English Phonetics Diary #5

    For this week's diary I explored another video from the mmmEnglish channel. This time the topic was "10 English Words You're (probably) Mispronouncing". I found the title intriguing and I thought it could be an opportunity to learn something new. I always enjoy hearing interesting examples related to pronunciation that lead to bigger understandings about phonetics in general. The video showed a variety of tricky words to pronounce for reasons, such as silent letters or unvoiced sounds. In my reflection I wanted to share those examples and what I learned from them. 

    Vegetable - The reason this word can be tricky is because it looks like it should have 4 syllables, but you actually only pronounce 3. The 'e' after the 'g' should not be voiced (/ˈvedʒtəb(ə)l/) and because of that the second syllable is not pronounced. The way this word is pronounced can be quite odd after just seeing the spelling, which is why it's so important to not trust it blindly. Here is where hearing native speakers pronunciation or knowing the IPA transcription could be beneficial, which is a call-back to the topic of my previous diary entry.

    Comfortable - This word could be difficult for similar reasons to the previous one. There is an extra vowel that doesn't need to be pronounced, which is the 'o' after the 'f' (/ˈkʌmftəb(ə)l/). Once again, the spelling can be misleading, especially when we encounter silent letters. 

    Almond - With the word 'almond' we once again encounter the silent letter issue. Similarly to the words 'salmon', 'half', 'would', or 'talk', the 'l' in 'almond' is not voiced (/ˈɑːmənd/). Out of the three words so far, I would personally say this one is the trickiest, because it is not as common as 'vegetable' or 'comfortable', which learners can quickly pick up due to how often they hear it. 

    Clothes - In the word 'clothes' we finally move away from the issue of silent letters. Here the difficulty lies in the two tricky consonant sounds at the end - 'th' and the plural 's' (although this word is always plural). These two consonant sounds together are difficult to pronounce, because they're both voiced (created in the vocal cords). Non-native speakers often have a problem with this word, because of how demanding it is for one's throat to voice - (/kləʊðz/).

    Jewellery - This word was interesting to explore in terms of why it is difficult. The issue here once again is the spelling and silent letters - the second 'e' is not voiced (/ˈdʒuːəlri/). What makes this example unique is the fact that it is the British spelling that can feel counter-intuitive. The American spelling, 'jewelry', makes it easier to learn the word and pronounce it correctly.

    Architecture - In the word 'architecture' we encounter a new issue that is different to the previous examples. Here the tricky aspect is the 'ch' sound, that is actually pronounced as 'k' (/ˈɑː(r)kɪˌtektʃə(r)/), which is rather counter-intuitive. Most words that include 'ch', like 'chimney' (/ˈtʃɪmni/) or 'chocolate' (/ˈtʃɒklət/) pronounce it as 'tʃ' not 'k'. Other words that face a similar issue as 'architecture' are 'stomach' (/ˈstʌmək/) and 'ache' (/eɪk/).

    Word / World / Work - In this example it's the 'or' sound that can be tricky, because we want to pronounce it as a hard 'ɔː(r)' like in the word 'door' (/dɔː(r)/), but it is pronounced as 'ɜː(r)' - (/wɜː(r)d/), (/wɜː(r)ld/), (/wɜː(r)k/). Once again, either being exposed to these words aurally or knowing the IPA can come in very useful to make sure your pronunciation is as accurate as possible. 

    Photograph - This last example is probably the most interesting and intricate. Here the issue is completely different than any of the ones I shared before. The word 'photograph' (/ˈfəʊtəˌɡrɑːf/) could seem easy to pronounce, but the ones from its family might not be - 'photography', photographer', or 'photographic'. What makes them difficult is the stress and its place in the word. Most English words that have more than one syllable have one main stress that is stronger than others, while the unstressed syllable is often reduced to the '/ə/' vowel sound. However, the stress pattern in these three words is different and changes. In 'photograph' (/ˈfəʊtəˌɡrɑːf/) the first syllable is the one that is stressed, while the second syllable is unstressed. In 'photography' (/fəˈtɒɡrəfi/) and 'photographer' (/fəˈtɒɡrəfə(r)/) however, it's the second syllable that is stressed. Finally, in 'photographic' (/ˌfəʊtəˈɡræfɪk/) it's actually the third syllable that is stressed. There's many similar word families that have difficult stress patterns, such as 'economic', 'analyze', 'nature', 'politics'. It takes quite a lot of time and exposure to master pronouncing these words correctly, which is why it's so interesting to learn about the reasons behind the difficulty. 

    I had a lot of fun watching this video and learned so much from it. It was an amazing way to revise a lot of issues with pronunciation, such as silent letters, word stress, syllables, etc. I would highly recommend checking out this resource, as it helped me develop my awareness of phonetics and revise a lot of concepts we learned in class, but in a completely new light.