Page 26 - DENG401_Advance Communication Skills

Unit 1: Simple Rule for Pronunciation & Intonation

Notes
[ ] ... 'w' as in 'will'

The W is consonant sound. To make this sound, ww, ww, the lips form a tight circle like the 'oo'
as in 'boo' vowel. Also like that vowel, the back of the tongue reaches up high in the back. The
front part of the tongue remains forward, lightly touching behind the bottom front teeth, or just
a little further back than that, ww, ww. What makes this different from the 'oo' as in 'boo' vowel
is a little closing off here in the throat, ww, ww, ww. That gives it that W consonant quality.
Here is the W consonant sound on the right compared with the mouth at rest on the left. The lips
are very rounded, which means the center part of the lips come away from the face. Here, parts
of the mouth are drawn in. The soft palate is raised in this sound, and the tongue stretches up
towards it in the back, but it does not touch the soft palate. The tip of the tongue is low, touching
where the bottom front teeth meet the soft tissue.

1.2 Word stress

A lot of people perceive that every English word has a rigid and universally correct pronunciation,
which is a wrong notion. Firstly, in connected speech, the shape of an English word often varies
considerably from one sentence uttered to another, depending on the shapes of other words that
occur before it and after it and on other factors. Secondly Pronunciation in English language
varies according to the culture and mother tongue of a country. You would have noted that
pronunciation varies within the country as well. To take an example the pronunciation varies
between the East End and the South End of London, UK. So whether it is US, UK in the developed
world or India, Thailand among the developing nations or even the African nations, the people
of each of the above pronounce words differently, so much so that it would ordinarily take a
master’s in linguistics to understand them. Effort has been made to explain the two English
pronunciation rules, believed may be most useful to you.
If a word ends in the letter ‘s’ (e.g. plural noun or verb in the third person), there are three ways
to pronounce this ’s’ - /S/, /Z/ and /IZ/. Similarly, any word which ends in ‘ed’ (e.g. adjective
or the past of a regular verb) may be pronounced either /T/, /D/ or /ID/.
1. Final ‘s’

(a) Type one sound /S/
In type one words, the final ‘s’ should be pronounced with air pushed out between the top
of your tongue and your top teeth, without using the vocal chords (the sound made by a
snake or gas escaping from a pipe).

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