English is practiced as a second language in Pakistan. But still its dwellers lack information regarding pronunciation pattern of English words. Manner and Palce of articulation is different in Pakistani and British standard English. Urdu language possess "V" sound and alphabet for it is "wao" . if it is in the start of word it is pronouned as "wa" as " Vasiq" Vatan" etc. but if It is pronounced between or at the end of word it is prounced as "O" or "WA" (not in all cases but sometimes like "darood", "Zaviar". htis paper compares "W" and "V" alphabets and sound in different languages and special study of English. hope it will be helpfull for English language students.
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background: The word “language” seems to have been derived from the Latin words, “Lingua,” which implies “tongue”. The French term, “language” also refers to a specific from of speech. Hence, in the whole process of language teaching, spoken language occupies an important place. Ballard says, “Talking comes before writing, oral composition before written composition”. (Dash, 2004, p.165-166) Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words. Phonetics is the study of human sounds in general without reference to their systemic role in a specific language. Phonetics is divided into three types according the production (articulatory phonetics), transmission (acoustic phonetics) and perceptions (auditory phonetics) of sounds. Sounds can be divided into consonants and vowels. The former can be characterized according to place, manner of articulation and voice (voiceless or voiced). For vowels one uses a coordinate system called a vowel quadrangle within which actual wall values are located. Phonology is the functional classification of sounds of a particular language. It is the system of sounds by means of which meanings are differentiated in a language and which serve as a building block for the higher linguistic levels for example morphology. Phoneme is the smallest unit of language which distinguishes meaning; it is the organizational
Transcript
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background:
The word “language” seems to have been derived from the Latin words, “Lingua,” which
implies “tongue”. The French term, “language” also refers to a specific from of speech.
Hence, in the whole process of language teaching, spoken language occupies an important
place. Ballard says, “Talking comes before writing, oral composition before written
composition”. (Dash, 2004, p.165-166)
Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills, is more complicated
than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words.
Phonetics is the study of human sounds in general without reference to their systemic role in
a specific language. Phonetics is divided into three types according the production
(articulatory phonetics), transmission (acoustic phonetics) and perceptions (auditory
phonetics) of sounds. Sounds can be divided into consonants and vowels. The former can be
characterized according to place, manner of articulation and voice (voiceless or voiced). For
vowels one uses a coordinate system called a vowel quadrangle within which actual wall
values are located. Phonology is the functional classification of sounds of a particular
language. It is the system of sounds by means of which meanings are differentiated in a
language and which serve as a building block for the higher linguistic levels for example
morphology. Phoneme is the smallest unit of language which distinguishes meaning; it is the
organizational unit of phonology. Phonemes are written in slashes: //. Examples of phonemes
are /a/, /b/, /k/ etc. Their status is shown by finding minimal pairs in which the only
difference is between two sounds in question e.g. cot and got in English or kunst and gunst in
German. Allophones is a term that has two basic meaning a) the realization of a phoneme; b)
non distinctive variants of a phoneme. Allophones are written in square brackets: [].
Examples of allophones are provided by different sounds in a language which do not change
the meaning of a word, e.g. the uvular and alveolar /r/ of German as in brot [bRo: t] or [bro:t].
An English example would be provided by the alveolar and the velarized /I/ of English as in
leap [li:p] and deal [di:l].
Phonotactics is the area which is concerned with the possible sequences of sounds in
language for instance, there is a word fact in English with a syllable-final /-kt/ but there is no
word ctaf as /kt-/ cannot occur at a beginning of a syllable. Another example of a phonotactic
restriction can be scene with the vowel /^/ which occur in closed syllable but not in open ones
e.g. dove /d^v/ is permissible word in English but /d^/ is not because the syllable is not closed
by a consonant at the end.
It is essential to distinguish between writing and sound. There are various terms to
characterize the relation between the written and the spoken word depending on what the
match between the two is like: homophony ‘sameness of sound’ e.g. meat and meet,
homography ‘sameness of writing’, e.g. lead and lead, homonymy ‘sameness of sound and
writing’, bear and bear. In the same way the sounds of some phonemes are mistakenly
considered as same e.g. ‘v’ and ‘w’ sound.
1.2 Statement of Problem:
The sounds denoted by the letters "w" and "v" in the English alphabet are very often confused
by foreign language learners of English. However, it is very important to know and practice
the correct pronunciation of these two sounds so that listeners do not confuse words that
sound very similar. Take for example the words "worry" and "vary". They can be easily
confused when their beginning sound is mispronounced.
1.3 Objectives of Research:
Following are the objectives of the research
1. To spread awareness about phonetics and phonology.
2. To know the concept of students about pronunciation.
3. To draw a distinction between consonant sounds ‘v’ & ‘w’.
4. To learn either variation in accent effects pronunciation of ‘v’ & ‘w’
5. To identify their place and manner of articulation.
6. To know about whether the mother tongue effects the acquisition of second
language or not.
1.4 Significance of the Research:
English has become the lingua franca. Along with the communicative language it is a
language of science and technology. Every Pakistani wants to provide quality education to his
children because his future lies in the hands of his new generation. Youth is the pillar of our
nation. We have to prepare them for the future responsibilities.
If we want to make their future bright and prosperous, we should provide them quality
education and our dream of quality education cannot be fulfilled until we adopt English as a
medium of instruction because importance of English as a medium of instruction cannot be
ignored. Therefore, we also need to make students aware of the pronunciation of different
phonemes in English language. This can be done by introducing the phonetics and phonology
among students in the early age. As the spoken language bears equal importance to the
written one. In this research our main focus is on the consonant sounds ‘v’ and ‘w’
specifically.
Here, we tried to investigate the percentage of people aware of the distinction between the
above mentioned sounds. The study will reveal the further expectation in this field of
phonetics. It is hoped that this study will help to solve many problems which are being faced.
This study is important in the sense that it will point out some problems related to the topic.
On the hand, we are also made an effort to improve the pronunciation of the interviewees.
CHAPTER 2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The present research study was quantitative one as it dealt with the existing state of affairs
relating to the topic. Inductive as well as deductive methods were used for this research
study. The researchers used the following strategies for data collection.
Questionnaire
Discussion on the topic with the different language teachers
Interviews of teachers and students
Consultation of library books
Websites
The methods and procedures adopted to conduct the research work are described under the
following headings.
2.1 Population:
All the L2-English speakers which were students in the Kinnaird College constituted the
population of the study.
The teaching staffs of the KC were also included in the population. Moreover, all the plans
and policy documents, books related to the study also included in the population of this study.
2.2 Sampling:
Random sampling technique was used for this study. 20 students and 5 teachers were
randomly selected from the different departments of the Kinnaird College. The details of
sampling are described in Table 2.1
Table 2.1: Description of sample teachers
Female Students Female Teachers Total
20 5 25
2.3 Research Instrument:
The questionnaire was the major instrument of the research study to obtain information
pertinent to the research problem. A questionnaire was developed by the researcher
themselves and distributed. Ten statements were also included with the questionnaire of
which 5 sentences were made to analyse the pronunciation /w/ and 5 sentences to analyse the
pronunciation of /v/. These sentences were to be read by the samples selected for the research
purpose.
2.4 Development of Questionnaire:
A questionnaire was developed for English language learners and speakers to collect data
from them related to the study. The questionnaire was composed of two parts. Part-I of the
questionnaire was related to the awareness of phonetics and sounds in general. Part-II
contained 10 sentences which were related to the distinction between the pronunciation of
consonant sounds /w/ and /v/.
The questionnaire was in closed form in two points like scale. The distracters were
categorized as (Yes) or (No). The questionnaire was consulted with the supervisor for
insuring its validity.
2.5 Distribution of Questionnaire:
The questionnaire was tried out on 20 Female Students who have been studying in Kinnaird
College for Women Lahore and 5 Female teachers of Kinnaird College. The student body
belong to intermediate and bachelors level. Teachers other than the English department were
selected for the research.
2.6 Collection and Analysis of Data:
The questionnaire was administered personally by the researchers. It was collected the same
day during the college timings from 12:00pm to 2:30pm. The data collected through the
questionnaire were tabulated, analysed and interpreted. Percentage method was used to
analyse the data.
Chapter 3
LITRATURE REVIEW
3.1 Importance of Speaking English:
By speaking we do not mean merely uttering words through mouth. It means conveying the
message through the words of mouth. This skill is also neglected in our classrooms students
do not get any chance either in the classroom or outside to speak English. Speaking is not a
part of our examination. Learning to speak also demands a lot of practice and attention. We
learn to speak our mother tongue just by listening and repeating. Teacher can adopt the same
natural way he can give them certain structure and ask them to repeat. This will remove their
shyness. He can give those drills in the basic patterns of language (Mumtaz, 2007).
We learn to speak our mother tongue by imitating those who speak around us. In a similar
manner, a foreign language is learnt by imitation and reproduction. In the early stage, parrot
like repetition is more important than understand the various part of sentence or
formulating ideas in desired patterns. It is just like learning some skills as driving or knitting.
The rule follow is, “practice makes man perfect”. Teacher should produce them at his will.
The teacher should therefore, drill practice in the basic pattern of language so that they
become automatic with pupils.
A speech will be characterized by a long turn (a speaker speaking without interruption),
whereas, when we talk to friends there will be short turns, where people say a few words and
then someone else contributes, and so on.
It is likely that different topics will be discussed in these situations. In a work context there is
likely to be a set topic and issues outside those related to work may not be acceptable. The
formality of the language will also vary because the power relationship between friends is
equal, but this is not the case when speaking to a boss. This may affect who initiates
conversational exchanges – typically the person with more power or authority – and also the
choice of vocabulary used.
The discussion with the newsagent may be ‘transactional’ in nature. She asks for a certain
amount of money, you give it, say thank you, and leave. There is unlikely to be any
development beyond what is essential for the transaction to be completed. This is obviously
different to speaking to a friend, where there is no transaction as such, and the purpose is to
build or maintain social relationships.
3.2 Different Levels of speaking:
Learning of speaking skill for a foreign learner of English language is a hard task. The
habits of speech which facilitate the native speakers pose serious problems for the foreign
learner. However, speaking skill can be divided into sub skills according to the level of the
foreign learner. These sub skills can be called as of speaking .They are mentioned as follows.
3.2.1 Ability to pronounce phonemes of English:
First level of speaking English is the ability of the learner to pronounce or a basic sound of
English. Pronunciation of sounds with good standard is very vital for the production of
understandable speech. If sounds not pronounced correctly, communication cannot take place
between two interlocutors coming of two different areas .So it is necessary that a Learner can
pronounce sounds with good standards.
3.2.2 Ability to use stress correctly on the syllables of the longer words:
A speaker combines phonemes or sounds to make words which are basic meaningful unit of
speech. When in a word there are more than one syllables in words are stressed or
pronounced prominently. Such prominence gives rhythmic character to English speech If the
syllables are stressed incorrectly .Vowel sounds will change the words will not give their
meaning correctly and the listener will not be able to understand the speech.
3.2.3 Ability to use stress to emphasis
The correctly and stress syllables in words rightly .a speaker should be able to pronounce
content words in a sentence. Native speakers of English do not pronounce every word of a
sentence equal voice .They pronounce content words likes nouns , verbs etc. at high voice
and grammar words like articles , preposition, pronouns at low voice ,this rhythmic
characteristic of English speech is to be necessarily followed if a speaker wants to keep his
speech understandable.
3.2.4 Ability to use correct intonation pattern:
Native speakers of English complete their sentence with the raise and fall voice in voice.
These two patterns indicate the necessity and attitude of the speaker which make the speech
highly communicative. These intonation patterns also serve as grammar purpose of the
sentence and sometimes they serve a lexical purpose. So mastery over at least basic
intonation patterns is highly necessary for a speaker of English.
3.3 Problems of speaking for second language learner:
Difficulties in learning correct speech habits English arise from several sources:
1. There is no correspondence between sound and symbols. For Pakistanis whose national
language is highly phonetic, English pronunciation presents difficulties, particularly in
clusters like “ough” that has many different sounds as found in ‘rough’ (raf) ‘plough’ (plow),
‘thought’ (thot), ‘drought’ (drot) and ‘naughty’ (naty). The sign “OU” has seven different
vowel sounds as in cloud (clowd), soul (sole), touch (tuch), youth (yooth) could (kud) bought
(bot), journey (jurni).
2. The silent letters are usually baffing because in Urdu we have very rare such
occurrences. We come across silent in the medial position of such words as. But silent letters
in English are found in all the three positions.
Initial Position: *Writ, *Wrong, *Wrap etc.
Medial Position: *Power, *Owe, *Owl etc.
Final Position: *Cow, *Paw, New etc.
3. The chief problems arise out of the contrasting patterns of the sounds of the mother
tongue and English. Our students utter the sound of English letters “W” the pattern of Urdu
which is similar to “V”.
4. Letters in English spellings do not correspond with their sounds. One letter ‘w’ gives
different sounds in power, row, who, with and writ causes a lot of confusion to the child.
5. Long, short and broad sounds of vowels are bewildering.
‘a’ with short ‘o’ sound: What (wot), Was (wos)
‘a’ with ‘au’ sound; owl (aul), blow (blau)
6. The problem of stressed and unstressed syllables, vowels and consonants.
7. Transliteration creates pronunciation problems. By transliteration we mean to write the
English word in Urdu script, for example, ‘Electric’. The danger of it is that the students
pronounce the English word as it is expressed in Urdu. This sort of practice of the teacher has
marred the correct pronunciation of our students.
8. Lack of understanding of the systematic arrangement of various sounds which a human
vocal organ is capable of producing.
Denial Jones in his book ‘An Outline of English Phonetics’ points out five main difficulties
that a student of spoken English has to face.
(i) Learning “to recognize readily and with certainly the various speech sounds occurring
in the language, when he hears them preannounced.”
(ii) Learning “to make foreign sounds with his own organs of speech.”
(iii) Learning “to use these sounds in their proper places of connected speech”.
(iv) Learning the proper usage of stress, intonation, rhythm etc.
(v) Learning “to join each sound of a sequence on to the next, and to pronounce the
complete set stumbling (Tahir, 1988, p.179 -182).
3.4 Features of good speaking:
Many English students complain that they understand English, but don’t feel confident
enough to join a conversation. There are a number of reasons for this including:
Students shift from their native language to English with the same sound pattern of
their mother tongue.
Production “blocking” is occurring due to nervousness, lack of confidence, etc.
The speaker is using the sound structure of his mother tongue, rather than using the
sound pattern of English.
There are not enough resources to guide students about phonemes. The lack access
to dictionaries and audio/visual aid is a major hindrance in learning good
pronunciation.
There aren’t enough conversation opportunities in or outside of class.
Students aren’t able to speak to peers (for example: mixed classes of adults and
teenagers).
Exam preparation focuses on grammar, vocabulary, etc. and leaves little time for
active use.
Here are a number of resources, lesson plans, suggestion pages and more which will help
students improve English speaking skills in and outside of class.
Table 2 shows the symbols used for the representation of manner and place of articulation of
consonant sounds.
Table 3
Table 3 shows the place of tongue during production of vowel sounds.
3.8
History
3.8.1 History of “V” sound
The letter V comes from the Semitic letter Waw, as do the modern letters F, U, W, and Y.
In Greek, the letter upsilon 'Υ' was adapted from waw to represent, at first, the vowel [u] as
in "moon". This was later fronted to [y], the front rounded vowel spelled 'ü' in German.
In Latin, a stemless variant shape of the upsilon was borrowed in early times as V—either
directly from the Western Greek alphabet or from the Etruscan alphabet as an intermediary—
to represent the same /u/ sound, as well as the consonantal /w/. Thus, 'num' — originally
spelled 'NVM' — was pronounced /num/ and 'via' was pronounced [ˈwia]. From the 1st
century AD on, depending on Vulgar Latin dialect, consonantal /w/ developed into /β/ (kept
in Spanish), then later to /v/. In Roman numerals, the letter 'V' is used to represent the
number 5. It was used because it resembled the convention of counting by notches carved in
wood, with every fifth notch double-cut to form a 'V'.
During the Late Middle Ages, two forms of 'v' developed, which were both used for its
ancestor /u/ and modern /v/. The pointed form 'v' was written at the beginning of a word,
while a rounded form 'u' was used in the middle or end, regardless of sound. So whereas
'valor' and 'excuse' appeared as in modern printing, 'have' and 'upon' were printed as 'haue'
and 'vpon'. The first distinction between the letters 'u' and 'v' is recorded in a Gothic script
from 1386, where 'v' preceded 'u'. By the mid-16th century, the 'v' form was used to represent
the consonant and 'u' the vowel sound, giving us the modern letter 'u'. Capital 'U' was not
accepted as a distinct letter until many years later.
3.8.2 History of “W” sound
The sounds /w/ (spelled ⟨V⟩) and /b/ (spelled ⟨B⟩) of Classical Latin developed into a bilabial
fricative /β/ between vowels in Early Medieval Latin. Therefore, ⟨V⟩ no longer represented
adequately the labial-velar approximant sound /w/ of Germanic phonology.
The Germanic /w/ phoneme was therefore written as ⟨VV⟩ or ⟨uu⟩ (⟨u⟩ and ⟨v⟩ becoming
distinct only by the Early Modern period) by the 7th or 8th century by the earliest writers of
Old English and Old High German. Gothic (not Latin-based), by contrast, simply used a
letter based on the Greek Υ for the same sound. The digraph ⟨VV⟩/⟨uu⟩ was also used in
Medieval Latin to represent Germanic names, including Gothic ones like Wamba.
It is from this ⟨uu⟩ digraph that the modern name "double U" derives. The digraph was
commonly used in the spelling of Old High German, but only sporadically in Old English,
where the /w/ sound was usually represented by the runic ⟨Ƿ⟩ wynn. In early Middle
English, following the 11th-century Norman Conquest, ⟨uu⟩ gained popularity and by 1300 it
had taken wynn's place in common use.
Scribal realization of the digraph could look like a pair of Vs whose branches crossed in the
middle. An obsolete, cursive form found in the nineteenth century in both English and
German was in the form of an en whose rightmost branch curved around as in a cursive vee.
The shift from the digraph ⟨VV⟩ to the distinct ligature ⟨W⟩ is thus gradual, and is only
apparent in abecedaria, explicit listings of all individual letters. It was probably considered a
separate letter by the 14th century in both Middle English and Middle German
orthography, although it remained an outsider not really considered part of the Latin alphabet
proper, as expressed by Valentin Ickelshamer in the 16th century, who complained that:
Poor w is so infamous and unknown that many barely know either its name or its shape, not
those who aspire to being Latinists, as they have no need of it, nor do the Germans, not even
the schoolmasters, know what to do with it or how to call it; some call it we, [... others] call it
uu, [...] the Swabians call it auwawau.
In Middle High German (and possibly already in late Old High German), the West
Germanic phoneme /w/ became realized as [v]; this is why the German ⟨w⟩ today represents
that sound. There is no phonological distinction between [w] and [v] in contemporary
German. Modern German dialects generally have only [v] or [ʋ] for West Germanic /w/, but
[w] or [β\] remains heard allophonically for w, especially in the clusters ⟨schw⟩, ⟨zw⟩, and ⟨qu⟩. Some Bavarian dialects preserve a "light" initial [w] in words like wuoz (Standard
German weiß [vaɪs] '[I] know'). The Classical Latin [β] is heard in the Southern German
greeting Servus ('hello' or 'goodbye').
In Dutch, it became a labiodental approximant /ʋ/ (with the exception of words with -⟨eeuw⟩,
which have /eːβ/, or other diphthongs containing -⟨uw⟩). In many Dutch speaking areas, such
as Flanders and Suriname, the /β/ pronunciation is used at all times.
3.9 Presentation of Distinctions between “V” and “W” in English
and other languages’ Phonological System:
The contrastive analysis of the target language and learners’ native language can greatly
facilitate the second language acquisition. It is necessary to make learners know the
differences between the two languages and consciously compare the two languages
themselves during the learning process.
3.9.1 The consonantal sounds "w" and "v" in English
‘V’ and ‘W’ are two letters and sounds that are clearly distinguished in English. ‘V’ and ‘W’
are often not distinguishable in many Asian languages, with one letter/sound that almost
combines the two English sounds into one. Because of this, when many Asians speak English
to Native English speakers, they are not able to hear the pronunciation clearly.
The sound "w"
The IPA symbol that represents the sound of the letter "w" is [w].
To learn the correct pronunciation of this sound, you need to know its characteristics i.e., the
place and manner of articulation:
When pronouncing it, the lips are put forward and rounded.
The back part of the tongue is raised towards the soft tissue at the back of the roof of
the mouth.
The vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
Air is only allowed to escape through the mouth.
The air is directed along the centre of the tongue.
These characteristics may seem very hard to follow. Therefore, you need to know that the
first two features are the most important ones:
You need to put your lips forward and round them, and
You need to put the back of your tongue against the back of the roof of your mouth.
To practice the sound, speak the following words out loud several times: when, while,
weather, worm, which, word, warm, winter, woman, week, awaiting, awake and award.
The sound "v"
The IPA symbol that represents the sound of the letter "v" is [v].
To learn the correct pronunciation of this sound, and to differentiate it from [w], you need to
know its characteristics as well:
Air flows through a narrow channel at the place of articulation. You can test this by
pronouncing the sound and holding one hand in front of your mouth.
It is articulated using the lower lips and the upper teeth: the lower lips are slightly put
behind or against the upper teeth.
Its phonation is "voiced". That means that you let your vocal cords vibrate when
pronouncing it.
Notice: This sound is the same sound that differentiates the preposition "of" from the adverb
"off". To read more about the pronunciation of these two words.
In contrast to the [w] sound, the lips are not rounded. The lower lips are slightly put behind or
against the upper teeth. Also, you let air flow through your mouth when pronouncing [v].
3.9.2 Differences in Phonemes
According to the contemporary phonetician A.C.Gimson, there are 44 English phonemes – 20
vowels and 24 consonants, and there are 47 phonemes if /tr/, /dr/ and /hW/ are counted as
English consonants. Different languages have different number of alphabets and phonemes.
So they differ from English language in articulation of sounds.
3.9.3 Comparison of “W” sound with other languages
In Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, ⟨W⟩ is named double-v and not double-u. In
these languages, the letter only exists in old names, loanwords and foreign words.
(Foreign words are distinguished from loanwords by having a significantly lower
level of integration in the language.) It is usually pronounced /v/, but in some words
of English origin it may be pronounced /w/. ⟨W⟩ was earlier seen as a variant of ⟨V⟩,
and ⟨W⟩ as a letter (double-v) is still commonly replaced by ⟨V⟩ in speech (e.g. WC
being pronounced as VC, www as VVV, WHO as VHO, etc.) The two letters were
sorted as equals before ⟨W⟩ was officially recognized, and that practice is still
recommended when sorting names in Sweden. In modern slang, some native speakers
may pronounce ⟨W⟩ more closely to the origin of the loanword than the official /v/
pronunciation.
In the alphabets of most modern Romance languages (excepting far northern French
and Walloon), W is used mostly in foreign names and words recently borrowed (le
week-end, il watt, el kiwi). The digraph 'ou' is used for /w/ in native French words; 'oi'
is /wa/ or /wɑ/, 'oin' is /wɛ̃b/. In Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, [w] is a non-
syllabic variant of /u/, spelled U (with a diaeresis in the Spanish combinations 'güe'
and 'güi').
In the Cyrillic alphabet used for the Belarusian language, ⟨Ў⟩ is pronounced like
English /w/.
English /w/ is bilabial but not in Chinese pinyin.
The Japanese language uses "W", pronounced /daburu/, as an ideogram meaning
"double".
In Arabic, Persian and Urdu there is no “W” sound. In Arabic, "W" is transliterated
using the penultimate letter of the alphabet; و (waw).which is similar to “V” sound
but the written script uses “W” letter whil writing in English. When “Waw” is in
centre of two words it is pronounced as “O” as “Aurat” and as “oo” sound as in
“Drood”.
In Italian, while the letter "W" is not considered part of the standard Italian alphabet,
the character is often used in place of Viva (hooray for...), while the same symbol
written upside down indicates abbasso (down with...).
In Vietnamese, W is called vê đúp, from the French double vé. It is not included in
the standard Vietnamese alphabet, but it is often used as a substitute for qu- in literary
dialect and very informal writing.
3.9.4 Comparison of “V” sound in different languages
Catalan: ve, pronounced [ˈve]; in dialects that lack contrast between /v/ and /b/, the
letter is called ve baixa [ˈbe ˈbajʃə] "low B/V".
Czech: vé [vɛ̃ː]
French: vé [ve]
German: fau [ˈfaʊ]
Italian: vu [ˈvu] or vi [ˈvi]
Portuguese: vê [ˈve]
Spanish: uve [ˈuβe] is recommended, but ve [ˈbe] is traditional. If V is pronounced in
the second way, it would have the same pronunciation as the letter B in Spanish (i.e.
[ˈbe] after pause or nasal sound, otherwise [ˈβe]); thus further terms are needed to
distinguish ve from be. In some countries it is called ve corta, ve baja, ve pequeña, ve
chica or ve labiodental.
In Japanese, V is often called "bui". This name is an approximation of the English
name which substitutes the voiced bilabial plosive for the voiced labiodental fricative
(which does not exist in native Japanese phonology) and differentiates it from "bī",
the Japanese name of the letter B. Moreover, some words are more often spelled with
the b equivalent character instead of vu due to the long-time use of the word without it
(e.g. "violin" is more often found as baiorin than as vaiorin due partly to inertia, and
to some extent due to the more native Japanese sound).
In most languages which use a Latin alphabet, ⟨v⟩ has a [v]-like sound (voiced
labiodental fricative). In most dialects of Spanish, it is pronounced the same as ⟨b⟩,
that is, [b] or [β\]. In Corsican, it is pronounced [b], [v], [β] or [w], depending on the
position in the word and the sentence. In German and Dutch it can be either [v] or [f].
In Native American languages of North America (mainly Iroquoian), ⟨v⟩ represents
a nasalized central vowel, /əb/.
In Chinese pinyin, ⟨v⟩ is not used, as there is no sound [v] in Standard Mandarin; but
the letter ⟨v⟩ is used by most input methods to enter letter ⟨ü⟩, which most keyboards
lack. Romanised Chinese is a popular method to enter Chinese text phonetically.
In Irish, the letter ⟨v⟩ is mostly used in loanwords, such as veidhlín from English
violin. However the sound [v] appears naturally in Irish when /b/ is lenited or
"softened", represented in the orthography by ⟨bh⟩, so that bhí is pronounced [vʲiː], an
bhean (the woman) is pronounced [ənpˠ ˈvʲanpˠ], etc.
In Arabic, Urdu and Persian “Va” sound is used and there is no “Ve” and “Vo”
sound in Arabic language. When it is in written form we use “W” like “Wajib”. When
“Waw” is in start it is pronounced as “Va” like in “Waris” and “Warid” etc.
Chapter 4
PRESANTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter deals with data analysis and interpolation. The data collected through the
questionnaire is presented in table. The data was presented after calculating the response of
all the respondents and percentage method was used. This data was collected from 20 female
students.
4.1 Results in Tabular Form:
Sr.
No.
Statement YES NO Percentage
yes no
1. Do you have any knowledge of Phonetics? 3 17 15% 85%
2. Do you have any knowledge of Phonology? 3 17 15% 85%
3. Are you aware of the word Pronunciation? 19 1 95% 5%
4. Have you done any language course? 4 16 20% 80%
5. Do you know that ‘v’ and ‘w’ have two different
sounds in English?
6 14 30% 70%
6. Have your teachers taught you any difference between
the pronunciation of ‘v’ & ‘w’?
4 16 20% 80%
7. Do you follow any particular accent? 4 16 20% 80%
8. Do you think variation of accent affects the
pronunciation of ‘v’ and ‘w’?
16 4 80% 20%
9. Do you think mother tongue effects the acquisition of
second language which is English?
12 8 60% 40%
10. Does your mother tongue draw distinction b/w the ‘v’
and ‘w’ sounds?
18 2 90% 10%
11. Have you noticed refinement in your pronunciation
with age?
12 8 60% 40%
12. Do you think that you mother tongue interferes with the
way you pronounce ‘v’ & ‘w’?
7 13 35% 65%
13. Do you think that any awareness should be given at the
school level to ensure the correct pronunciation of
phonemes?
20 0 100% 0%
4.2 Findings and results:
1. Do you have any knowledge of Phonetics?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
20%40%60%80%
100%
Knowledge of Phonetics
knowledge of Phonet-ics
Discussion:
3 girls out of 20 had the knowledge of phonetics but 17 girls weren’t aware of it. Hence, we
can say that 85% of the girls didn’t have the idea about the subject but 15% did have some
basic idea about the phenomenon.
2. Do you have any knowledge of Phonology?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Knowledge of Phonology
knowledge of Phonology
Discussion:
3 girls out of 20 had the knowledge of phonology but 17 girls weren’t aware of it. Hence, we
can say that 85% of the girls didn’t have the idea about the subject but 15% did have some
basic idea about the phenomenon.
3. Are you aware of the word Pronunciation?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
50%
100%
Awareness about the word 'Pronunciation'
Awareness about the word' Pronuncia-tion'?
Discussion:
19 girls were aware of the word pronunciation but 1 girl wasn’t aware of the phenomenon of
pronunciation. Hence, this makes up the total of 95% the girls who weren’t aware of the word
and 5%were aware of the phenomenon.
4. Have you done any language course?
Yes
No
Language Course
YESNO
Discussion:
4 girls out of 20 had done a language course and 16 girls had not done so. Hence, this implies
that 20%of the girls had done the language course and 80% never inclined to it.
5.Do you know that ‘v’ and ‘w’ have two different sounds in English?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
50%
100%
Knowing that v’ and ‘w’ have two different sounds in English?
Knowing that v’ and ‘w’ have two different sounds in English?
Discussion:
6 girls meaning 30% of the girls were aware that a and w have two different associated
sounds, but 14 girls were not aware of the aspect which makes up 70% of the girls.
6.Have your teachers taught you any difference between the pronunciation of ‘v’ & ‘w’?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
40%
80%
Been taught the difference between' v' and 'w 'sounds.
Been taught the differ-ence between' v' and 'w 'sounds.
Discussion:
4 girls were taught the difference between v and w sounds but 16 girls were not given this
awareness by their teachers. Hence, this implies that 20% of the girls were taught the
difference and 80% were not done so.
7. Do you follow any particular accent?
Yes
No
Follow any particualar accent?
YESNO
Discussion:
4 girls followed a particular accent of English but 16 girls weren’t. Hence, 80% of the girls
didn’t follow a particular accent of English but 20% of the girls did so.
8. Do you think variation of accent affects the pronunciation of ‘v’ and ‘w’?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
40%
80%
Accent affects the pronunciation of ‘v’ and ‘w’?
1. accent affects the pronunciation of ‘v’ and ‘w’?
Discussion:
16 girls i.e 80% of the girls approved of the fact that accent affects the utterance of vand w
phonemes but 4 girls i.e 20%didnot do so.
9. Do you think mother tongue effects the acquisition of second language which is
English?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
20%40%60%
Influence of mother tongue on second language
Influence of mother tongue on second language
Discussion:
12 i.e 60% girls approved of the influence of mother tongue on second language acquisition
and 8 i.e 40% disapproved of it.
10. Does your mother tongue draw distinction b/w the ‘v’ and ‘w’ sounds?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
50%
100%
Mother tongue draws distinction b/w the ‘v’ and ‘w’ sounds.
Mother tongue draws distinction b/w the ‘v’ and ‘w’ sounds.
Discussion:
90% girls approved of the phenomenon and 10% disapproved of the phenomenon.
11.Have you noticed refinement in your pronunciation with age?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
20%40%60%80%
Have you noticed refinement in your pronunciation with age?
Have you noticed refinement in your pronunciation with age?
Discussion:
60%girls noticed a refinement in their language and 40% didn’t notice it with age.
12. Do you think that you mother tongue interferes with the way you pronounce ‘v’ &
‘w’?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
50%100%
Do you think that you mother tongue interferes with the way you pronounce
‘v’ & ‘w’? Do you think that you mother tongue interferes with the way you pro-nounce ‘v’ & ‘w’?
Discussion:
35% of the girls affirmed that their mother tongue interfered with the pronunciation of v and
w sounds in English but 65% refuted the phenomenon.
1. Do you think that any awareness should be given at the school level to ensure
the correct pronunciation of phonemes?
Yes
No
YES NO0%
50%100%
Do you think that any awareness should be given at the school level to ensure the
correct pronunciation of phonemes? Do you think that any awar...
Discussion:
100% girls approved of granting awareness regarding the phonetic structure of alphabets
and0%refuted.
4.3 Discussion:
20 girls were asked to fill in the questionnaire and the results are: About 85% girls didn’t
have and knowledge of the terms phonetics and phonology. However 15% of the girls did
have an awareness about these words, particularly because they from English major or
perhaps were able to comprehend the words, to take a meaning out of them or they had heard
it somewhere. However, 95% of the girls were aware of the word pronunciation and 5% of
them were not. The girls were however, aware of the words but not their practical
technicalities. About 20% girls claimed to have done a language course and 80% didn’t do
one. This clearly represents the level of urge to learn a particular language and the internal
motivation factor.30% of the girls knew that v and w have two distinct sounds in English
language but 70%werent aware of this fact.20% of the girls were given awareness by their
teachers to pronounce v and w distinctively but 80% of the students weren’t granted this
awareness this also marks the level of interest as well as the academic status of the teacher to
engross the students in external motivation.20% of the girls followed a particular accent but
80% didn’t and only claimed to follow the so called Indian accent.80% of the girls believed
that the variation in accents affects pronunciation of v and w sounds but 20% did not as they
were not aware of the implications of other accents.60%of the girls believed that mother
tongue influencers the second language learning but 40% of the girls were not accepting this
fact.90%of the girls stated that their language distinguished between w and v sounds but 10
% refuted with this fact. This marks the lack of acceptability and awareness about the second
language.60% girls noticed a refinement in their pronunciation with age but 40% didn’t do
so because they lacked inner motivation and exposure.35%of the girls thought that the mother
tongue interferes with the pronunciation of v and w sounds but 65%didnt think so.100% girls
thought that awareness must be given to the students for gaining effective exposure to
phonology and sound structure of language.
4.4 Analysis of the Videos of the Students:
A research was conducted in which the students from different majors were inquired about
the phonetic structure of w and v sounds. They were asked various questions based on
phonology and also encouraged to read certain sentences from the text that draw a clear
distinction between v and w sounds separately. In our research, it was found that most
students didn’t know any difference between v and w sounds. However, some students had a
fair idea of the prospects of linguistic analysis. Most of the girls were not able to pronounce
the w and v sounds distinctively rather followed the same phonological pattern in both the
pronunciations. Some of them knew that these were two distinct sounds. However, when it
came to the pronunciation of the word power the girls made prominent the w sound although
it becomes silent in this regard. Words like flower, shower, and power do not take into
account the w sound. Hence, most of the girls are not aware of the basic phonetic variations
of alphabets. Similarly, in some words like whole, whore etc the w sound is not pronounces
and the w sound becomes silent. The students still pronounced them in a manner that assured
the w sound to gain enough stress. Similarly they pronounced the words w and v in a same
manner. For instance, when they were asked to pronounce the words vest and west the same
manner of articulation was followed. The sound of v became prevalent. The sentences
containing v and w sounds were also given such as
1. Victor’s wife Vicky was very wise.
2. It was very warm all week.
3. Don’t wear your valuable watch this weekend.
4. When will Vick weigh the vegetables?
5. Were you involved in Vivian’s wedding plans?
6. Will we view the video on Wednesday?
Hence, most of the girls were unable to pronounce them effectively. The words like violet
and wallet were pronounced in the same manner. But some of the girls did have adequate
awareness of the pronunciation of the two distinctive alphabets, but they were from the
linguistics or literature major. Hence, it can be concluded that the schooling and the impacts
of language on society do interfere with the ways we utter and pronounce certain alphabets
and their respective phonemes.
students who pronounced v correcly
students who pronounced w correctly
0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%
PRONUNCIATION OF vAND w SOUNDS
PRONUNCIATION OF vAND w SOUNDS
4.5 Analysis of the Videos of the Teachers:
The videos clearly depicted that the different languages treat the w and v phonemes in
different ways. For instance both v and w phonemes have distinct sounds in French and also
the different manners of articulations for both the phonemes. But a distinction is in the place
and manner of articulation of the word w occurs only in one word that is wagon. Wagon is
pronounced in such a way that w sound is produced by the rounding of lips in English but in
French it is pronounced in the manner similar to v sound i.e the upper teeth and the lower lip
is involved. However, in other words like weekend both languages have the same manner and
places of articulations for the w sounds.
However, the video of the Urdu Arabic, and Persian teacher clearly depicted that Urdu does
have a v sound but it doesn’t have two different distinct sounds as we have for w and v. The
teachers stated that if the word associated with w sound exists in isolation it would be
pronounced as w sounds i.e rounding of words would occur but in the middle of the words
the sound associated with u will become prevalent. It would be pronounced with stress like
ooo, for example the Urdu word drood .as both the languages are interlinked so they would
have the same phonological structure of the wa sound. These languages do have the district
sounds of v and w when we take the manner and places of articulation in consideration but
they have only one symbol that has different places and manners in different words and their
notations.\
Proceeding to the video of the English teacher, who stated that v and w have two distinct
sounds. The w has a sound of woa that means that it is produced by the rounding of lips.
Such as the words when, where, wallet. But ,if we proceed to the alphabet v it also has a
distinct sound. It is because it is a fricative as friction is produced during its pronunciation. It
is pronounced as va where the lower lip joins the upper teeth. Hence, the manner and places
of articulations alter the sounds associated with these phonemes e.g the word vague and vent
wound be pronounced differently from went and where.
4.6 Analysis:
As the above results show that majority of the people didn’t have any knowledge of phonetics
and phonology. This is a clear marker of the fact that the English literature is dominating the
English language in particular. The sounds of the alphabets as well as the phonemes are not
given much importance rather the text oriented approach is followed. The teachers are only
concerned with the syntax, lexis and grammar usage not the individual pronunciation of the
phonemes. Even though that the pronunciation counts the most as the students literary ability
won’t be judged upon for the identity communication continuum rather the linguistic skills
would be given significance. Being able to speak a language correctly and efficiently bears
equal importance as to read and write a language. During the survey it was found that most of
the students have a vague idea of what is pronunciation but they don’t know the technicalities
of the term. The way to pronounce the words and their correct deliverance is not
accommodated by various students. As we all know that the strict manner and places of
articulation are followed for the pronunciation of various phonemes but most students are not
aware of this they pronounce the both ‘w’ and ‘v’ phonemes in the same manner. The
language courses are really a great help to ensure the students motivation level both external
and internal. The external motivation will be provided by the teacher and the internal by the
student. Hence the research made it vivid that most of the girls didn’t do any sort of the
language course. This makes a strengthening notion that motivation to learn the language is
lacking internally in the students of Pakistan. Obviously when our textbooks are inclined
towards the promotion of textual learning and cramming of the answers then the students
would also follow the same practice and pay no regard to the pronunciation and linguistic
analysis, English is a language that is alien to most of us we are able to speak it but the
concept of concreteness and accurateness totally lacks. We are able to read and write it but
not speak it with expertise. Hence, the adequate knowledge of phonemic inventory is not
bestowed upon a student at a very early age. This can be analysed on the basis of the
institutional convergence. The students from the reputable English Medium Schools do have
knowledge of phonology and ways of pronouncing of words but not the students from Urdu
medium or Middle English schools. The reason is quite not nebulous because the students
from high schools are taught the phonemes order but not the students from other schools. The
ways of pronunciation are not taught the distinguishing marks from all the similar phonemes
is not depicted rather the same manners of articulation are followed during their utterance.
Now, take an example of the w and v sounds which may seem to follow the same
phonological status but are quite distinct from each other. Most students are not aware of the
fact that these two phonemes are pronounced differently and have different associated
sounds. Rather pronounce w in the same manner they pronounce v. The lip rounding during
‘w’ pronunciation does not become prevalent. Hence, a set pattern is followed from the
beginning in the pronunciation that is not susceptible to modification only because the
students are pronouncing the words in a similar manner from the beginning. Hence, here the
age of the learner becomes an important factor as well as the awareness to a particular form
and structure of a phoneme. The ability to gain command over language and learn new
aspects diminishes with age. Moreover, the students are not taught the basic difference
between the ‘w’ and’ v’ sounds and also not motivated to utter these words with expertise.
This is however, a contributing factor that is avoiding the students to gain command over
language. The mother tongue influence is another important factor. The mother tongue does
influence the way the students pronounce certain words. The distinction in w and v sounds
may not exist in the mother tongue of a native speaker who is on his journey to become a
bilingual. It is an obvious fact that the mother tongue does influence the way we speak some
words in English the reason lies in the exposure to the language as we are readily exposed to
the mother tongue and our language acquisition device is also working to compliment our
native language. For instance the Urdu language does not contain a ‘woa’ sound rather has a
‘va’ sound. Hence, the va sound is produced by the joining of upper teeth and the lower lip.
Hence, the woa sound doesn’t gain existence. The students would ultimately pronounce w
and v in the same manner because of the influence of the native language. This is because the
mother tongue establishes a strict pattern that is followed when a person speaks any language
only proper practice can make variations in it. Variations in accents can also affect the
speaking of a particular word or a phoneme. The American and British accents both offer
variations in the pronunciation of various words. Finally, awareness in our academic lacks
regarding the pronunciation of various words and phonemes. Example the th sound in Urdu is
hissing bit not in English. Hence the manner and places of articulations may vary in English
in contrast to the mother tongue. Only a variation in manner and places of articulation may
vary the phonetic structure of words. As, was in case of v and w sounds. If the manner and
places of articulation are followed strictly only then these sounds can be pronounced
distinctively. But, this requires an appropriate internal and external motivation that can be
provided by the teacher and effective exposure to the language.
4.7 Recommendations:
4.7.1 For the Teachers:
The teachers should pronounce the v and w sounds in front of the students making
clear the manner and places of articulation.
The students must be motivated and encouraged to speak the mentioned phonemes
correctly and if any mistake is followed they should be ultimately corrected.
The distinction must be marked by the teachers between the w and v sounds by
quoting some examples such as the difference between the pronunciation of vest and
west.
Classroom exercises must be followed in which individual attention must be paid on
the pronunciation of the phonemes and the audio visual aids must be accompanied to
assure the students attention.
The use of flash cards must be made on which the w and v words must be stated and
the students should be awared to distinguish the words and their phonological
structure by pronouncing them.
The prime focus must not only be given to the text but also to the pronunciation of
lexical items
A separate lesson plan must be organized that ensures that provides knowledge of
phonology to the students at a very early age.
The use of pictures and videos will be a great help to ensure the correct pronunciation
of the similar sounding phonemes.
Focus must be paid to phonology in the same regard as it given to the lexis, semantics,
syntax and morphology.
4.7.2 For the students:
The students must be internally motivated to learn the phonology of English. If the
person is not internally motivated he can’t get a grip o the language structure.
The students must aid themselves with audio video aids that make them aware of the
fact that v and w sounds are distinct from one another.
The students must practice the lip rounding in case of w and the inter dental positions
in case of v sounds and mark the discrepancies between the two.
The students must aid themselves with the sentences including both v and w sounding
words, upon whose pronunciation the distinction between the similar sounds become
vivid.
Speak! Find an English speaking friend or tutor preferably a native speaker and set up
exchange session’s .they must ask to be corrected in conversation whenever
necessary.
Use a dictionary when unaware of the words pronunciation, as most dictionaries have
a pronunciation key. The IPA chart must be referred to.
Read the words, while they are spoken as reading the lyrics while listening a song or
watching television.
Write out the pronunciation of the words containing IPA symbols. And translate
passages into phonetic symbols.
Practice the words w and v in front of mirror and take notice of the fact whether the
manners and places are followed accurately.
The students must make sentences of v and w and then speak them aloud and also
record their own voices .they should then hear them back and point out their own
mistakes
Finally, they must listen to news and songs and highlight the words contain v and w
sounds and then use them in them appropriately in linguistic discourse.
The students must highlight the fact that if w or v comes at the beginning middle or
end of the words it would alter the pronunciation of words as stress and intonation
pattern becomes prevalent at one end and the sounds may become silent at the other.
4.8 Conclusion:
To conclude, we would like to focus on the fact that language speaking does occupy the same
position as the learning of syntax, lexis, grammar and morphology of language as well as the
techniques of reading, listening and writing; however it follows a rather elevated position
than that. The persons image is reflected and made dominant by the way he speaks. Other
expertise do count a lot, such as reading and writing but spoken language is the identity of
one self. It’s a die llama that we do have the English medium schools but the ways the words
are pronounced is not taught to the students, the minute technicalities and ways of
pronunciation. The words two distinct sounds are being referred to as one phoneme. Hence,
the practical aspects of language are not given importance rather the textual cramming is
becoming prevalent. The texts can be used for the language learning principals. An
appropriate and dynamic approach should be followed and the students must be given
awareness from the beginning rather than at later academic levels because in that stage the
ability to comprehend a language becomes inadequate. The teachers must be given awareness
to teach the phonological structure of different alphabets to ensure the progress of the child.
Hence, to conclude i would like to say that not only external motivation matters but also
internal. If the child is inclined to learn a language and employs the technicalities in daily life
he would be able to master the phonological levels off language. Finally the exposure to the
language counts a lot the more the exposure one gets the more mastery of a language occurs.
If we will let our mother tongue interfere with English language then no difference would be
seen in our personalities and spoken content and that day won’t be far when the complete
distortion of the phonemic structure of English would occur.
