In English, we cannot assert any single form of pronunciation, exclusive of all other forms, as 'the correct pronunciation.' Since this language is spoken very widely, the reality is that it has developed a wide range of spoken forms, which we can refer to as accents.
Thus, we have accents known as the Educated South-Eastern British, Educated Scottish, General American, Educated Canadian, Educated Australian and Educated South African, to name only those that are regarded as standard.
All these accents are considered correct, acceptable and even respectable forms of pronunciation in the countries/regions where they are in use. This is so because these are the accents the well-educated mother-tongue speakers of English use.
In this sense, then, these are among the native accents of English. Nonetheless, there are also many non-native accents of English, i.e., accents of English employed by those whose mother tongue is not English. Thus, we have German English, Spanish English, Ghanaian English, and so on.
In India, one may come across many accents of English, such as Tamilian English, Assamese English, Punjabi English, Malayalee English, and so on. Some of these diverge so widely from one another that they may largely remain mutually unintelligible.
We cannot, therefore, recommend any single accent of English used in India as a model. None of these can function as an efficient tool for oral communication across regional boundaries, let alone international boundaries. In other words, we are to choose one of the native accents as a model.
For purposes of this Unit, we will use the Educated South-Eastern British as the model. This is also known as the King's/Queen's English, Oxford English, BBC English, Public English, Standard British English, the Received Pronunciation (RP) of England. Note that the word 'Received here implies the social acceptance of the pronunciation as standard and we choose RP, purely for practical reasons.
Generally, we speak in order to be heard and understood. It follows therefore that if others do not understand what we say, then we may as well not say it at all. That is why intelligibility is regarded as an essential criterion to judge the suitability of a given pronunciation. However, it does not mean that what is intelligible gains acceptability.
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| Pronunciation Methods |
The criterion of acceptability requires that our pronunciation should not be merely intelligent. It should, at the same time, be acceptable to the social circle we belong to or aspire to belong to.
In this context, let us consider the following example:
Even if the words, social and physics, are mispronounced as shoshel and fijiks, many listeners in India may understand them. But, the very same listeners may not accept them and may regard such pronunciations as downright substandard, and their users as substandard, backward speakers of English. And often, because of this stigma, such speakers may suffer many disadvantages in their social circles and in their careers.
Theoretically, therefore, the following four situations as regards English pronunciation are possible:
- (i) Intelligible and also acceptable.
- ii) Intelligible but unacceptable.
- (ii) Unintelligible and also unacceptable.
- iv) Unintelligible and acceptable.
Note that possibilities (i) and (iv) do not require any discussion. Possibility (i) may be considered the standard, because the pronunciation is both intelligible and acceptable. Possibility (iv) is purely theoretical in that it does not really happen that a certain pronunciation is unintelligible to us and yet we accept it. Our concern therefore is on possibilities (ii) and (iii).
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