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Linguistics

Notes 15. In R.P. the five long vowels and the diphthongs are relatively longer than the other vowels but
the length is reduced before voiceless consonants.
16. In General Indian English the long vowels tend to be shortened in unaccented positions.
17. R.P. generally has a weak vowels / /i/, or /u/ in unaccented syllables. This feature is not
consistently observed in General Indian English where the choice of the vowels is often determined
e
by the spelling.
18. General Indian English has monophthongs /e:/ and /o:/ in place of the R.P. dipthongs /ei/
and /ou/. R.P. has eight diphthongs whereas General Indian English has only six diphthongs.
19. In R.P. /r/ occurs only before a vowel. Most Indian speakers of English, however, pronounce it
in all positions in words such as court, part, father, etc., whereas in R.P. /r/ remains silent before
a consonant sound.
20.6 Suggestions for the Improvement of Indian English

The scholars of Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad (India) have put
forward the following suggestions for the improvement of Indian English in order to make it
internationally intelligible:
1. The correct pattern of English word accent should be maintained.
2. The correct pattern of sentence stress and rhythm should be maintained.
3. The consonants / θ ,v,w,/ should be acquired.
4. The consonants should be clearly articulated.
5. English vowels and diphthongs must be given correct length. If/o:/ and /e:/ are used in place
of /ou/ and /ei/ respectively, they should be sufficiently long.
6. The voiceless plosives /p,t,k,/ should be aspirated at the beginning of accented syllables.
7. The reading of a set text should be done carefully with proper grouping of words.
8. The correct distribution of /s/ and /z/ in inflexional suffixes should be maintained.
9. The correct distribution of English vowels and consonants should be learnt through the constant
use of a pronouncing dictionary.
10. Students should remember that the sound (r) at the end of a word or before a consonant is
dropped. It is pronounced before a vowel only. It is, however, pronounced at the end of a word
when the word immediately following it in connected speech begins with a vowel. It does not as
a rule take place unless the word has a close or fairly close grammatical connection with the
word following, e.g. far, morning, there, thereafter, thereby, archive-in these words (r) is not
pronounced.
11. (m) before (b) is sometimes not pronounced when (b) happens to be the final letter of the word,
e.g.,
lamb, comb, bomb, tomb
12. Sometimes two consonants occur next to each other. In pronunciation the first is often dropped,
e.g.
Sit down: /si daun/
Budget: /bud ¦ it/
Postman: /pousm c n/or poustmen/
13. Some most commonly mispronounced words in India are: vowel, adjective, sew, opportunity,
capacity, political, azure, rumour, drought, malign, malignity, condemn, autumn, forehead,
extraordinary, Wednesday, zero, hero, etc. The students should check up the correct
pronunciations of these and similar other problematic words in a pronouncing dictionary.

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