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.
other side vowel is produced freely, there is no obstruction when it is produced, even it is produced smoothly without any hard effort to produce it.
In addition,Murcia, et. al presented “one of the best ways to appreciate the
difference between voiced and unvoiced is to put your hand against your Adam’s apple i.e. larynx.”
7
Somehow, it is one of the familiar ways to recognize the
production of consonants. Here is the terminology of voice and unvoiced. These
are to differentiate the consonants sounds when it is produced. “If the vocal folds are held gently together and air under pressure from the lungs is push between
them, the folds can be made to vibrate evenly to produce the tone we call
voiced
.”
8
So, when people produce voice sounds, their vocal folds vocal cords in older terminology could be vibrated whilst unvoiced voiceless not. For example:
f vs v. Speakers could feel the difference between them, it could be light when they produce f sound and there is no vibration unvoiced. On the other side, v is
produced by vibration on vocal folds and there is a pressure of the lungs when the air flows.
Then, vowel can be classified based on its sounds. What is a vowel? An unscientific answer would be that vowels are the tolls of poets, since it is vowels
that allow poets to create assonance and rhyme, and thus to shape language musically and make it pleasing to ear. A more scientific answer would be that
vowels are the core or “peak” of the syllable
9
. A vowel is a sound produced when the flow of air from the lungs is not blocked and the vocal chords are vibrating.
Different vowels can be produced by changing the position of the tongue. Which vowel is produced depends on which part of the tongue is raised and how far it is
raised. A sound which starts as one vowel sound and ends as another is called diphthong.
10
7
Marianne Celce-Murcia, et. al. Teaching Pronunciation: a Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Language, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009, p.42.
8
Michael Arshby and John Maidment, Introducing Phonetic Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp.22-23.
9
Celce-Murcia, op.cit., p.93.
10
Mark Hancock, Pronunciation Games, Cambridge University Press, Australia: 1995, p.6.
In the production of vowels the tongue is held at such a distance from the roof of the mouth that there is no perceptible frictional noise. When the tongue
takes up a vowel position, a resonance chamber is formed which modifies the quality of tone produced by the voice, and gives rise to a distinct quality or tamber
which we call a vowel.
11
The qualities of vowels depend upon the positions of the tongue and lips. It is convenient to classify them according to the position on the main of the
tongue. In the production of most vowels the tongue is convex to the palate. Vowels may therefore be conveniently arranged according to the position of the
highest point of the tongue. It means the movements of the tongue in passing from one vowel position to another should be examined with a looking
– glass or felt with the finger. There are front vowels, in the production of which the
„front’ of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate; example i: in fi:d feed.
There are back vowels, in the production of which the „back’ of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate; example u: in fu:d food. Then in the
middle and upper part of the figure there are vowels intermediate between front and back; theyare called central vowels; e
xample : in b :d bird.
Fig. 2.1 Conventionalized diagram of vowel positions.
12
11
Daniel Jones, The Pronunciation of English, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1986, p.12.
12
Ibid., p. 15.
