According to those definitions, it can be concluded that pronunciation is the way of a person in sounding word or uttering
language and one of the people’s ways in pronouncing, uttering, even in communicating a language to deliver
someone’s desire in communication, so that the communication is hopefully more clear and understandable.
2. The Concepts of Pronunciation
Pronunciation is not just a word that has the meaning how people pronounce or utter a word or sentence in language, but it has some aspects that
explain the ways in pronouncing the word that will be understandable in spoken language. Ur
stated “three concepts of pronunciation, those are: the sounds of the language or phonology, stress and rhytm, and intonation
”.
3
a. The Sounds of Language
Sounds of language or phonology, which is the symbols of language, hear which is produced by the organs of speech.
4
English language has the number of sounds produced by organs of speech. Those sounds are classified in two
categories, vowels and consonants. Some of the continuous voiced sounds produced
without obstruction in the mouth are what may be called „pure musical sounds’ unaccompanied by any frictional noise. They are called vowels. All other
articulated sounds are called consonants.
5
Avery and Erlich noted, “Consonants involve a narrowing in the mouth
which in turn causes some obstruction of the airstreams. With vowels, air passes rather freely through the mouth because there is very little narrowing”.
6
It seems when people producing consonants are signed by the activity of the mouth
narrows, there is pressing on the throat or mouth when the word produced. On the
3
Ibid, p.47.
4
Daniel Jones, The Pronunciation of English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p.11.
5
Ibid, p. 12.
6
Peter Avery and Susan Erlich, Teaching American English Pronunciation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, p.12.
