Pronunciation Deficit: A Linguistic Flaw

by Madani Mohiuddin Ahmad
KSU, Riyadh, KSA

Nov. 25, 2007

Pronunciation deficit of receptive English language of Bihari speakers is different from the speakers of other states of the country . They pronounce a word differently; the production of sounds which includes their accent or stress (suprasegmental feature) is not at par with what other cosmopolitan speakers take care of in their connected speech. Reason: the pronunciation/articulation of receptive vocabulary of English is phonetically different on the basis of distinctive feature of the production of sounds. The speech mechanism for the production of English sound by a Bihari speaker of English marks a different slang, as a result, a particular English word sounds differently. In short, we say that the phono-phonological aspects of English language whether at secondary or college level is not taken care of which, at later stage, such speech errors become a habit and then a linguistic flaw in academics or public life.

When a speaker has obvious pronunciation problems, others may assume the speaker is stupid. A class of society that claims to be linguistically superior on the basis of educational background takes others linguistic flaw either as a serious mistake or just a fun. Also in literature, it's true that writers seldom use misspelling for the speech of characters they are trying to get the readers to respect. While the misspelling may help suggest that a character speaks differently, it also implies that the character is stupid or even illiterate. 18th century plays in English literature are the suitable examples in support of this argument.

It is also true that some acclaimed premier educational institutions where face- to-face interview is a deciding factor for seeking admissions or an internationally recognised corporate sector with some offers of employment opportunity for which only good accented English knowing candidate can apply particularly for an executive post. A common aspirant from Bihar will admit that his/her spoken English is competent enough and matches with the standard of English of the multinational employers or the departments of the academic institutions. Else, the candidate himself/herself should be able to justify his/her position from the point of view of linguistic flaw.

The older the speaker/learner is, the more stigmatised the speech problem is; more particularly in a situation where pronunciation accuracy has repeatedly been ignored or not taken care of. It is mandatory as learning part for the speakers of English to realize that pronunciation is very instrumental and unavoidable in connected speech. More importantly, the other confronting pedagogical issue is that English spelling conventions are not consistent enough to be used in a systematic phonetic transcription. This is one of the reasons that the existing teaching learning system of English language in Bihar is not compatible with that amount of competency level as found in other parts of India particularly the capital city, Delhi. A common Bihari graduate might think of the fact that the same letter or letter combination can refer to different sounds. Examples are many: low vs. cow vs. bow, row. As a matter of fact, different dialects where learners of English are preoccupied in terms of sound effect with their regional dialects (Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili etc.) pronounce the same word differently.

The spoken languages of India which have been called Neo-Aryan, New-Sanskrit or Gaudian have been arranged under four heads as Western, Northern, Southern, and Eastern. The Eastern class comprises Bihari (or Eastern Hindi, where the regional dialects are very instrumental), Bengali, Oriyah, and Assami. The greatest advantage goes to the English language which links the people of Indian subcontinent linguistically. It is remarkable to note that speakers of each group pronounce English in their own way due to the interference of their respective regional languages/dialects on the spoken part of English. This is true not only in the Indian context but anywhere in the world. Ironically, the United Kingdom, the birth land of English language, has a variety of English accents. The standard RP (Received Pronunciation or Elite Southern England or the BBC) is now not the same that was decades ago. Early BBC recording shows the remarkable extent to which RP has altered over just a few decades, and they make the point that no accent is immune to change, not even the ‘best’. In addition, RP is no longer as widely used as it was 50 years ago. Only about 3% of British people speak in pure form now. Most other educated people have developed an accent which is mixture of RP and various regional characteristics- ‘modified’ RP. There are numerous other accents of British English and a variety of regional dialects within Britain.

Why then there is so much of sensibility shown in case of Bihari accented English?
/Sh as s or s as sh/, /z as j /,/j as z/,/ f as ph /,/ g as j /, /v as bh /... are the typical sound units articulated by Bihari speakers of English. They are easily recognised in their connected speech.

Speech is the physical process of forming the words. Expressive language is what speech creates - the output or the the product. We use words that other can comprehend and put them together in sentences that have order and flow. Then, isn’t speech that complex if we make a case study of students’ ability to produce speech? I still remember the technique given to me when I was a school student that is how to remember the spelling of ‘psychology’ through a Hindi sentence ‘piisaaii-kaa-logii, and what I realize today is that the same word can be translated as: what is the price for grinding...?’ by a Hindi knowing native of England.

Does it work anyway in the existing situation of the teaching-learning methods of English by students and teachers of Bihar? In fact, bilingual speech and language issues can in many ways help the learners and can become more proficient with a variety of language skills. The nuances of language can be of tremendous help to a learner of a language in many ways particularly at an early age which allows a learner to communicate with people from another culture.


On the basis of recorded voice of some migrant Bihari students and teachers of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, whose socio-economic and educational background are different, each voice sample has got different sound feature including teachers. Some students have either pursued education in different disciplines or have completed their education and are now in job. While the teachers have been here for years.

Different regions/districts of Bihari speakers can be easily recognised on the basis of their speech pattern of English. Multisyllabic English words produced by these speakers of English involve a lot of phono-phonological and pedagogical issues. They are competent enough to indulge in multifarious issues and may be found conversing on serious national and international issues on the campuses of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, or Jamia Millia Islamia. In a situation like this, listening is an active process of hearing and comprehending what is said. Good listening is as critical part of the communication process as clear speaking and choosing the right words because communication is a two-way process. If phonological disorders leads to speech problem then, it becomes more complex and pervasive than simple articulation deficits.

Latest research have shown that adults and other children draw conclusions about a person by the way that person speaks. Facing an interview for a job or taking viva test in academic institutions, in the both the cases, if the ears are able to hear correct intonation pattern and accent, the success rate is considered to be high. Phonemic awareness, therefore, reduces the phonemic disorder and makes communication one’s hard-won ability to communicate. It's true that any language over a time is not stationary in its phonetic and grammatical organisation. There are a number of factors which influence a particular language phonetically. British RP vs. American RP is the best example. Also, It seems that International Phonetic Association (IPA) and the phoneticians of English language are sometimes in conflict to decide whether such meta-linguistics in terms of the uniformity of English language is possible or not.

As to Bihari accented English, a learner of English needs practice to learn a language. The nuances of language (how elders are addressed, how emotions are expressed) tell the learner about what is valued in the culture. We must wake up to realize the fact that multiculturalism and multi-nationalism particularly in commercial and education sectors, the role of communication in English language is tremendous. Thereby, a Bihari speaker of English shouldn’t think of anatomical factors of the speech pattern of English. Rather he/she must think of training (the ears and tongue) instead. It is one of the most basic assumptions of phonetic theory that two organically different speakers should be able to produce phonetically identical utterances. This amounts to claiming that two spoken events can be phonetically identical but nevertheless sound acoustically different. It means that phonetic level of description is abstract, not concrete.

Think of the speeches of Jawaharlal Nehru vs. Chandrashekhar Singh; Lalu Prasad Yadav vs. George Fernandes vs. Pranab Mukherjee; Abraham Lincoln vs. George Bush; Lord Churchill vs. John Major and, Indira Gandhi vs. Kumari Jayalalitha.

And finally, let’s think that a native of England or America can teach Hindi literature in an Indian university as successfully as a native of India teaching English literature in England or America.

(An excerpt from my research project entitled, "A pronunciation profile of migrant students and teachers of Bihar/Jharkhand who have pursued education in Jamia Millia Islamia,Delhi: A Socio-Linguistic Study", - exclusively for PatnaDaily.Com)

शक्ति जो चेतन थी, अब जड़ हो गयी है। बचपन में जो कुंजी मेरे पास थी, उम्र बढ़ते बढ़ते वह कहीं खो गयी है। - दिनकर

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