PRONUNCIATION

What is pronunciation?
Pronunciation is the use of a sound system, stress, rhythm, intonation, fluency and pause in
speaking
The understanding of pronunciation becomes easier if we know about various speech organs.
The Speech Organs
Various parts of the throat, mouth and nose which are of importance for pronunciation are as
follows:
i. Vocal cords
These are two small bonds of elastic tissues present in the larynx. The two bonds have a gap
between them which is known as glottis. The inner edge of vocal-cords can move towards each other.
When air released by the lungs passes from open glottis, voiceless sound is produced.
Sound is produced when the air released by lungs interfaces with its passage in various ways
and at different places.
ii. The Palate
It forms the roof of the mouth and has three parts: a) Alveolar ridge, b) Hard palate, and c) Soft
palate.
The soft palate can move and can be raised in such a way as to make a firm contact with the
back wall of the pharynx. In such a situation breath can not go into the nose. Another important
function of soft palate is that the whole of it is used by the tongue to interfere with the air stream.
iii. The Teeth
The two upper front teeth are used in English. The lower front teeth are not important except
that if they are missing certain sounds, e.g. s, z, will be difficult to make.
iv. The tongue
It is the main articulating and most important of speech organs. By shaping the tongue
differently, by raising or lowering its different parts, it is possible to modify the air passage and to
produce many different sounds. The important parts of the tongue are:
a. tip-the foremost portion of tongue
b. blade
c. front
d. back
v. Lips
There are upper and lower lips. They can take up various different positions e.g. spread,
neutral, rounded open, rounded close etc.
English Speech Sounds
In English there are 26 letters and 44 sounds. Thus we can observe that speaking of words does
not guide pronunciation e.g. the letter i, e, u, a, o in city, pretty, busy, village and women stand for the
same vowel sound which is present in sit.
In English many a times we also come across some silent letters. There is an alphabet or
symbol for each 44 sounds of 26 letters. These are known as phonetic alphabets or phonetic
symbols. These symbols alone present exact sound for pronunciation. These symbols have been given
by International Phonetic Association (IPA).

English sounds can be divided into a) vowel sounds, and b) consonant sounds.
Vowel sounds
Vowels have been defined by P. Christopherson as, vowels, then, may be defined as voiced
sounds in the production of which there is no obstruction, partial or complete of the air passage. It
means when there is no closure of air passage by various speech organs, partial or complete; the result
will be a vowel sound.
Vowel sounds can be classified into a) pure vowel (12) and b) diphthongs (8)
a) Pure Vowel Sounds
When each sound consists of a single vowel sound it is called pure vowel sound.
S.No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Phonetic Symbols
/i:/
/i/
/e/
//
/a:/

/U/
/U:/
//
/:/
//

Words example
see
sit
get
man
farm
hot
hall
put
shoe
but
bird
ago

Phonetic Transcription
/si:/
/sit/
/get/
/mn/
/fa:m/
/h t/
/h l/
/pUt/
/u:/
/b t/
/b:d/
/gu/

b) Diphthongs
The word diphthongs came from Greek and means double-sound. It is a combination of two
vowel sounds pronounced as a single syllable. Each sound starts on one vowel and finishes on another.
It is a glide from one vowel to another. Diphthongs are also called impure vowel sounds because they
do not have the purity of one sound only.
S.No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Phonetic Symbols
/ei/
/ai/
/i/
/ i/
/u/
/e/ or //
/au/
/u/

Words example
day
sky
dear
boy
poor
mare
cow
go

Phonetic Transcription
/dei/
/skai/
/di/
/b i/
/pu/
/m/
/kau/
/gu/

Consonant sounds
Consonant sounds are 24 in number.
S.No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

Phonetic Symbols
/p/
/b/
/t/
/d/
/k/
/g/
/f/
/v/
//
//
/s/
/z/
//
//
/t/
/d/
/m/
/n/
//
/l/
/r/
/h/
/w/
/j/

Words example
pen
bus
ten
drink
king
girl
fit
victory
thin
then
sun
zeal
ship
measure
chin
jail
mud
nun
sing
lake
red
hen
wine
yes

Phonetic Transcription
/pen/
/b z/
/ten/
/drik/
/kin/
/g:l/
/fit/
/viktri/
/in/
/n/
/s n/
/zi:l/
/ip/
/me)
/tin/
/deil/
/m d/
/n n/
/si/
/leik/
/red/
/hen/
/wain/
/jes/

The r sound is silent when it is followed by a consonant e.g. in bargain, garlic, short.

The final s after all the alphabets except /f/, /k/, /p/, /t/ is sounded as /z/ e.g. chairs /z/, this /z/.
It will sound /s/ in its caps.

Place of Articulation
a. Bi-labial: sounds formed at the two lips.
b. Labio-dental: sounds formed by the lower lip and upper teeth.
c. Dental: sounds formed by the tip of the tongue and upper teeth.
d. Alveolar: sounds formed by the tip of the tongue and the teeth ridge.
e. Palato Alveolar: sounds formed by the blade of the tongue and the back of alveolar.

f. Palatal: sounds formed by the front of the tongue and the hard palate
g. Velar: sounds formed by the back of the tongue and the soft palate
h. Glottal: sounds formed at glottis.
Manner of Articulation
a. Plosives: sounds produced by a complete closure of the air passage and the sudden release of
air.
b. Nasals: sounds formed by a complete closure in mouth while the nasal passage is open.
c. Fricatives: sounds produced by closing the mouth passage partially while the air pushes
through it with audible friction.
d. Affricates: sounds formed by closing the air passage completely and releasing the air slowly
e. Lateral: sounds formed when the air passage is partially obstructed by the tongue at the
centre of the mouth and the air is free to pass round one or both sides
f. Semi-vowels: sounds formed when the mouth passage is partially closed to let the air pass
through it with very little audible friction.
Voiced consonants
Sounds produced by the vibration of vocal-cords, /b, d, g, v, z, , d, m, n, , , l, r, w, j/
Voiceless consonants
Sounds produced by drawing the vocal cords across the letting the air pass freely without any
vibration. /p, t, k, f, s, , t, , h/

STRESS
Stress is a vital element in correct pronunciation and a great attention to it essential.
Stress means emphasis. In case the sound is made with more energy it comes out with force
and a sound made with less energy comes out with less force. It indicates the degrees of stress.
The degree of force with which sound or a syllable or a word is uttered is stress.
Kinds of stress
i. Syllable stress
ii. Word stress
iii. Sentence stress
i. Syllable stress
There are words of two syllables with stress on the first, e.g. doc/tor, sis/ter, fi/nish.
There are words of two syllables with stress on the second, e.g. a/gain, mis/take, be/lieve
There are words of two syllables with stress on both, e.g. six/teen, up/stairs, un/known.
There are words of three syllables with stress on the first, e.g. pho/to/graphy, ho/li/day
There are words of three syllables with stress on the second, e.g. dic/ta/tion, to/mo/rrow
There are words of three syllables with stress on the third, e.g. un/der/stand
Words of four syllables have usually the stress on the last but one, e.g. e/du/ca/tion
If a word of two syllables is used as a noun and a verb, the noun will have stress on first
syllable and the verb on second syllable
ii. Word stress
Connect words are stressed and structural words are not stressed
Noun, main verbs and adverbs are stressed, where as articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions and
conjunctions are not stressed
iii. Sentence stress
In a sentence some words are more important than others and this is indicated by stressing the
words. Difference in the stress leads to difference in the meaning for instance.
He is my uncle.
a) He is my uncle (not any one else)
b) He is my uncle (not anybody elses)
c) He is my uncle (why do you doubt?)
d) He is my uncle (not father)
Rhythm
It is the musical aspect of language. It makes pronunciation more appealing than it would
otherwise be. Oxford dictionary defines, Rhythm as, Rhythm is the metrical effect produced in verse,
prose, music or motion by the relations in quantity, stress, time, or energy between the syllables,
words, words, notes or movements that succeed each other.
When a person plays upon a harmonium, his fingers of hands move from one note to the other
at a regular interval. This is a rhythm in music. English has stress-timed rhythm. It means equal time
elapses between one stressed syllable and the next. It does not matter how many or how few stressed
syllables may come in between. For instance
Jack and Jill went up the hill

To fetch a paid of water.

is your son, isnt

This is not what

he?

I mean.

Fluency
It refers to saying word groups with no gaps or hesitations in the middle. Thus the words must
be spoken without stumbling over the sounds and sequence of sounds.
Pause
It means to stop for a while. While speaking English a pause should be given after comma, full
stop, etc. The pause can completely change the meaning of a sentence, e.g.
Boys read nicely.
Boys, read nicely.
Hence a good knowledge of sound system, rhythm, intonation, fluency and pause is necessary
for proper pronunciation.