PRONUNCIATION 



6355 



PRONUNCIATION 



from consideration sounds of rare 

 occurrence, to group together as 

 one sound those which closely re- 

 semble each other, and to indicate 

 the mode of formation of certain 

 sounds, fundamentally different 

 from any English sound. Where 

 digraphs, i.e. combinations of two 

 letters to express one sound, are 

 used, it must be remembered that 

 the sounds thus express*^, are sim- 

 ple, e.g. ay is not a+y. 



English spelling, especially in re- 

 gard to its vowels, is much less 

 phonetic than that of any of the 

 other great European languages. 

 English has also developed an un- 

 usually large number of obscure 

 and mixed vowels, diphthongs, and 

 glides. The English vowel system 

 is confronted with a very different 

 and tolerably uniform Continental 

 vowel system, of which the purest 

 types are to be found in Spanish 

 and Italian. Important exceptions 

 will be noted in their places. 



It is usual, though by no means 

 a universally followed plan, to spell 

 in English books the proper names 

 belonging to languages which use 

 other alphabets than the Latin (in- 

 cluding black letter), or which are 

 not written at all, with English 

 consonants and Continental vowels. 

 If these are mastered there should 

 be little difficulty in pronouncing 

 names in modern Greek, Russian, 

 Serbian, Bulgarian, and the various 

 Asiatic and African languages, ex- 

 cept for accentuation and for 

 certain sounds, as in Arabic, Hin- 

 dustani, and Russian, for which we 

 have no equivalents. 



ENGLISH VOWELS. 



Long Short 



ah father a arise 



ai air & cat 



aw saw o not 



ay date e bell 



ee peel i pill 



oh poker o fellow 



6 (er) hurt u (er) summer 



oo blue u put 



u Ger. uber, u Ger. ttppig, 

 Fr. du FT. tulle 



English Diphthongs 

 i fiiK- 

 ow HOIK 

 oi boil 



Conti- 

 nental 



(Swed. a) 

 e 

 i 



Continental 

 ai 



an 



Of these vowels the only one 

 that presents real difficulty, apart 

 from niceties, is ii. It is the Con- 

 tinental i rounded, and may be 

 pronounced by attempting to utter 

 the ee of peel or the i of pill with 

 the lips protruded and rounded as 

 in oo. The sound is heard in Scot- 

 tish and Devonshire forms of good. 

 Nasalised vowels, common in 

 French, Portuguese, and Polish, 

 are absent from standard English, 

 though heard in some forms of 

 American English. In them the 

 vowel coalesces with a following 

 m, n, or ng, to form a single sound, 



not a vowel followed by a nasal 

 consonant. They are formed by 

 leaving a slight opening between 

 the lips (with m), or between the 

 tongue and palate (with n and ng), 

 thus allowing some of the air to 

 pass through the mouth as well as 

 the nose. 



CONSONANTS. Kh is used in this 

 article to denote both the guttural 

 and palatal voiceless fricatives (or 

 spirants) heard respectively in Ger. 

 ach and ich. The former occurs in 

 Scottish loch. One symbol suffices, 

 as the difference is automatically 

 produced by the following vowel. 

 The sounds are formed by putting 

 the tongue in the positions of ahk, 

 eek, but not allowing it quite to 

 touch the palate. Gh represents the 

 voiced fricative corresponding to 

 the guttural kh, as in Ger. sagen, 

 and is formed as above, substitut- 

 ing ahg for ahk. 



Th is reserved here for the voice- 

 less fricative heard in thick, and dh 

 represents the voiced sound in 

 then. Similarly zh stands for the 

 voiced sound in pleasure. Ly repre- 

 sents the palatal 1 spelt in French 

 and Spanish 11, in Italian gl, and 

 in Polish 1. It is one simple 

 sound, and not quite the 1+y 

 heard in English million, but is 

 formed by placing the tongue in a 

 position between those for 1 and y. 

 In French, S. American Spanish, 

 and Hungarian, it often passes in- 

 to y. Ng is the simple guttural 

 sound of sing. N is the correspond- 

 ing palatal nasal, formed by press- 

 ing the tongue against the front 

 palate, between the positions for n 

 and ng. It resembles the ni in 

 senior, but is one simple sound. 



ITALIAN. The stress is generally 

 on the penultimate, except when 

 that syllable is short in Latin, 

 when it is on the antepenultimate, 

 as in the diminutives in olo, ola. 

 Occasional stress on the last syl- 

 lable is marked by a grave accent, 

 e.g. pode*ta. The two vowels in 

 diphthongs are separately pro- 

 nounced. A doubled consonant is 

 pronounced twice. C before e, i== 

 tsh; cc before e, i=t+tsh; ch be- 

 fore e, i=k; g before e, i=j; gi 

 before a, o, u=j ; gh before e, i 

 =g hard ; gl=ly, rarely gl ; gn=n; 

 h is silent; j = Ital. short i; s ini- 

 tial or before a consonant =s; s 

 medial before a vowel generally =z, 

 sometimes s ; sc before e, i=sh ; sch 

 before e, i=sk; z=ts or dz, but 

 sometimes =z. 



RUMANIAN. A nearly =u ; a= 

 short 6; e initial = short ye ; e, i 

 nearly=u; i and u final are 

 silent; y=i ; c before i = k; c be- 

 fore e, i=tsh ; d=z ; g before e, i 

 = j ; ,gh=g hard ; h = kh; j = zh ; 

 and s=sh ; sc, sc before e, i= 

 sht ; sch before e, i=sk ; t=ts. 



SPANISH. The stress is penulti- 

 mate in words ending in a vowel, 

 or in n or s without written accent ; 

 in others it is final. Exceptions 

 are marked by an acute accent. 

 B=v formed with both lips ; c be- 

 fore e, i=th, but in S. America 

 = s ; ch=tsh ; cu before a=qu 

 (kw), but before e, i, o=ku (often 

 written cu or cu before a); d be- 

 tween vowels or final often=dh ; 

 g before e, i=Span. j ; gu before e, 

 i=g hard, but gu=gu ; gu before 

 a, o, u=gw, often almost w; h is 

 silent except in combination with 

 a consonant ; j is a strong gut- 

 tural h, almost kh ; ll=ly, in S. 

 America y ; n=n ; qu before e, i 

 = k ; x now=x, but formerly was 

 often written where j is now used, 

 e.g. Xerez= Jerez, pronounced her- 

 ayth ; in S. America x often=s ; 

 z=th, in S. America, s. 



PORTUGUESE. The stress is on 

 the penultimate if the word ends 

 with a vowel, or in some cases on 

 the antepenultimate ; in words 

 ending with a consonant it is final. 

 A, e, o, u may be nasalised (see 

 above) ; the nasal a is written am, 

 an when final or before any other 

 consonant than m or n, otherwise 

 it is written a ; nasal e is written 

 em, en ; nasal o is 6 ; nasal u is 

 um, un; ae=Eng. long i nasalised; 

 ao = ow nasalised; oe=oi nasal- 

 ised ; e final is almost silent ; o 

 final=oo ; 6=long o ; 6=0 as in 

 Eng. not ; ou = o as in Eng. no; c 

 before e, i=s ; ch=sh; g before e, 

 i = zh ; gu before e, i=g hard; h 

 is silent except in combination ; j 

 =zh; lh=Span. 11; nh=n; qu be- 

 fore e, i=k; s medial =z ; s final 

 or before voiceless consonants ex- 

 cept s=sh; x==sh. 



FRENCH. The stress is always on 

 the last syllable, not counting final 

 e, which is silent. The written ac- 

 cents do not denote stress, but the 

 nature of the vowel. Vowels with 

 the grave (pere) and circumflex 

 (role) accents are always long ; 

 those with the acute accent (ete) 

 always short. E in unstressed syl- 

 lables has a dull sound almost like 

 a short 6 (Eng. her) ; e is like e hi 

 fell, but with the tongue arched ; i, 

 whether long or short, is formed 

 with the tongue more arched than 

 in Eng. ee, i ; u=u ; y vowel= 

 Fr. i; ai=ai (fair); ay has the 

 same sound unless a vowel follows, 

 when the sound of y consonant is 

 interposed, e.g. payer, pai-yai. In 

 proper names ay often=ah+y, 

 e.g. Bzyeux, bah-yo; au, eau=o 

 long or short; ei, ey=Fr. ai ; eu=6 

 long or short. oei=6+ee ; oeu = 

 6 ; oi, oy = wa(h) ; ou = oo, but 

 before a vowel=w; ui, uy strictly 

 Fr. u+Fr. i, but approximately = 

 wee. The diaeresis on the second 

 of two vowels indicates that they 



