Basics of Phonetics- I

Speaking Skills

Phonetics: the study of speech sounds; how sounds are made; words are pronounced.

Alphabets- 26

 Vowels- 5
 Consonants- 21
 Sounds- 44
*20 vowel sounds,
*24 consonant sounds

English: Unphonetic language

Things to remember:

# Mother tongue influence:

 voiceless “th” (as in thing, think, thumb…) as “t” with a puff of air;
 “w” as “v” (water, watch, work…);
 “p”, “t” and “k” at the start of words without the puff of air (pen, take, kind…).
 “t” and “d” (teacher, time, danger, dance…) with the tongue further back in the mouth
(sometimes even curled back, in the so-called retroflex position);
 “zh” (as in vision or measure) as a “z” or “j”; and
 some clustergs of consonants with epenthesis, e.g. “e-street” for “street” or by adding in an
unstressed vowel, e.g. “filam” for film.
 Stress: Many Indian languages follow a syllable-timed pattern, where word stress is secondary to
the rhythm.
 Intonation: In many Indian languages, a rise in pitch signifies emphasis. Statements and
questions both follow a rise-fall pattern of intonation.
 In English, a rise in pitch is most often used to indicate a yes/no question or to signal
uncertainty. Most statements end with a fall in pitch, particularly when emphasising a point,
and a fall is also common at the end of “wh” questions (e.g. what, when, where, why, how”).

# Linking /r/:

 Car- /ca:/
 Far- /fa:/
 Her eyes - /her eyes /
 Far away- /far away/
 Door is- /door is/
 Car is- /car is/
 # Devoicing:

 “z” as “s”; (zomato- somato)

Commonly Mispronounced Words:

1. Picture: Incorrectly pronounced by a lot of people as pitcher or pikshur, the right way to say it is pic-
ch.

2. Specific: The right way to say this word is Speh-si-fik and not sp-si-fik.

3. Suite: Commonly mispronounced as 'soot', the correct way to say it would be 'sweet'.

4. Queue: This word should be pronounced 'cue'.

5. Clothes: When you say clothes the 'th' sound followed by an 's' is very difficult to produce, especially
the voiced TH and zz ending.

The word has only one syllable; 'e' is silent and 's' makes a 'zzz' sound.

6. Almond: A lot of people pronounce this word as Al-muh-nd. The syllable 'L' is silent.

The correct way to pronounce it is Ah-muh-nd.

7. Humour: This word is pronounced as hyoo- muh. R is silent.

8. Height: Most people follow the pattern and say 'heighth', with a th at the end of the word. The
correct way to pronounce it is 'hait'.

9. Determine: It’s all about the stressing the right syllable here. Correct pronunciation: duh-TER-mun
(not duh-TER-mine)

10. Technology: A common word we use almost daily that is often pronounced incorrectly. Correct
pronunciation: tek-NO-luh-jee ( not tek-no-LAW-jee)

11. Cough: English is a funny language. We pronounce tough like tuff, rough like ruff, enough like enuff,
but is cough pronounced cuff? No, it isn’t. Correct pronunciation: KOFF

12. Pizza: As long as it’s delicious, does the pronunciation really matter? That’s a valid question but let’s
learn the right way to say it anyway! Correct pronunciation: PEET-suh (Not PEE-za, not PIZZ-a, and not
PEE-zha)
13. Video: An easy one to correct before you start your YouTube channel. Correct pronunciation: VID-
ee-yo (not WID-ee-yo)

14. Data: You may hear people argue that Americans say it one way and British people say it another
way. This may be the case, but there’s only one correct way to say it. Correct pronunciation: DAY-tuh
(not DAA-tuh)

15. Women: This is often mispronounced to sound similar to the singular form of the word. That’s
understandable, but not quite right.Correct pronunciation: WI-min (not WU-min)

16. Breakfast: The tendency is to split the word into two and pronounce it as you would two words, but
that isn’t correct. Correct pronunciation: BREK-fust (not BRAIK-fast)

17. Tomb: This one seems more difficult than it is. You simply have to remember that the o produces a
long oo sound and the b is silent. Correct pronunciation: TOOM (not tom-buh or toom-buh)

18. Bowl: This is often mispronounced in India, but it’s easy to correct! Correct pronunciation: BOHL (not
baa-owl)

19. Cache: Another example of pronunciation that’s not obvious from the spelling. Correct
pronunciation: KASH (not kash-ey)

20. February: Another word that isn’t as it appears. It might take a few tries to get right but let us show
you how. Correct pronunciation: FEB-ruh-ree (not FEB-yoo-a-ree)

21. Receipt: That’s right, another silent letter, this time it’s the p. Correct pronunciation: Ruh-SEET (not
ruh-SEEPT)

22. Itinerary: What we’ve been saying: ahy-tin-ary. How to correctly say it: ahy-tin-uh-rer-ee
23. Heart: Some people have difficulty with this one and some people don’t? What about you? Correct
pronunciation: HAA-T (not heert or hirt)

24. Monk: It’s the spelling that confuses many, but the confusion ends here! Correct pronunciation:
MUNK (not mon-k)

25. Police: Most of us don’t even realize we’re mispronouncing this one, so don’t be too hard on
yourself if you are.Correct pronunciation: puh-LEES (not PO-lees or PO-leez)

Reading Exercise- 1 (poem)