linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, mispronunciation is the act of pronouncing a word incorrectly.

Language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

s are pronounced in different ways by different people, depending on factors like the area they grew up in, their level of

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, and their

social class A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...

. Even within groups of the same area and class, people can pronounce words differently. A standard of pronunciation is the most common way to pronounce a word. Standards vary among groups.

Dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

include pronunciations. Languages constantly change, split up, and diverge. Diversity within languages as a natural consequence of language evolution is now acknowledged. This diversity is studied.

Pronunciation in dictionaries

Early

dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

, such as that by

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and later

Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

played a large role in making

spelling Spelling is a set of conventions for written language regarding how graphemes should correspond to the sounds of spoken language. Spelling is one of the elements of orthography, and highly standardized spelling is a prescriptive element. Spelli ...

more uniform. When dictionaries began to add pronunciation guides, they played a similar role there. At first, American dictionaries (at least) tended to avoid listing pronunciations that they considered non-standard, and thus they played a prescriptive role (the British tradition is far more descriptive). However, following the general trend in linguistics, American dictionaries are now becoming more descriptive while British dictionaries are becoming less so (with Australian ones remaining in between); this is the case in other respects as well as with pronunciation. For example, the pronunciation of the word ''nuclear'' as if it were spelled '' nucular'' is one that is frowned upon by some, but the pronunciation is listed in some dictionaries. However, to take this to mean that the pronunciation is considered either "correct" or "incorrect" is to misunderstand the role that these dictionaries are playing. They are simply reporting current usage.

Pronunciation change

The following are some of the processes by which pronunciation can change.

Omission of phonemes

Many words have lost

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

s (

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

sounds) somewhere in their histories. Sometimes, this changes the standard of pronunciation. For example, the silent ''k'' at the start of many words in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

was originally pronounced. However, a word is mispronounced if a phoneme is omitted when it is not normally pronounced that way. For example, some speakers omit the first ''c'' sound from ''Antarctic'', resulting in a pronunciation ("ant-AR-tik").

Adaptation to a different language

Words and names that are adopted from one language to another can be mispronounced because the

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

of the source language is different from that in the destination language. Proper nouns such as names of people and places are written as foreign words and often given their native pronunciation too.

Terms

Spelling pronunciation A spelling pronunciation is the pronunciation of a word according to its spelling when this differs from a longstanding standard or traditional pronunciation. Words that are spelled with letters that were never pronounced or that were not pronoun ...

: Pronouncing a word according to its infelicitous or ambiguous spelling. * Aphesis: The loss of the sound at the start of a word. * Aspiration: An "h" sound at the beginning of a word. For example, the "h" in honor (British: honour) is not pronounced, but it is in "happy." As with all pronunciation "rules," conventions regarding the aspirated "H" differ from region to region. In parts of the US, it is customary to pronounce "herb" without the initial "h" sound, while in the UK, the initial "h" is aspirated. *

Epenthesis In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the first syllable ('' prothesis''), the last syllable ('' paragoge''), or between two syllabic sounds in a word. The opposite process in whi ...

: The addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word ('' prothesis'' at the beginning and ''

paragoge Paragoge () is the addition of a sound to the end of a word. It is a type of epenthesis. Paragoge is most often linked with the nativization of loanwords. It is particularly common in Brazilian Portuguese, not only in loanwords but also in word ...

'' at the end are commonly used). Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a

, and anaptyxis for the addition of a

. * Metathesis: The reversal of letters within a word when pronounced. For example "iron" is pronounced as "iorn." *

Orthoepy Orthoepy is the study of pronunciation of a particular language, within a specific oral tradition. The term is from the Greek , from () and (). The antonym is '' cacoepy'' "bad or wrong pronunciation". The pronunciation of the word ''orthoep ...

: is the study of pronunciation of a particular language, within a specific oral tradition. *

Shibboleth A shibboleth ( ; ) is any custom or tradition—usually a choice of phrasing or single word—that distinguishes one group of people from another. Historically, shibboleths have been used as passwords, ways of self-identification, signals of l ...

: Any practice that shows one's social or regional origin. This usually refers to features of language, and particularly to a word whose pronunciation identifies its speaker as a member of a particular group. *

Spoonerism A spoonerism is an occurrence of speech in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis) between two words of a phrase. These are named after the Oxford don and priest William Archibald Spooner, who report ...

: The exchange of the initial letters or syllables between two words or even within a word, with comic results—especially when the result changes the speaker's intended meaning.

Automatic detection

Using computational techniques, such as

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

, it is possible to automatically detect mispronunciations in recorded speech.

References

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