will
be tied to it through intonation.
Have
" you met-her
\ in-the "last-few" years-
Do-you-pre" fer tea \ or-cocoa \
I-go-to-bed
"
early \ as-a-"
general "rule
As-a-"
general " rule \ I- go-to-bed "early \
I-can't
"work \ he said "
angrily --' when the' radio is " -on\
My-"
father " bought a-" house \ / " but he -"had to "sell
it " later\
A
general warning to Marathi speakers speaking English may be given
here : for special effect Marathi frequently converts an ordinary
plain intonation into an intonation with a drawl ( ). This should be avoided at all costs in English. If your voice falls or rises, let it fall or
rise evenly and not with a stair-case-like effect. Even if your pronunciation is good in other ways, this drawl of
the Marathi type spoils the effect completely.
Conclusion
Practice
more practice, and yet more practice practice in listening first,
then practice in speaking by the side of it.
When in doubt, look it up.
COLOPHON
Published
as Appendix III to Learning through English, Pune: University
of Poona, 2nd ed. 1968.
