Category: Phonetics

Detailed description of the vowel /e/

During the articulation of this vowel, the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate to a position between the half-close and half-open positions. The lips are neutral. Thus it is a front unrounded vowel between the half-close and half-open positions.  It is a short vowel. It is represented in spelling by e, ea, a, u, ie, ai, ay, as in red, head, any, bury, friend, leisure, said, says. this vowel sound occurs initially and medially as in end, bell etc. It does not occur finally. Some more examples:

a – any, many, ferry, merry, Jerry

ai – said, again

ay – says

e – end, send, let, get, betbed, mess, egg, kettle

ea – dead, head, read, spread, health, leant, jealous, pleasant

ei – leisure

eo – leopard, Geoffrey

ie – friend,

u – bury

ue – guess, guest

Detailed description of the vowel /i/

During the articulation of this sound, the front part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate to a position between the close and half-close positions. The lips are loosely spread. It is thus a centralised front unrounded vowel between close and half-close positions. It is represented in spelling by i, e, y, a, u, ee, ey, ia, ai, ui, and ei as in hit, begin, pity, baggage, ladies, busy, coffee, money, carriage, bargain, build and foreign respectively. This sound can occur initially as in it, medially as in fit, and finally in a word as in city. It is a short vowel. Some more examples:

a – village, private, baggage, surface

ai – bargain, captain, mountain

ay – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

e – pretty, ticket, system, harmless, horses, extempore, apostrophe

ee – coffee, toffee

ei – foreign, sovereign

ey – monkey, money, honey

i – it, hill, fifth, lift

ia – carriage, marriage

ie – cities, ladies, lobbies, dailies

o – women

u – minute (n), busy

ui – build, guilt

y – city, easy, hilly, symbol, rhythm 

Speech Sounds – Vowels

 

There are twenty vowel sounds in the Received Pronunciation of England (R.P.). These include twelve pure vowels and eight diphthongs, belonging to different phonemes. They are illustrated with the following sets of words:

Pure Vowels (Monothongs):

  1.   even, see, teach, field, receive, machine, key, people
  2.   bit, ink, rich, begin, effect, matches, city, village, coffee
  3.   head, bed, nest, breath, feather, measure, many, bury, said
  4.   axe, cat, fan, tax, had, sad, rank,  band, man, bag, lack
  5.   arm, part, car, hard, pass, dance, bath, staff, calm, aunt, laugh
  6.   got, hot, ox, box, God, bottle, borrow, quality, want, cough, gone
  7.   all, corn, horse, morning, four, bought, door, law, walk, warm, daughter
  8.   put, book, good, room, wood, woman, cushion, full, sugar, bush, should
  9.   boot, two, shoe, rude, juice, music, food, tooth, lose, you, new, beauty
  10.   up, cup, gun, much, uncle, bundle, month, country, young, blood
  11.   fur, earn, word, girl, hurt, curse, serve, thirst, journey, surface
  12.   ago, about, forget, human, problem, liberty, drama, beggar, bigger,

Dipthongs (Vowel Glides):

  1.   aim, pain, play, day, gate, age, waste, rain, eight, they, great,
  2.   home, open, go, gold, blow, window, boat, soap, though
  3.   ice, bite, high, write, tidy, cry, cycle, five, die, child, buy
  4.   out, loud, cow, how, allow, shout, house, mouth, round,
  5.  oil, boil, boy, annoy, join,  coin, noise, point, voice
  6.  ear, fierce, near, real, cheer, zero, here, hear, severe
  7.  air, chair, care, share, bear, wear, prayer, their
  8.  poor, sure, surely, tour, during

Detailed Description of the vowel /i:/

The Vowels of English (R.P.): There are twenty vowel sounds in the Received Pronunciation of England (R.P.). These include twelve pure vowels and eight dipthongs, belonging to different phonemes.

Detailed description of the Vowels of RP

 

During the articulation of this sound, the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate, to an almost close position. The lips are spread, and thus it is a front close unrounded vowel.  It is a long vowel. The different spellings for this vowel are e, ee, ea, ie, i, ey, eo as in the words eve, tree, heat, piece, receive, police, key and people respectively. It can occur initially as in eat, medially as in beat, and finally as in see. Some more examples:

e – be, complete, even, immediate, these

ee – cheese, feed, green, free, knee, seed, eel

ea – beat, cream, dream, each, lead, reach, sea, tea, teach

ie – chief, field, relief, piece,siege

ei – deceive, receive, conceive, seize

i – machine, police, prestige, ski

 

 

English Language Learning in India

Language is meant for communication. It is best and easily learnt in meaningful contexts. We grasp the language that is spoken around us without any difficulty. We become confident and use it fluently as we grow.

But when we try to learn a new language, let us say English, we forget the manner in which we acquired our mother tongue or regional language. We scamper after rules and patterns. This way we end up as hesitant speakers of the language. To become fluent in the language, we simply have to surround ourselves with it; use it as much as we can.

There are four skills that we have to master:

Listening

Speaking

Reading

Writing

This is how we acquire our mother tongue /regional language.

Notice that an ordinary Indian student is usually proficient in at least two languages – his mother tongue or regional language and Hindi (our national language). Students in urban areas are also exposed to a third language (English) at a very early age. But few of them gain the same fluency in English as they have in the other two languages.

The problem behind it is the manner in which English is taught in most schools in India. Instead of focusing first on listening and speaking, we put more emphasis on writing and reading skills. Kindergarten kids (three to four years) are made to write the English alphabet in capital, small and cursive style. Drills and repetition form the basis of language learning. The order in which English is taught in most schools is:

Writing

Reading

Listening

Speaking

This results in students who can write and read English, are even aware of the grammar and structure of English but are extremely hesitant in speaking it.

Attempts are being made to change this scenario. Many schools are now adopting the Communicative Language Teaching Approach. The CLT approach aims at communicative competence. The focus is on real language use. Efforts are made for the learner to acquire English within a social context; to be able to communicate in the target language outside of the classroom; to know when and how to say what and to whom.

This approach is not teacher-centric but student –centric. Students are given ample opportunity to express themselves. The teacher acts as a facilitator and advisor and establishes situations which are likely to promote communication. Activities like games, story-telling,, picture strip stories, role play, advertisements etc. are introduced in the class which make language learning an enjoyable activity instead of a burden.

 English is taught as a second language in most schools in India. Still only a handful of people become competent speakers of English. Most remain in awe of the language. Things are changing but a lot needs to be done especially in the manner in which language teachers are trained. It is only then that we will have more confident and competent speakers of the English language.

Speech Sounds

A. Speak the following words aloud and notice the difference. Notice the a, e, i, o and u sounds. These are the vowel sounds of English.

  1. eat    beat
  2. it       bit
  3. bed   beg
  4. bad   bag
  5. car    far
  6. ox     box
  7. short   fought
  8. put     sugar
  9. boot   shoe
  10. up      cup
  11. learn   girl
  12. about   tailor
  13. play pain   day race
  14. ice   rice   buy high
  15. oil   boy toy coin
  16. out   cow shout   house
  17. boat over   no go
  18. ear fear   near   real
  19. poor sure
  20. air care

B. Now read the following words aloud. Focus on the underlined sound of each word. These are the consonant sounds of English.

  1. pin
  2. bin
  3. tin
  4. din
  5. kin
  6. gun
  7. chin
  8. gin
  9. mine
  10. nine
  11. sing
  12. fine
  13. vine
  14. thin
  15. they
  16. sign
  17. zinc
  18. shine
  19. treasure
  20. hat
  21. light
  22. right
  23. yak
  24. wet

Definition of Phonetics

Phonetics is the scientific study of the production, transmission and reception of speech sounds (sounds of human speech). It studies the medium of spoken language, speech processes, including the anatomy, neurology and pathology of speech, the articulation, description, classification, production and perception of speech sounds. It looks at speech from three distinct but interdependent viewpoints:

  1. It studies the speech organs, which produce sounds of language.
  2. It studies waves, the physical way in which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.
  3. It studies the way in which human beings perceive sounds through the medium of the ear.

Phoneticians try to study how the various organs of speech – the lungs, the larynx, the soft palate, the tongue and the lip function in the production of speech. They also attempt to offer articulatory descriptions of various sounds by describing the air-stream mechanism and the phonatory and articulatory processes involved.

Speak Well

Speak Well

In his play Pygmalion (1913), George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), emphasizes the importance of correct speech and pronunciation. He shows how a common flower girl can pass off as a duchess by transforming her manner of speech. Although it takes much more than proper pronunciation and enunciation to pass off as a duchess, the message is very clear – Speech is a very important aspect of one’s personality – it makes or mars one’s chances in life.

Henry Higgins, the professor of phonetics in Shaw’s play gives rigorous training in English elocution to Eliza and at the end of the play we find her running a prosperous florist’s and greengrocer’s business with her husband Freddy Hill.

We have to keep this message in our mind in today’s highly competitive world. We should realize the importance of proper communication. Newspapers today are full of advertisements which demand candidates with good command over English. To gain proficiency in English, two things are very essential:

  1. What to say?
  2. How to say it?

The first deals with the content and the structure. This will come with exposure to the language and practice. The more you hear, listen to, read and speak, the more confidently you will use the language.

 

The second deals with proper pronunciation and enunciation i.e. proper refinement of speech sounds and manners. For this you should be:

  1. Aware of the sounds of English.
  2. You should use the right sound at the right place.
  3. You should have control over your rate of speech.

If you know all this , it is good, But if you don’t, then do not waste your time. These skills can be acquired with proper training and practice.