UNIT – 2
Introduction
What is meant by perfect English pronunciation? There can be no perfect pronunciation of the English language considering the universal reach it possesses. No two persons speak exactly alike and the pronunciations differ greatly depending upon the locality and geography of the speaker. So how should one decide on a model? The English spoken by the native speakers of in south-east England, also known as Received Pronunciation (R.P) is often considered acceptable. Language starts with the ear. Therefore, one must first “hear” English and pay close attention to how different words sound.
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that deals with the study and classification of how humans make and perceive sounds. In other words, It is the study of the physiological production of speech sounds and how different sounds are used to form syllables, words and sentences.
Phonetics can be classified into three main branches:
- Articulatory Phonetics
Articulatory Phonetics describes how the movement of different vocal organs are used to produce different speech sounds. It deals with the physical aspects of speech production. The organs of speech comprise of the Tongue, Nasal cavity, Lips, Epiglottis, Teeth, Uvula, Soft palate, Vocal chords, Windpipe, and the Pharyngal Cavity.
2. Acoustic Phonetics
Acoustic Phonetics deal with the acoustic properties of speech sounds. The variations in air pressure while speaking form an essential component of how sounds are made. Speech sounds can be divided into two major classes, the first, sounds that consist of periodic wave form i.e the fluctuations in air pressure are in regular intervals, and the second, sounds that consist of a non-regular wave from,
3. Auditory Phonetics
Auditory Phonetics deal with the study of the variation between what is said by the speaker and what is heard by the receiver. In other words, it is the study of how humans perceive sounds.
Like the English language, Phonetics also consists of consonants and vowels. A consonant is a sound in which there is either a complete or partial obstruction which prevents the air from issuing freely from the mouth. On the other hand, a vowel is a voiced sound in the pronunciation of which the air passes through the mouth in a continuous stream, there being no obstruction such as would produce friction.
There is a great difference in how the words are spelled and the way they are pronounced in the English language. Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain the correct pronunciation of a word by just looking at it the way it is spelled. This often results in mispronunciation. Only by hearing the correct pronunciation from a native speaker one can truly understand how words are supposed to be articulated.
For example, consider the following words – through, cough, though, rough, bough. In these words the pronunciation of the letters –ough varies with each word.
Similarly read, need, believe, machine, receive, we, people, key, quay contain nine different spellings for the same vowel sound in the word “need”.
Thus it can be said that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the sounds as they are uttered and the letter or symbol which appears in the written word. Therefore, it is necessary to have some consistent representation of the language so that one can have a clearer understanding of the distinctive sounds which exist in the language. Discrepancies between the pronunciation and ordinary spelling confuse the learner and the result is mispronunciation. Such mispronunciations may be avoided by the use of Phonetic Transcription.
The phonetic alphabet given below is that of the International Phonetic Association (IPA):
Sometimes one may find that even though a letter appears in a word, it may not be pronounced. These are known as silent letters. For example, in the word Christmas, the letter “t” is never pronounced thus rendering the title of a silent letter. Another example would be the word “muscle” where the letter “c” is silent.
Some common silent letters include:
- The silent “K”
The letter ‘k’ being a hard sounding consonant is often pronounced wherever it is found, however, if it is succeeded by the letter ‘n’ it is often rendered silent.
For ex: Knife, Knack, Know, Knit
2. The silent “G”
The letter ‘g’ is also a consonant which can be found to be silent in words such as malign, benign, foreign, design, sign. It is noteworthy that whenever the letter ‘g’ is silent in a word it is often followed by the letter ‘n’.
3. The Silent “P”
The letter ‘p’, spoken with the lips, is usually found to be silent in a number of places. For example in words like Phycology, pseudo, receipt etc.
4. The Silent “T”
The letter ‘t’ is probably the best example of silent letters as it can be found silent in a number of words like thistle, bustle, castle, whistle, hustle, Christma
Sometimes there are words in the English language where there is pronunciation of a letter which is nowhere to be found in the word. These letters are called as Non-Silent or invisible letters. This is the opposite of silent letters where a letter is pronounced even though it is not written.
For example the word “one” is pronounced as ‘Wone’, where the sound of the letter ‘w’ can be clearly and distinctly heard. Similarly, The Scottish word búrgh can be pronounced as the equivalent bòrough is in England. One can often find the English city of Edinburgh being pronounced as “Edinborogh” by native speakers.
One can also find the presence of an invisible ‘a’ in American names such as McDonalds, McEnroe, McElroy, McCarthy.
Homophones can be defined as pairs of words which sound alike but have different meanings and different spellings. Homophones can be frequently found in the English language and although they might sound similar but their meanings can be completely different or even opposite.
Below are some examples of homophones:
Sell/cell: The former means to deliver something for money while the latter means a small compartment.
Hear/here: The former means to listen to something or someone will the latter describes a place.
Cent/Scent: The former is a unit of currency while the latter is smell.
Hour/our: The former is a unit of time while the latter is a possessive adverb.
See/Sea: The former means to watch while the latter implies a large water body
Homonyms are words that sound the same or spelled the same but may have completely different meanings. Homonyms are rarer than Homophones but they are also ever present in the English language.
Below are some examples of Homonyms:
Band: A musical group/ a ring
Bat: A Flying Mammal/ An object used to play baseball, cricket.
Address: to speak to/a location
Rose: A type of flower/ to go up
Right: correct / direction opposite of left
Pound: unit of weight / to beat
Aspiration simply means the act of drawing air or breathing, however in Phonetics; Aspiration can be described as a manner of articulation involving an audible release of breath. In the English language a lot of the words require strong burst of air to be pronounced correctly, these words start with an aspirated consonant. To tell the difference between aspirated and non-aspirated sounds one can place a candle in front of the mouth and say the words, all aspirated words will affect the flame to a greater extent than the non-aspirated ones.
There will always be a flicker in the flame when an aspirated consonant is uttered.
For example if we take the words Kill/Skill, Pill/Spill and Till/Still; it is easily noticeable that the first words start with puffs of air which are not present in the second words.
Another example which can be considered is between the words ‘pin’ and ‘bin’. While saying the word ‘pin’ one feels a short burst of air blowing out while uttering the consonant ‘p’ while the same is not felt when saying ‘bin’.
The degree of aspiration of a particular word also varies depending upon the onset time of aspirated stops. Some words contain a higher level of aspiration such as thunder, while other words have a lower degree of aspiration such as pat, top, pill etc.
The article ‘The’ is pronounced mainly in two ways, the first being “thuh” sound which is used when it comes before a word starting with a consonant sound. The second pronunciation occurs when the article “the” is used in front of a word which starts with a vowel, which sounds like “thee”. Therefore it can be said that the pronunciation of “the” depends upon the first sound of the word that succeeds it.
It is noteworthy that it is not the actual consonant or vowel of the word succeeding ‘the’ that decides its use but the sound of the first letter of the word.
In each of the following sentences, “thuh” is usually used because the word after "the" begins with a consonant sound:
- He liked the bracelet very much.
- The kids did not enjoy the play.
- Each of the seven children had abandoned him.
- They were the first people to arrive at the party.
In each of the following sentences, “thee” is usually used because the word after "the" begins with a vowel sound:
- She reached the end of the road and had to turn around.
- The indecision of the employer made working difficult for his employees.
- She just watched her favourite movie for the eighth time.
- He drew the apricot in a very realistic way.
The word ‘age’ is a suffix used to form mass or abstract nouns from various parts of speech. Most of the words that end with the suffix ‘age’ are loanwords taken from French (Voyage, Courage).
The use of the suffix ‘age’ can form a number of meanings as can be seen below:
In the formation of nouns:
- To indicate a group, collection or a set: baggage, luggage
- To indicate a process or action or its result: passage, breakage
- To indicate a state, condition or relationship: bondage, parentage
- To indicate a location: orphanage
- To indicate a charge or fee: postage
- To indicate a measure or rate: mileage, dosage
Some other examples of the use of the suffix ‘age’ are salvage, forage, storage, pillage, visage, envisage, marriage, damage, courage, carriage etc.
When a word changes from its singular form to plural, the pronunciation also changes with it due to the addition of prefixes and suffixes. A word becomes plural by adding suffixes such as ‘s’, ‘es’, ‘ies’. Many a times while converting a word from singular to plural, the word needs to be changed entirely with a change in its vowels, Ex. foot – feet.
Below are some of the ways in which plural forms of different words are formed along with their suffixes and pronunciations.
- When a noun ends with a vowel or voiced consonant the suffix ‘s’ is used with the sound /z/ at the end of the noun.
Examples: bed – beds, dog – dogs, room – rooms.
2. When a noun ends with a voiceless consonant again the suffix ‘s’ is used but with the sound /s/ at the end of the noun.
Examples: clock - clocks, cat – cats, month – months.
3. When a noun ends with a sound s, ss, sh, ch, z the suffix ‘es’ is used with the sound /iz/ at the end of the noun.
Examples: gas – gases, glass – glasses, nose – noses.
4. A consonant ending with ‘y’ turns into ‘ies’.
Examples: country – countries, baby – babies, lady – ladies.
5. A vowel ending with ‘y’ turns into ‘ys’
Examples: day – days, boy – boys, key – keys.
6. Nouns ending with ‘f’, ‘fe’ are written with the suffix ‘ves’ with the /vz/ sound.
Examples: knife – knives, loaf – loaves, wife – wives.
7. Some nouns require a complete change in their vowels to make plural forms.
Examples: mouse – mice, woman – women, goose – geese.
Articles are words that precede a noun and define the specificity of that noun. In other words, they imply how specific a particular noun is.
There are two types of Articles in the English language, Definite and Indefinite Articles.
- Definite Article
The definite article is the word ‘the’. This article is only used when a particular place, thing or activity is being referred to. It limits the meaning to one particular thing or activity.
For example in the sentence “I won’t be attending the party this weekend.” ‘The’ is used before the noun party therefore it refers to a specific party which the subject is talking about. The definite article can be used with both singular and plural words.
Uses of “The”:
- The definite article can be used to make general things specific, for example, “Please pass me a pen.” when changed to “Please pass me the pen.” Changes the meaning of the sentence entirely. In the former the subject requests for a pen in general whereas in the latter he refers to a specific pen.
- ‘The’ is used by geographical areas such as rivers, mountains, seas, oceans etc.
“The Middle East”, “The Atlantic Ocean”, “The Himalayas”
c. Unique things always requite the article ‘the’
“The Sun”, “The Moon”
d. Musical instruments use ‘the’
“He plays the cello.”
e. Countries generally don’t use articles in front but if their names are plural they use the article ‘the’
“The Netherlands”, “The United States of America”
f. Abbreviations and classes of people always use the article ‘the’
“The U.N” “The Poor” “The British” “The IMF”
2. Indefinite Article
The Indefinite Article is of two types, namely, ‘a’ and ‘an’. The word ‘a’ is used when it precedes a word that starts with a consonant and the word ‘an’ is used when it precedes a word that starts with a vowel. Unlike the Definite Article, the Indefinite Articles refer to a general idea and not a particular one. The Indefinite Article only appears with singular nouns. For example in the sentences “I would like a good book to read.” Or “I am craving for an apple pie.” The subject talks about books or apple pies in general rather than a specific book or apple pie.
Uses of ‘a’ and ‘an’:
- Uncountable nouns cannot use either ‘a’ or ‘an’. For example advice is an uncountable noun, therefore a sentence such as “Can you give me an advice.” Does not make sense. Rather “Can you give me some advice.” Is more appropriate.
- Jobs use Indefinite Articles
“I want to become a teacher” “My dream is to become an actor”
c. There are a couple of exceptions to the overall rule of employing ‘a’ before words that start with consonants and ‘an’ before words that begin with vowels. The first letter of the word honour, for instance, may be a consonant, but it’s unpronounced. In spite of the way it is spelled, the word honour begins with a vowel. Therefore, we use an. For example, consider the following sentences:
My mother is a honest woman.
My mother is an honest woman.
d. When the first letter of a word is a vowel but is pronounced with a consonant sound, the article 'a' must be used. For example:
She is an United States senator.
She is a United States senator.