Let me start with the assurance that this treatise will not bore you with the intricacies of oral English. The simple goal is to take us through the correct pronunciation of some English words by using the residual knowledge of some other correctly articulated words. Given that English is a second language in Nigeria, factors such as linguistic interference and sound-letter distinction have resulted in the mispronunciation of many English words, which could culminate with the loss of meaning, especially when we interact with native speakers like Americans, the British, Canadians and Australians.
For starters, all around the country and particularly in the university environment, the word, ‘senate’, is often heard with the usual mispronunciation. For clarity’s sake, the first ‘e’ in senate is pronounced like the ‘e’ in egg, while the ‘a’ represents the subtle, unstressed central vowel called schwa. The schwa is depicted as /ə/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and it is inherent in the first syllables of words like above (uh-bov), ago (uh-go), appreciation (uh-pri-shi-ei-shn) and away (uh-way). ‘Senate’ should, therefore, be vocalised as /sen-uht/, not /si-neit/ or /se-nit/. Furthermore, pizza, that large circle of flat bread which is baked with cheese and other recipes, is not pronounced with the voiced consonant /z/. Thus, the right pronunciation of the word is /piːtsə/, as in (pit-suh). Incidentally, did you observe the presence of the schwa at the last syllable of the word? Meanwhile, it is incumbent upon you to recall that, in a previous lesson, I affirmed that the ‘s’ in words like ‘kerosene’ and ‘basic’ should be enunciated with the unvoiced /s/, not the voiced /z/. This is converse to words like ‘visit’, ‘resident’, ‘positive’ and ‘cosmetic’, whose S’s are enunciated as /z/. Again, the ‘ar’ in ‘dwarf’ is pronounced like the ‘or’ in ‘port’. Is that not utterly fascinating?
Moving on, it may interest you to know that the word, ‘suite’, is pronounced exactly like ‘sweet’. In point of fact, ‘suite’ and ‘sweet’ are supreme examples of a phenomenon regarded as ‘homophone’ in oral English. A homophone refers to each of two or more words with similar vocal realisation but different meanings, origins or spellings. Other notable examples of homophones are ‘aren’t’ and ‘aunt’ (ant), ‘weren’t’ and ‘went’ (went), ‘principal’ and ‘principle’ (prin-si-pl), ‘idol’ and ‘idle’ (ai-dl), ‘illicit’ and ‘elicit’ (i-li-sit), ‘sachet’ and ‘sashay’ (sa-shei), ‘gross’ and ‘grows’ /ɡrəʊs/, ‘billed’ and ‘build’ (bild), ‘brews’ and ‘bruise’ /bru:z/, ‘bridle’ and ‘bridal’ (brai-dl), ‘serial’ and ‘cereal’ (si-ri-uhl), ‘ewe’ and ‘you’ /ju:/, ‘allowed’ and ‘aloud’ (uh-laud), ‘counsel’ and ‘council’ (kaun-sl), ‘earn’ and ‘urn’ /ɜːn/, and ‘senses’ and census (sen-suhs).
Along those lines, be mindful of the reality that ‘gaol’—an old-fashioned British word—and ‘jail’ exemplify the same pronunciation (jeil). With that in mind, the distinction in the articulation of the words ‘off’ and ‘of’, as well as ‘president’ and ‘precedent’, will also interest non-native speakers of the English language. While ‘of’ is vocalised with the voiced consonant /v/, ‘off’ is articulated with the voiceless consonant /f/. By implication, we say of /ov/ all the boys; not, of /of/ all the boys. In a similar vein, the ‘s’ in ‘president’ represents the voiced consonant /z/, while the ‘c’ in ‘precedent’ depicts the unvoiced consonant /s/. On the sidelines of that, the readership should keep in mind that the letter ‘i’ after ‘p’ in the word, ‘compilation’, is pronounced as the monophthong /ɪ/, not the diphthong /aɪ/—although /aɪ/ is obtainable in the verbal form, ‘compile’. Similarly, ‘recitation’ should be appropriately enunciated as (re-si-tei-shn), not (ri-sai-tei-shn). On the other hand, the ‘i’ in ‘stipend’ should be pronounced as /aɪ/, not /i/.
The essence of articulating words correctly is not fundamentally anchored in (not ‘anchored on’) sounding like native speakers; it is geared towards ensuring fluency and achieving global intelligibility. Speakers of English should, therefore, endeavour to vocalise words appropriately, with a view to interacting effectively with speakers of English the whole world over.
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