TIL

ENGLISH PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY
Pronouncing the letters

let-f-g-h.htm

Daniel Jones. Edited by Peter Roach, James Hartman and Jane Setter. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Scanned by Maung Kan Tun and edited by U Kyaw Tun, M.S. (I.P.S.T., U.S.A.). Not for sale. Prepared for students of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, MYANMAR.

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pronounce_f-g-h
F | G | GG | GH | GU | H
Myanmar {ga.}

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letter F

p196. The consonant letter [f] is most often realised as /f/, and is given as a double consonant ff at the ends of many words, e.g.:

However, in one of the most common words containing f it is pronounced /v/

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letter G

p219. There are two main pronunciations for the consonant letter g: /ʤ/ and /g/, e.g.:

A following vowel letter [e], [i] or [y] may lead to the pronunciation /ʤ/. (See UKT:Myanmar consonant {ga.} corresponding to English [g].). However, as can be seen in the above examples, this is not reliable as an indicator of which pronunciation to use. More reliably, before vowel letters [a], [o] or [u] the pronunciation is highly likely to be /g/, although there are exceptions, e.g.:

UKT: <jail> has the same pronunciation.

In addition

g is often silent before a consonant letter m or n at the beginning and end of words, e.g.

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letters GG

p225. The main pronunciation for the consonant digraph gg is /g/, e.g.:

UKT: Compare the pronunciation of <rugged> with
• <mugged> /mʌgd/
• <hugged> /hʌgd/

In addition

gg may be pronounced as /ʤ/, e.g.:

And in rare cases for American English as /gʤ/:

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letters GH

p225. The consonant digraph [gh] can be pronounced as /g/, /f/ or may be silent.

In syllable-initial position (UKT: see onset), [gh] is always pronounced as /g/, e.g.:

Following a vowel letter, the pronunciation may be silent. This is always the case after i and ei, e.g.:

Alternatively, the pronunciation may be /f/, e.g.:

In addition

A unique pronunciation of the consonant digraph [gh] is /p/, e.g.:

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letters GU

p237. At the beginning of words, the consonant digraph [gu] is usually realised as /g/, e.g.:

Word-finally, [gu] is usually followed by [e] in nouns and is pronounced /g/, e.g.:

[gu] may also be pronounced as /gw/, e.g.:

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letter H

p240. There are two main pronunciations for the consonant letter h: /h/ and silent.

h has a silent realisation at the end of a word, e.g.

There is a group of words in which it is also silent initially: <heir>, <honour> and <hour>, and their derivatives, and <herb> for American English.

UKT: the following table is my addition -- you are advised to check with the original.

UKT: Compare the pronunciations of <heir> and <our> with
• <air> /eəʳ/(us) /er/-- same pronunciation as <heir> (i.e., homophone)
• <our> /aʊəʳ , ɑːʳ/(us) /aʊr , aʊɚ , ɑːr/-- same pronunciation as <hour> (i.e., homophone)
   Whether [h] is "silent" or not depends on the native-English speakers themselves. From my personal experience, I was taught in Myanmar (at a time when it was part of the British Empire) to pronounce [h] in <herb>. But I was corrected in the US not to pronounce the [h]. After some time I went to Australia, and I was again asked to pronounce the [h]. I am citing this personal experience to show my fellow Myanmars not to pay too much attention to the idiosyncrasies of the English language.
   After deciding how to pronounce a word with [h] as word-initial, then and then only can you decide what indefinite article to use before it. Normally, we pronounce [h] in <history>, however, I had come across a book titled "An History of ..."

Following an initial [r], [h] is silent, e.g.:

In weak forms, [h] is often not pronounced, e.g.

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Myanmar{ga.}

by UKT

Points to remember In transcription of the Myanmar (Burmese script):

• Myanmar is an abugida similar to Indic scripts, and every consonant has an inherent vowel similar to the English short [a.]

• Myanmar {ga.} is a member of IPA velar consonant group of {ka.} {ga.} {nga.}. The corresponding IPA consonants are /k/ (vl) /g/ (vd) and /ŋ/ (nasal) -- (vl = voiceless, vd = voiced). The velar sounds are produced with the tongue body touching or almost touching the soft palate (velum). The places of articulation next to velum (to the front of the mouth) is the hard palate and the uvular (to the rear of the mouth). Thus, when we are looking for English consonants that could be used for transliteration of Myanmar {ka.} we should also take into consideration the palatal /c/ and uvular /q/. For transliteration of {ga.}  the only IPA-English consonant available is /g/.

• Myanmar   {ga.} corresponds to the English [g]. When {ya.} corresponding to English [ y ] or /j/ follows the Myanmar { ga.}, the resulting conjunct  {gya.} comes to have the pronunciation /ʤ/.

{ ga.} + {ya.} —> + —> {gya.}

• Myanmar vowels [é] and  [i] following {ga.} do not alter the pronunciation of {ga.}.

{ ga.} + [é] —> + —> {gé}  /gaɪ/usually pronounced as <gay>.
{gya.} + [e]—> + —> {gyé} /ʤaɪ/ usually pronounced as <jay>

• English syllables are of the form CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant), whereas the Burmese syllables are of the form CV. However, a consonant may enter the coda of the syllable after the inherent vowel of the entering consonant has been "killed" (Romabama {a'thut}.) resulting in CVÇ (U00C7, Alt0199, Ç = Latin capital C with cedilla). Thus, if we were to Burmanise the English word <gem>, [em] would be considered to be the Burmese vowel {ma.thut} resulting in a pronunciation /gʌm/ and not /ʤem/.

{ ga.} +   ( {ma.} + virama ) —> { ga.} + {m} —> {gam}

English transcription is unnecessarily complex because the English vowels keep on changing all the time. In Myanmar, the inherent vowel short [a] remains unchanged throughout the whole process of syllable formation.

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