Communication Skills &

Personality Development
4 Pronunciation
NOTES

The word speech means only the making and use of speech sounds. Speech sounds
are of two types: vowels and consonants. However, the spoken vowels and con-
sonants must not be confused with written ones. Fifteen vowels are commonly used
in spoken English. The mouth is shaped differently for each vowel. For a clear idea
of spoken vowels say the following words aloud :
hit, hoot, hat, hot, and hut.
All these words are alike except for their vowels. Try to notice the difference
in the shape of the mouth and in the sound as you speak each word aloud.
When two vowels run together in close succession, diphthongs are formed.
Words like boy, bay and thou end with diphthongs.
Most people who speak English use 23 consonants. Most of the consonants
are made in the mouth by either narrowing or completely blocking the passage
through which air escapes from the lungs.The lower lip and the upper teeth are
close to one another in making the consonant with which the word fan begins.
14 But the consonant which begins pan starts with a little explosion as the lips are
blown apart. These examples represent unvoiced consonants; that is sound Section A : Grammar
made by mouth noise alone. Other consonants are called voiced and are made
by sounds from the voice box. Usually the voiced consonant combine an un-
voiced explosion with their voice box tone. Now try pronouncing the words
van and fan, and ban with pan, and you will know the difference. NOTES

A Take the example of the alphabet A. To say A one has to open

the mouth , part the lips wide , keep the jaws apart and rest the
tongue on the cavity of the mouth. Try to say rat, mat, cat, that
and you will know how important it is to open the mouth and
speak. But when one tries to say late, mate, ate, Kate the edges
of the tongue touch the upper row of ones teeth.
U With the pronunciation of U, one actually pronounces two words
in quick succession –E and U, when spoken it becomes EU.
For uttering U the lip movements becomes very important, first
stretching the lips and then contracting them. When one says
universal, induce, amuse, accuse similar lip movement is re-
quired. On the other hand, when one says but, cut, mug, rut,
sun, urn the mouth is opened a little and even the lip movement
is minimal.
Thus one can pick out each alphabet and see the difference in pronunciation
and realise the importance of use of tongue, lips and jaws when we speak.
Unless the speech is perfect, other aspect of language learning will also suffer.
Most of the students face problems with spelling the words. This difficulty
arises because the alphabetic symbol used in writing and their sound in speech
is different. The letter “U” sounds different in the words – 'use', 'but' and 'put'.
The reason for this is that in written English we have only 26 alphabets . While
in spoken English we have as many as 44 sounds which increase at times.
Thus, the same letter makes different sounds under different combinations , the
learner gets confused while writing and reading.
The sounds in English are divided into two categories : Consonants and Vow-
els.
Thus for inculcating a perfection in pronunciation the phonetic scheme consist-
ing of consonants and vowels need to be understood.
Consonants :
The consonant sounds are produced by completely or partially obstructing
the air breathed out through the mouth. There are twenty four consonant
sounds in English. They are either voiceless or voiced.
Check Your Progress
A sound is voiceless when the vocal chords (Two vertical lips at the
bottom of our inner throat through which air passes from the lips to the 5. Why do most of the stu-
dents face problems
mouth ) do not vibrate. That is they stand still. While a sound is voiced,
with spelling the words?
when the vocal chords vibrate.
Voiceless sound
15
P—as in pen , pay , put
Communication Skills & Voiced sound
Personality Development b—as in big , bag , ball
In both these sounds, the speech production is by closing the lips tightly
and then opening them to release the stopped air.
NOTES
Voiceless sound
t—as in tea , train , tough
Voiced sound
d—as in do , day , dog
Both these sounds are produced by stopping the air with the tip of the
tongue on the middle of the ridge behind the teeth.
K—as in cat , calm , class
The sound is voiceless.
g—as in girl go give
The sound is voiced.
In both these cases sounds are produced by placing the back of the
tongue against the soft palate.
tƒ—as in church , cheat , cheap
This sound is voiceless.
d3—June , jail , jam
This sound is voiced.
Both these sounds are produced by stopping the air with the tip of the
tongue at the ridge behind the teeth.
f—as in father , fish , fail
The sound is voiceless.
V—as in voice , village , vein
The sound is voiced.
Both these sounds are produced by placing the lower lip near the upper
teeth and letting the air pass through. They are called soft and hard 'th'
sounds.
—as in thief , thing , thin
This sound is voiceless.
ð—as in they , then , them
This sound is voiced.
Both these sounds are produced by placing the tip of the tongue near the
upper teeth and letting the air flow.
S—as in sin , say , so
This sound is voiceless.
Z—as in zoo , zebra , zest
16 This sound is voiced.
Both these sounds are produced by placing the tip and the blade of the Section A : Grammar
tongue near the ridge behind the teeth.
—as in shame , sheep , she
This sound is voiceless. NOTES
3—as in vision , fusion , confusion
This sound is voiced.
Both these sounds are produced from the glottis ridge.
h—as in him , hall , hill
This sound is voiceless and is produced by letting the airflow between the
back of the tongue and the palate.
m—as in man , mother , me
This is a nasal sound and is produced by closing the lips and letting the
air flow through the nose.
n—as in no , number , nail
This nasal sound is produced by placing the tip of the tongue tightly against
the ridge behind the teeth and letting the air flow through the nose.
?—as in sing , ring , thing
This nasal sound is produced by stopping the air with the back of the
tongue against the palate and making the air flow through the nose.
Remember all nasal
 sounds are voiced.
1—as in long , leg , lady
This voiced sound is produced when the air is made to escape through the
sides of the tongue.
r—as in red , rat , ridge
This sound is produced when the tip of the curved tongue is raised to-
wards the palate behind the teeth ridge.
j—as in yes , yellow , young
This is a semi-vowel.
w—as in wet , warm , well
This semi-vowel sound is produced by rounding the lips and uttering the
vowel sound
after it.
When the consonant is in combination with other words the pronunciation
changes. Some examples are given below :
C is “hard” and is pronounced as K in words like :
cob ,cry , talc
C when fixed before e , i , y, is 'soft' as pronounced in ice, icy, city.
Dg when pronounced in combination is spoken as j as in judgment.
G when in combination with e, i, y, is soft and pronounced as j as
in age ,gin , and orgy. 17
Communication Skills & N when in combination with k, c, q, x is pronounced as hard 'ng' as
Personality Development in zinc , uncle, tank, banquet and minx.
Ph in combination is always pronounced as f as in photo.
Qu when in combination is pronounced as kw as in quit.
NOTES
Tch, these three when in combination is pronounced as Ch as in
batch.
X alone is pronounced as ks as in fox.
Vowels :
The Vowel sounds are produced when the air passes through the mouth
without any stoppage or obstruction.Only the position of the tongue and
the lips is adjusted to make the sounds. Vowel sounds are better learnt by
listening and imitating. There are twelve simple vowel sounds and eight
compound vowel sounds. The compound vowel sounds are called dipthongs.
There are eight dipthongs.
i:—as in see thief team
—as in sit kill hit
i—as in happy cathy
e—as in ten hen pen
æ—as in man fat rat
a:—as in far car bar
b—as in got hot pot
c:— as in saw fought sought
—as in put room could
u: as in cool pool shoot
—as in but shut hut
3:—as in shirt dirt hurt
? —as in ago father mother
Next the combination of vowels with other syllables will be given with
there pronunciation.
ae is pronounced as e as in aegis.
ai ,, ,, ,, ei ,, ,, pain.
air  these three letters when in combination are pronounced as æ
as in fair.
au is pronounced as (aw) as in maul.
ay is pronounced as ei as in say.
ea ,ee , both are pronounced as i:(ee) as in mean and meat.
ear , eer , these three are combined and pronounced as æ as in fear
and beer.
ie is pronounced as i:(ee) as in thief.
18 ier is pronounced as er ia in pier.
 oa combination is pronounced as a (o) as in boat. Section A : Grammar
ou is pronounced as (ow) as in bound.
oy combination is pronounced as oi as in coy.
NOTES
Terminating Syllables
The syllables with which a word terminates or ends are called terminating
syllable. To simplify this, some examples are given below.
Terminations pronunciation As in
-age ij garbage
-ate -it or –at mandate
-ey -i donkey
-ous -us furious
—sm -zm atheism , spasm
-tion -shon salvation
-ture -chur , -tur aperat ure , re-
searcher
Exercise
1. Take the English Newspaper and read it aloud.
2. Make a list of ten words each for each of the sound listed above.
3. Find out from the newspaper as many words as you can with the
sounds described in vowels and consonant and practice.

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