EPGB 17 Dec 6 by 9

English
Pronunciation
Guide Book
For Native Bengali
Speakers
..
English Pronunciation
Guide Book
for Native Bengali
Speakers
by
Amin Rahman
MOSC mobile school
Published by Zobeda & Amin Rahman
© Zobeda & Amin Rahman
No unauthorised photocopying
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced

or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or
mechanically, including photocopying, recording or any information
storage or retrieval system, without prior written permission from
the copyright holders or the publisher.
You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must
impose the same condition on any acquirer.
The advice and information in this guide book are believed to be

true and accurate according to the author. Neither the author nor
the publishers can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any
errors or omissions.
To
Kishwar Rahman (Lima)

&
Ziad Rahman (Littu)
Preface
A book entitled "ইংরেজী উচ্চােরেে গাইড বই," was

published in 2016 to cater to those who
preferred a guidebook in Bangla. This version is
specifically crafted for English teachers in
Bangladesh who prefer an English-language
guidebook on the subject.
In the Bengali version, I had provided a

comprehensive history of the book, detailing
the project's inception, the developments along
the way, and acknowledging all individuals who
contributed at various stages. I named those
who assisted me and described the nature of
their contributions, concluding with the book's
final publication.
I would like to express my gratitude once again

to the following individuals: my life’s partner -
Zobeda Rahman, Dr. Mushfiqur Rahman, Late
Prof Dr. Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, Dr. Helen
Fraser, Dr. Ruth Nicolls, Dr. John Patterson, Dr.
Ranjit Podder, Dr. Hamidur Rahman Khan, and
Mr Obaidur Rahman.
…
Contents
Preface
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Why use Bengali Phonetic Alphabet (BPA) ... 1
1.2 Why do we need an English Pronunciation Guide
book (EPGB) .............................................................. 2
1.3 Structure of the EPGB ................................... 3
1.4 Which pronunciation standard ..................... 4
1.5 How you may use the EPGB .......................... 4
1.6 The virtual workshop and the desired
outcome .................................................................... 5
2 Representation of speech sounds 7
2. 1 Characters and sounds .................................. 7
2.2 Legends and conventions .............................. 7
3 Introduction to BPA 9
3.1 Common consonant sounds.......................... 9
3.2 Common vowel sounds ................................. 9
3.2.1 English Vowel Quality 11
3.2.2 English Vowel Quantity 12
3.3 Pronunciations of English words in BPA ..... 15
4 English sounds not present in the Bengali language
17
4.1 Conceptualising new English sounds .......... 17
4.2 English consonant sounds not present in
Bengali17
4.2.1 The human sound making device 18
4.3 Five English consonant sounds which NBS
need to conceptualise - /f, v, z, ʒ, w/ ..................... 24
4.3.1 The English consonant sound /f/ 24
4.3.3 The English consonant sound /z/ 30
4.3.4 The English consonant sound /ʒ/ 32
4.3.5 The English consonant sound /w/ 34
5 English vowel sounds which NBS need to
conceptualise 37
5.1 The English vowel sound /ə/ ....................... 37
5.2 The English vowel sound /ʌ/ ............................ 40
6 Consonant sounds NBS need to re-conceptualise 43
6.1 Reconceptualising existing sounds ............. 43
6.2 Group 1 - Reconceptualising sound group 1 -
/চ,স,শ/ 43
6.2.1 Reconceptualising the English consonant
sound /চ/ 43
sound /স/ 44
sound /শ/ 46
6.3 Re-conceptualisation sound group 2 - /জ,z/48
6.3.1 Re-conceptualising the English
consonant sound /জ/ 48
sound /z/ 49
6.3.3 Summary 51
6.4 Sound group 3 for re-conceptualisation - /f,প
/ 51
sound /f / 51
sound /প/ 52
6.5 Reconceptualising sounds - group 4 - /v,ব/ 53
6.5.1 Reconceptualising the English /v/ 54
6.5.2 Reconceptualising the English sound /ব/
54
6.5.3 Caution 56
7 Other English sounds NBS need to be aware of 57
7.1 The English consonant sound /য়/................ 57
7.2 The extra short duration English vowel sound
- /ə/ 58
7.3 The English consonant “r” sounding like a
vowel 59
7.4 The English consonant sounds /ট/ and /ড/ . 60
8 English words with (a) duplicated letters and (b)
cluster sounds 64
8.1 English words with duplicate letters ........... 64
2. Full colouring was not possible in BPA for some
words like “square” and “freight”9 Aspiration of English
sounds /ক/, /প/, /ট/ 67
10 Prosody /Suprasegmentals 69
10.1 When and how should prosody be taught to
NNS 69
10.2 Tools and techniques to help NNS learn
prosody ................................................................... 70
10.3 A holistic approach to learning English ....... 73
10.4 Conclusion ................................................... 74
1 Introduction
1.0 Background
This is an English Pronunciation guidebook meant for English learners of all
levels - school and university students, English teachers, and professionals -
who are Native Bengali Speakers (NBS). Originally, I had planned to include
this with the English Pronunciation Dictionary for Native Bengali Speakers
which I was developing. But while running workshops on English
Pronunciation using BPA (Bengali Phonetic Alphabet) in Bangladesh, I
found that participants wanted some comprehensive and permanent handouts
or a guidebook. They needed this so that they could revise the materials that
I covered in the workshops and also refer back to the explanations and
examples in the guidebook when using the English Pronunciation Dictionary,
particularly at the early stages of learning BPA. There was little point in running
such workshops if participants were unable to use the Pronunciation Dictionary
effectively on their own after attending a workshop. Hence, I am publishing
this English Pronunciation Guidebook for Bengalis (EPGB) before the English
Pronunciation Dictionary for Bengalis (EPDB).
In the EPGB and the EPDB I have used a Bengali Phonetic Alphabet to
transcribe the pronunciations of English words. Since November 2011, I have
trialled BPA in workshops that I conducted in Bangladesh. These were
attended by rural school students and teachers, teachers from private and
public schools and colleges in Dhaka, and officials from different departments
of the Ministry of Education of the Government of Bangladesh (GoB). The trial
results were very encouraging and participants who attended these workshops,
and also conferences and seminars where I introduced the BPA, wanted to
know when the dictionary would be available. This guidebook is the first step
towards fulfilling their wish.
1.1 Why use Bengali Phonetic Alphabet (BPA)

I consider BPA to be fairly simple and more effective compared to other
transcription languages like IPA, SCAMPA, ARPAbet etc., particularly for NBS.
This is because, first, it is very similar to the Bengali script. It is also very small
and easy to learn. Everyone, from primary school students to senior
professionals who want to learn English Pronunciation, can learn and master
it.
There may be some among those who attend(ed) my workshops, as well as,
readers of this guidebook who have studied IPA during their university studies
and learned to represent speech sounds using IPA. Many English dictionaries
use IPA to transcribe the RP and/or the GA pronunciations of English words.
These people may ask why I am introducing another phonetic alphabet. They
English Pronunciation Guide book 2
may also ask why I have not included IPA transcriptions alongside the BPA
transcriptions.
My answers to them would be as follows:
(a) This guidebook and the EPDB are not only meant for those who
know IPA but for all NBS English learners who know the Bengali
alphabet.
(b) The EPGB is for those NBS English learners who want to learn
BPA for improving their English pronunciation and not just for
passing an examination.
(c) After going through the materials in the guidebook, learners
should be able to get the correct pronunciation of an English word
that they are not sure about from the EPDB.
(d) To learn and master BPA one requires far less time than is
needed for learning and mastering IPA.
(e) To be able to use BPA and learn English pronunciation, NBS
learners have to learn only eight new symbols.
(f) If I provided IPA transcriptions alongside the BPA transcriptions,
learners who do not know IPA may think that they have to first
learn IPA. After browsing through the guide book and/or the
dictionary, they may come to the conclusion that this was “not
their cup of tea”.
I may be wrong about point (f) above. The “proof of the pudding will be in the
eating”. I would like you, the readers and users of the guidebook, to tell me
whether you liked it or not after you have tried it out more than once, as you
know that for any new food you have to try it more than once to acquire its taste
and appreciate it fully.
In this guidebook, I shall talk to you informally. I will assume that you are in
front of me attending one of my workshops. I will therefore call it a virtual
workshop. So let us start our virtual workshop.
1.2 Why do we need an English Pronunciation Guide book

(EPGB)
Different languages have different sound systems. It is the same with Bengali
and English. When Native Speakers of English (NS) and Non-Native
speakers of English (NNS) who are not NBS, first come to Bangladesh, West
Bengal, Assam, Orissa, etc., where Bengali is spoken, and try to speak Bengali
with the locals without learning the Bengali speech sounds, particularly those
with which they are not familiar, i.e., the breathy sounds, they struggle a lot.
They are not easily understood by the locals. This is because for any sound
3 for Native Bengali Speakers
that is not present in a speaker’s native language, they use a sound from their
own native language, which they consider to be that particular sound.
English also has some sounds, both consonants and vowels, which are not
present in the Bengali language. So, when NBS English learners with no prior
training in English pronunciation speak English, they use Bengali or regional
Bengali sounds in place of some English sounds. Foreigners have difficulty in
understanding English speech with such accent.
1.3 Structure of the EPGB

I have organised the EPGB as follows:
The guidebook has ten chapters. While chapter 1.0 contains background and
introductory materials, in Chapter 2.0, I have discussed about speech sounds
and how they can be represented using a transcription language.
In chapter 3.0, I introduce you to the Bengali Phonetic Alphabet (BPA) and
show, how without learning anything new, you can represent English words
which contain sounds common in English and Bengali languages.
In chapter 4.0, I discuss the five English consonant sounds /f, v, z, Ʒ, w/
which are not present in the Bengali language. First, I spend some time to
make you familiar with the different parts of the human sound making device,
which you use to make speech and non-speech sounds. Then I tell you how
to go about learning the five new English sounds and conceptualise (Fraser,
2006) them.
Next, in chapter 5.0, I discuss the two new English vowel sounds which are
not present in the Bengali language which you have also to conceptualise.
In chapter 6.0, I discuss consonant sounds which, due to variations in
regional dialects, NBS interchange between two or more similar sounds. There
are five such interchangeable sounds which can be classified under two
separate groups. I give tips on how to re-conceptualise (Fraser, 2006) each
of these as five distinct individual sounds.
In chapter 7.0, I discuss other English sounds which sometimes vary slightly
from their regular sounds when they appear in certain positions in English
words.
In chapter 8.0, I talk about how to pronounce English words with duplicated
letters in them. I also discuss how cluster sounds in English words, comprising
two or more sounds, are to be transcribed into BPA. The sounds may consist
of both existing sounds, as well as English sounds which are new to NBS.
In chapter 9.0, I talk about the aspiration of English sounds /ক,প,ট/
I end the virtual workshop by discussing in chapter 10.0, the other very
important part of English Pronunciation – i.e., the suprasegmental (an
American term (Roach, 2009)) or prosodic features (which is a British term
(Roach, 2009). In earlier chapters, I have covered things like vowel quality,
vowel quantity, syllabification of multi-syllabic words, sound changes, primary
stressed syllables in words and, aspiration of specific sounds. They serve as
foundation for learning the prosodic features of English speech. In this
guidebook, it is not possible to give a thorough coverage of suprasegmentals.
If I did that then the EPGB would become too large and it might seem daunting
to prospective users. I have given simple tips on how to go about learning the
prosodic features of English Pronunciation and suggested some activities and
the use of audio/video tools.
1.4 Which pronunciation standard

You may be wondering which English Pronunciation standard I have used as
different standards are followed in different Native English Speaking countries
like the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The two most
common standards are the British English (BrE) or Received Pronunciation
(RP), as it used to be known before, and the General American (GA) standard.
You may be happy to know that BPA can be used to transcribe the
pronunciations of English words using any standard, including Bangladeshi
standard, if there is one in the future. In this guidebook, in most of the
examples I have used the BrE pronunciation. On rare occasions, I have used
the GA standard for citing particular examples.
1.5 How you may use the EPGB

You should start reading the EPGB from the beginning and go through each
chapter and its sections in the order they appear. In the process you will learn
the technique of representing English speech sounds, both common and new,
and English words and sentences, in BPA.
In this guidebook, I have introduced the different phonemic symbols we will
use in BPA very gradually so that you do not get overwhelmed with a lot of new
materials all at once. First, I have used only those Bengali characters or
symbols which you can employ to represent English speech sounds which are
also present in the Bengali language. That means you do not have to learn
anything new to read the BPA transcriptions of the selected English words. At
this stage you may feel that you already know BPA.
In each section of the relevant chapters, I have introduced only one new BPA
symbol and provided text and audio/video descriptions on how to make that
particular sound. Furthermore, I have provided examples of BPA
transcriptions of the pronunciations of English words which contain only those
BPA characters that I have introduced in that particular section plus any that I
covered earlier. You may use these for practising the new sounds which are
also provided in the accompanying video disc accompanying the guidebook.
To help you conceptualise a new sound, I have provided the following

information:
1. Basic information about the sound.

2. Textual description on how to make the sound.
3. A pictorial diagram showing the initial positions of the articulators.
4. A vocal exercise used for making the sound.
5. A table containing some practice English words and their BPA
transcriptions.
6. Summary of the section under the heading “Points to Remember”
which contain the salient points about the sound.
You have to learn each new English speech sound, consonant and vowel,
which is not present in the Bengali language. You will do this through the
process of conceptualisation (Fraser, 2006), which I discuss in section 4.2.
You have to learn what articulators are to be used, how to make the new sound
and get to know it and master it completely so that you consider it as a distinct
English sound which is distinguishable from all other sounds you know. To
achieve this, you should practise repeatedly the examples I have provided.
Only when you have totally conceptualised a new sound in a section should
you move on to the next section. On the other hand, if you already know the
English sound introduced in a section you are going through, you may skip that
section.
You may read the final chapter which is on suprasegmentals or prosody
when you think you have mastered all the segmentals and basic
suprasegmentals introduced in earlier chapters and you are ready to learn to
speak English sentences with appropriate stress on words and phrases, and
want to give other effects like intonation, pauses, change in speed, sound
dynamics etc. to make your speech more meaningful to your listener(s). You
may have to practise with the text, audio and video examples, over and over,
until you are satisfied.
1.6 The virtual workshop and the desired outcome

Well then, let me welcome you to my virtual workshop on BPA and English
Pronunciation. I hope that after completing the workshop, you will be able to
pronounce correctly all English words that you know and use. You will also be
able to find the pronunciations of words that you do not know from the EPDB.
I sincerely hope that after completing this virtual workshop, some of you will
think of becoming BPA and English Pronunciation experts and will be running
workshops to do the following:
(a) Train Trainers of Trainers of BPA and English Pronunciation,

who will be capable and willing to run similar workshops face to
face,
(b) train Trainers of BPA and English Pronunciation who will be
able to run workshops both within and outside of where they live
and work on a regular basis,
(c) train NBS English learners at different levels according to your
access levels, i.e., in your work environment,
(d) develop teaching aids like guidebooks for teachers, multimedia
contents and audio/video tools for (a), (b) and (c), as the case may
be, for sharing with others through appropriate channels and
media like popular Bengali and English newspapers, educational
channels on radio and TV, through smart phones, national
educational and professional internet portals. AND
(e) form clubs and start digital forums to exchange ideas and
experiences, and discuss and solve problems.
I will be happy if you send me your comments and feedback on the virtual
workshop, what you have achieved and what you plan to do with the EPGB to
aminrahman43@gmail.com.
2 Representation of speech sounds
2. 1 Characters and sounds

Before I introduce you to BPA, it is very important that you learn to distinguish
between the two terms, character/symbol and sound. When you will see
something written as “x” in this guidebook, you should know that I am talking
about a character or letter x of the alphabetic system of a language. On the
other hand, when you see something like /y/ you should understand that I am
talking about a speech sound or phoneme which we have to make using our
human sound making device. The y in /y/ may refer to either a BPA or an IPA
sound symbol. Let us look at it further.
You all know that there are 21 consonant characters in the English
alphabetic system. But you may or may not know that there are 24 English
consonant sounds. The mismatch between the two numbers, the number of
characters and the number of sounds, is due to the following:
(a) One English alphabetical character may result in different

English sounds in different English words. For example, the
English alphabetic character “c” takes the sound /ক/ in “cat”, /স/ in
“cell”, /চ/ in “cello” and /শ/ in “special” – four different sounds.
(b) Different English characters are used for the same English sound
in different English words. For example, the pronunciation of “gist”
is /জিস্ট/ and the pronunciation of “jail” is /জজইল/. In the two words
both “g” and “j” are taking the /জ/ sound.
This means that there is no direct correlation between the English

alphabetic characters and English sounds. It is therefore not possible to guess
the pronunciations of English words from their spellings only. The
pronunciations of English words cannot be transcribed meaningfully using
English characters only, as all the 21 English consonant characters cannot be
used to represent the 24 English consonant sounds. A phonemic alphabet
has to be devised where one speech sound is represented by one unique
symbol. That happens both in IPA and BPA.
2.2 Legends and conventions

In the Bengali language, there are 19 consonant sounds which are also present
in the English language. They are:
/ ব, ক, ড, ট, গ, হ, ি, ল, ম, ন, প, র, স, চ, শ, থ, দ, য়, Z/.
Before going further, let us get familiar with some of the conventions I have
used in the EPGB.
“x “ means x is a character of a language.

“xyz” means xyz is a word in a language.
/স/ means স is a speech sound expressed phonemically.
[শ] means শ is the actual sound that a person utters when speaking.
/অক সি ডাইZ/ means the phonemic representation in BPA of a word
“oxidise” has three syllables /অক/, /সি/ and /ডাইZ/. A space
character separates two adjacent syllables. The primary
stressed syllable in the word is highlighted in bold. When
pronouncing the word, you should put a stress on the
highlighted syllable, which in this example is /অক/.
/dɪˈpɑz.ɪt/ This is the pronunciation in IPA of an English word with three
syllables. The syllable separator symbol used in IPA is “.”.
The “ˈ” is the primary stressed-syllable marker meaning that
the syllable following the “ˈ” is the primary stressed-syllable
which in this case is /pɑz/.
/a,b,c,d/ This is a way of listing four phonemes /a/,/b/,/c/ and /d/.
I have omitted the forward slashes (//) around the BPA symbols in the
individual cells in a table below, when the table’s column headings mention that
the cell contents are BPA transcriptions.
3 Introduction to BPA
3.1 Common consonant sounds

Of the 24 English consonant sounds, 19 are already present in the Bengali
language. This means that there are only five English consonant sounds which
you have to learn and which we have to represent in BPA by some new
symbols.
In this section, we will start by representing the 19 common sounds
phonemically using Bengali characters. Table 1 shows the correspondence
between the English sounds and the BPA symbols.
Table 3.1 BPA symbols for sounds common in English and Bengali
Sl. English sound BPA Sl. English sound BPA

1 /b/ as in “bad” ব 2 /k/ as in “king” ক
3 /d/ as in “dog” ড 4 /g/ as in “good” গ
5 /h/ as in “hot” হ 6 /dʒ/ as in “jug” জ
7 /l/ as in “lad” ল 8 /m/ as in “man” ম
9 /n/ as in “not” ন 10 /p/ as in “pet” প
11 /r/ as in “rat” র 12 /s/ as in “sit” স
13 /t/ as in “top” ট 14 /tʃ/ as in “chat” চ
15 /ʃ/ as in “ship” শ 16 /θ/ as in “think” থ
17 /ð/ as in “this” দ 18 /j/ as in “yet” য়
19 /ŋ/ as in “sing” Z
Bold = the English consonant sound
3.2 Common vowel sounds

We all know that there are five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in the English Alphabet.
But in English speech we come across 20 different vowel sounds.
Note that here I am talking about five vowel characters and twenty vowel
sounds. In Table 3.2, we look at 15 vowel sounds which are common in the
two languages. The first 9 are monophthongs. If you look at the table you
will notice that a monophthong vowel has a single vowel sound. The remaining
6 are diphthongs where two different vowel sounds are pronounced one after
another to make the vowel sound complete.
In BPA, we will use the same Bengali vowel symbols for the 15 common
vowel sounds. In the Bengali language, when a vowel sound is combined with
a consonant sound, then a diacritic is used on the consonant – before, after

or around. In BPA, we will use the same technique on the five new consonant
symbols that we will introduce to represent English consonant sounds which
are not present in the Bengali language.
However, one Bengali vowel sound /অ/ has no corresponding diacritic,
because this is the inherent vowel sound for all Bengali consonants. That
means when there is no diacritic with a consonant sound symbol, then we will
understand that the consonant sound has to be pronounced with the vowel
sound /অ/. We will also use this convention on the five new English consonant
symbols which we will introduce in later sections.
Table 3.2 BPA of English vowel sounds
Sl. English el BPA of BPA of English

vowel standalone vowel sounds
sounds as in English vowel when combined
the words sounds with the
consonant /ক /
1 merry ঈ কী
2 bit ই জক
3 pot অ ক
4 mad অYa কযা
5 bet এ কক
6 port ও ককা
7 part আ কা
8 put উ কু
9 food ঊ কূ
10 bake এই ককই
11 like আই কাই
12 loin ওই/ঐ ককাই/কক
13 cow আউ কাউ
14 hoe ঔ ককৌ
15 bird Yː কY ː
RBOLD = the English vowel(s) in column 1
Points to note:
1. Although long vowel sounds like /ঈ/ and /ঊ/ are present in the
Bengali language, they are only used in writing. In Bengali
speech, no distinction is made between long and short vowel

sounds except when special emphasis is to be given to a word
when the vowel needs to be sounded for a longer duration. In
English, you MUST make clear distinction between long and
short vowel sounds.
2. /Yː/ is a special mid-central vowel sound in the English
language and it also happens to be present in the Bengali
language. But not all NBS are aware of its proper use.
3.2.1 English Vowel Quality

By the term vowel quality, we will refer to one of the 20 different English vowel
sounds. We have shown in section 3.2 that in Bengali there are two forms for
specifying a single vowel sound or vowel quality. One form is used when the
vowel appears independent of any consonant sound (see Table 3.2, column
3). The other form of representation is employed when a vowel sound is
combined with a consonant sound (see Table 3.2, column 4).
The vowel quality used in pronouncing the same English word may vary
from one group of speakers to another, even within the same country (Jenner,
2003; Jenkins, 2000; Walker, 2010; Kirkpatrick, 2012). For example, in some
parts of England the word “bus” is pronounced as [বুস]. Americans may
pronounce “hot” as [হাːট], whereas an Australian may pronounce the word
“day” as [qডাআই]. So, although you should try to pronounce all vowel sounds
as recommended by the pronunciation standard you are following, if there are
slight variations in vowel quality it should not matter that much. Table 3.3
gives vowel sounds for different English words in RP pronunciation.
Table 3.3 BPA of Vowel Quality in English words
English word BPA Vowel Quality
lot লট অ
bee বী ঈ
sheep শীːপ ঈː
hit জহট ই
mad মযাড অYa
bet কবট এ
port কপাːট ওː
part পাːট আː
put পুট উ
mood মূːড ঊː
bake কবইক এই
like লাইক আই
loin কলন/কলাইন ঐ/ওই
cow কাউ আউ
hoe কহৌ ঔ
bird বYːড Yː
BOLD = English vowel(s) in column 1
Points to note:
1. In the BPA transcriptions of the words- “sheep”, “port” and

“part”, I have used the vowel sound lengthening symbol /ː/,
which I will discuss in the next section.
2. The sound /loi/, in the word “loin”, can be transcribed in two
different ways in BPA – i.e. (a) using the Bengali diphthong
diacritic /Q/ with the consonant sound symbol /ল/ to represent
the /loi/ sound or (b) first transcribing the /lo/ sound by using
the diacritic /q a/ around the /ল/ sound symbol followed by the
standalone /ই/ sound symbol to represent the English /I/
sound.
3.2.2 English Vowel Quantity

An English vowel sound has two characteristics. The first is vowel quality
which we have discussed in the previous section. The second characteristic is
known as vowel quantity.
You should be very careful about vowel quantity in your English speech. If
you use the wrong vowel quantity while pronouncing an English word, the
meaning of the word may change and your listener may be puzzled trying to
understand you.
The vowel duration tells us for how long (relative to each other) a vowel in
an English word is to be sounded. I have shown in column 4 of table 3.4, the
duration of each vowel sound as one of the following four types.
1. Short
2. Short/long
3. Long
4. Very long
We will also refer to these vowel quantity types as vowel lengths. Here we
are talking about four different vowel lengths arranged in the order of their
lengths. A short/long vowel sound has one length more than a short vowel
sound and a long vowel sound is two lengths more than a short vowel sound
and so on.
There are two other vowel quantity types which we will discuss later when
we talk about new English vowel sounds which are not present in the Bengali
language. They are (a) very short and (b) extra short vowel quantity types.
In BPA, we will use a special sound symbol / ː /, to extend an English long
vowel sound to very long.
While we gave ourselves the license to change the vowel quality in an
English word as long as the word was intelligible, we cannot do the same with
vowel quantity. If a word with a recommended vowel quantity is pronounced
with a vowel quantity which is one length more or less, it may still be intelligible.
The listener may not notice the difference. But if we change the vowel quantity
by more than one length in either direction then the meaning of a word may
change. For example, the pronunciation of the word “ship”, is [জশপ]. Here the
recommended vowel quantity is short. If we change the vowel length to very
long and pronounce the word as [শীːপ], the meaning will change.
A diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds. In a word, if we replace
the diphthong sounds like /এই/, /ঔ/ by long vowel sounds, I think it should not
matter as long as the word is still intelligible. For example, it should be all right
if you pronounce the words “bake” and “row” as [বেːক] and [করাː] respectively.
I have always pronounced them as such and no one has complained.
As we discussed earlier, learning to pronounce an English word with the right
vowel quantity is very important. I have noticed that some NBS change the
vowel quantity of single syllabic English words of short vowel length to very
long. For example, some of you may pronounce words like “hit”, and “get” as
[হীːট] and [কগːট] respectively, changing the vowel length/quantity from short to
very long. Ask someone, like your teacher, to point out to you when you are
doing this. If you are lengthening such single syllable short length vowel
sounds, then you have a problem and you have to rectify that problem.
Become conscious about this problem and whenever you are to pronounce a
one syllable English word, pause and think, and then use the correct vowel
quantity.
Table 3.4 Vowel Quantity in English words
English BPA Vowel Vowel

word Quality Quantity
lot লট অ short
bee বী ঈ long
sheep শীːপ ঈː very long
hit সিট ই short
mad ম্যাড অYa long
bet জবট এ short
port জপাːট ওː very long
part পাːট আː very long
put পুট উ short
mood ম্ূːড ঊː very long
bake জবইক এই diphthong
like লাইক আই diphthong
loin ললন /জলাইন ঐ/ওই diphthong
cow কাউ আউ diphthong
hoe জিৌ ঔ diphthong
bird বYːড Yː very long
BOLD = English vowel(s) in column 1
Points to note:
1. Be very particular about using the correct vowel

length/quantity when pronouncing an English word.
2. If you change the vowel quantity in an English word one step
in either direction then it may not matter. But if you change the
vowel quantity by more than one step in either direction, the
meaning of the word may change.
3. Some sounds do not have separate symbols for short and long
vowel quantity, although a word containing that sound can be
either short or long depending on the word. I have categorised
them (in the last column of the table) as of vowel quantity type
- short/long. But remember you should not make these sounds
as either very short (we will cover later) or very long.
3.3 Pronunciations of English words in BPA

While learning to make the new English sounds introduced in a section, first
write down on a piece of paper the transcriptions of the English words you find
in column 1 and 3 of the relevant table, using Bengali alphabetic characters
plus the new sound symbol(s) you have learned in that section and earlier.
Use the same diacritics on the new consonant sound symbols that you would
use in Bengali. After you have completed this task, compare your
transcriptions with those you will find in column 2 and 4 of the corresponding
table.
To get familiar with an English sound and the corresponding BPA symbol,
read the text in a row in column 1 or 3, then read aloud the BPA transcription
in column 2 or 4, as the case may be. For multi-syllabic words, do as follows:
First, read each syllable separately, one after another, in the order they
appear giving a very brief pause after each syllable. Give a stress on the
primary–stressed syllable which is marked in bold. Then read the BPA
transcription again. This time do not pause after each syllable but read the
entire word in one breath putting a stress on the primary-tressed syllable. You
can compare your pronunciation with the pronunciation will find in the
accompanying disc.
Table 3.5 BPA of English words containing sounds common in English

and Bengali
Word BPA Word BPA

abscess অ্যাব্ acclimate অ্যাক লি
সেস্ সেইট
add অYaড at অYaট
bad বযাড band বযান্ড
bat বযাট bomb বম্
brat ব্র্যাট brain জব্র্ইন
brake জব্র্ইক breast জব্র্স্ট
can কযান came জকইম্
cash কযাশ cat কযাট
crash ক্র্যাশ crown ক্র্াউন
dad ডযাড day জডই
den জডন dig সডগ
din সডন dish সডশ
dash ডযাশ dry ড্রাই
egg এগ end এন্ড

grey জেই grand েযান্ড
hate জিইট house িাউি
jade জজইড jail জজইল
jest জজস্ট mad ম্যাড
nest জনস্ট not নট
rent জেন্ট rest জেস্ট
sing সিিং yes জেি
Points to Note:
1. Only Bengali characters and Bengali vowel diacritics have been

used.
2. Bengali type conjunct symbols have been used for transcribing
into BPA, English words - “band”, “breast”, “crown”, “dry”, ”end”,
“grey”, “jest”, “nest”, “rent”, “rest” and “grand”, which have cluster
sounds.
3. Anyone who can read the Bengali script, will be able to read the
BPA transcriptions and thus get the pronunciations of the words
provided in the table.
4. The word “yes” is transcribed in BPA using the Bengali consonant
symbol /ে/. Bengali words do not have word initial /ে/ sound and
hence you may be pronouncing “yes” as ([ইএি] which should be
all right.
5. In multi-syllabic words, the syllables have been separated from
each other by space(s). In this list, there are two words, “abscess”
and “acclimate”, which have two syllables each.
4 English sounds not present in the Bengali

language
4.1 Conceptualising new English sounds

It is quite possible that some of you may not be able to conceive that a particular
English sound that I have introduced in a section, can be an independent sound
distinct from other sounds you know. Let me explain further to make the
concept of conceptualisation clear.
Suppose a child has learned to recognise or conceptualise the four colours-
white, black, red and blue only. Now, if you show the child the colour green,
which she has not yet learned to recognise as an independent colour, and ask
her to tell you the name of the colour, she may either say nothing or say one of
the four colours she has already learned. If you want her to recognise the
colour green and tell the name correctly, she will have to be taken through the
process of conceptualising green as a colour different from the four other
colours she had learned earlier. It is the same with sounds. But in this case,
as the sounds are to be used in speech, the conceptualisation process will also
include being able to make the newly conceptualised sounds.
4.2 English consonant sounds not present in Bengali

Five English consonant sounds are not present in the Bengali language. They
are:
/f, v, z, ʒ, w/
Of these five sounds, the first four are fricatives. The last one, /w/, is a semi-
vowel and an approximant. To make any consonant sound, you need at least
two articulators from your very powerful sound making device shown in Fig.1.
A fricative sound is made when there is initially a gap or space between two
articulators. Next, air is forced though the two articulators when there is some
friction which causes a turbulence, and that generates the sound.
In the process of learning to make the different sounds, try to get familiar
with your vocal musical instrument and the names of its different parts and
understand and learn which parts of this instrument you will use and how to
make a particular speech sound.
In each of the next five sections, I will introduce you to one of these five new
English sounds. I will give textual, audio and video descriptions and
demonstrations on how to make that sound. In each section, you will find a
table containing English practice words and their pronunciations in BPA and
IPA. The English words included in each table, contain only those BPA
symbols, you have already learned.
4.2.1 The human sound making device

We make speech and non-speech sounds with the help of the human sound
making device which we all have. We may consider this to be a very versatile
and powerful musical instrument. With practice and regular use, we can learn
to make any speech or musical sound, and much more, with this instrument.
But like all good musicians, we have to first know the different parts of our
musical instrument and also learn which of its parts should be used, when and
how, to make different types of sounds. A child, while growing up, by trial and
error and with some prompting from elders, learns to make different sounds
that (s)he hears around him/her which will include speech sounds of the child’s
native language. Eventually, a child learns to make all the sounds required to
speak his/her native language. (S)he does not have to learn other sounds
unless (s)he wants to mimic some musical instruments, sounds made by
animals or birds, or speech sounds of other languages. A growing child or adult
can learn to do this well only after he/she learns which parts of the sound-
making device he/she should use to make a particular sound.
Since we are trying to learn the speech sounds of another language, i.e.,
English, we have to proceed in the same way. First, we have to know the
names of all the parts of our musical instrument. This can be done by
inspecting the musical instrument shown in Figure 1. Then for each sound, we
have to learn the following:
(a) The broad category of the sound (consonant, vowel etc.)

(b) Secondary category (stops, nasals, approximants, fricatives,
affricates etc.)
(c) The articulators (tongue, lips, teeth, palate, uvula, jaw, gum ridge,
etc.)
(d) Place of starting the airflow for the sound – lungs for voiced
sounds, and from above the larynx, for voiceless sounds.
(e) Shape and placement of the different direct and indirect
articulators from the start till the end – i.e., when the sound has
been articulated for others to hear it.
You can master a new sound by repeated practice of the words in the
corresponding table. You should pronounce repeatedly the words with a new
sound in them until you do not have to think when making the particular new
sound. Then you can say that you have learned to make the sound or
conceptualised the sound.
Fig. 4.1 The human vocal system
In this guidebook, I will be referring to some terms which I am explaining below.
Affricate (ঘৃ ষ্ট ধ্বনি) is a consonant sound which starts as a plosive and then
becomes a fricative. The two affricates in English are /চ/ and /ি/. The
articulators used for making an affricate sound are (a) the tip (apex) of
the tongue and (b) the gum (alveolar) ridge.
Allophone (সহ ধ্বনি) is the changed sound of a phoneme. While a phoneme
can be thought of as an abstract sound or a recommended sound for an
English alphabetic character, the same phoneme appearing in different
positions in different English words or used in different dialects of English
may take a different sound which will be the phoneme’s allophone or the
surface sound. For example, the letters, “t”, “l” and ‘r”, appearing in
different positions in different English words, surface as different sounds.
Allophones are shown in the transcriptions by enclosing the sound

symbol within square brackets, i.e., as [a] to differentiate them from
phonemes.
Alveolar (দন্তমূলীয়) sounds are made with the following two articulators - (a)
blade of the tongue and the (b) alveolar (gum) ridge, which is the raised
part in the gum behind the upper teeth. The two alveolar sounds in
English are /ড/ and /ট/.
Alveolar ridge – see gum ridge.
Approximants (নিকট্য ধ্বনি) are sounds in which the articulators involved do
not touch each other. They come close but not close enough to cause
any friction or turbulence of air-flow. Some approximants also behave
like vowels and are called semi vowels. The two, semi vowel sounds in
English are /w/ and /য়/.
Articulators (উচ্চারক বাক প্রত্যঙ্গ গুনল) are parts of the Human Vocal system used
to make (articulate) a sound. At least two articulators are required to
make a sound. The seven articulators (Roach, 1998) used for making
sounds are (a) the pharynx, (b) the velum, (c) the hard palate, (d) the
alveolar (gum) ridge, (e) the tongue (different parts like the apex, blade,
front, back and root), (f) the teeth and (g) the lips.
Fig. 4.2 Articulators above the larynx
Source (Roach,2006)
Bilabial (উভয়য়ৌষ্ঠ্য) sounds are articulated by the two lips. Initially, the two
lips touch each other and then the lower lip is suddenly separated from
the upper lip to make the sound. The three bilabial sounds in English
are /প, ব, ম্/
Fig. 4.3 Positions of articulators for making

Upper lip bilabial sounds
Lower lip
Source (Roach, 2006)
Conceptualisation (প্রত্যয়ীকেে) (Fraser, 2006) of sounds. In simple words,

conceptualisation can be said to mean that you have to learn that
sound, know that sound as an individual sound and learn to distinguish
the sound from other sounds.
Consonant (ব্যন্জনধ্বনন) sound is a speech sound which obstructs the air flow
through the vocal tract. There are 24 consonant sounds in English. Of
the 24 English consonant sounds, 19 are present in the Bengali
language. They are / ব, ক, ড, ট, গ, ি, জ, ল, ম্, ন, প, ে, ি, চ, শ, থ, দ, ে, Z/. There
are five English consonant sounds which are not present in the Bengali
Language. They are /f, v, z, ʒ, w/.
Dental (দন্ত) sounds are articulated as follows. First, the tip (apex) of the tongue
touches the upper teeth and then the tongue is separated from the teeth
to make that sound. /দ, থ/ are the two dental sounds in English.
Diphthong (Qদ্বত্স্বরধ্বনি) is a combination of two vowel sounds. It starts with one

vowel sound and then changes to another. Examples: /ঐ, ঔ/
Fricatives (নিসধ্বনি) are those consonant sounds which are produced after air
passes through a narrow opening in between two articulators, thus
causing some friction and turbulence. In the Bengali language, there are
three fricative sounds /ি, শ, হ/. In English, there are four more fricatives.
They are /f, v, z, ʒ/.
Gum ridge (দন্তমূ ল) is the raised part of the gum just behind the upper teeth. It
is one of the articulators used for making the two English affricate sounds
/চ/ and /জ/.
Hard palate (শক্ত তালু) is the part in the ceiling of your mouth just below the
gum ridge which you can feel with your tongue. The technical name for
this part is palate-alveolar.
Labio-dental sounds are consonant sounds for which the articulators used are
the lips and the teeth. The English labio-dental sounds are /f, v/ where
the upper lip and lower teeth are the two articulators.
Larynx (স্বরযন্ত্র) is the hollow muscular organ in the neck which is just above the
wind pipe (trachea) in front of the food pipe (pharynx). It holds the vocal
cords or vocal folds through which air passes from the lungs. It is also
called the voice box.
Monophthong (একক স্বরধ্বনি) is a single and pure vowel sound like /এ, ই, ও, উ/.
For a monophthong sound the articulators remain fixed from the
beginning till the end.
Nasal sounds (িাকী স্বর) can be both consonant and vowel sounds. They
sound nasal because to make a nasal sound the velum is raised and the
air enters the nasal cavity from where it is expelled outside through the
nostrils while the relevant articulators make the desired sound. When
making a nasal sound if you hold your nostrils with your fingers, you will
not be able to make the sound. In English the three nasal consonant
sounds are /ে, ন, Z/. A nasal sound can be added to any vowel sound
by raising the velum and sending the air through the nasal cavity.
Palato-alveolar (তালু-দন্তম্ূলীে) sounds are made with the blade of the tongue as
one articulator and the hard palate in the upper surface of the mouth
behind the gum ridge as the second articulator. There is a gap left
between the two articulators for air to pass which causes some friction
and turbulence thus resulting in the sound. The two palato-alveolar
sounds in English are /শ/ and /ʒ/
Phoneme (মূল ধ্বনন) is the abstract form of a speech sound. It tells us how a
particular speech phoneme is supposed to sound. But in reality, when
the sound is actually spoken it takes different forms, depending on where
it appears in a word and who says it and under what context. This actual
sound is called an allophone or a surface sound. Phonemes are
represented in IPA form by enclosing the symbol of the sound within
forward slashes (/).
Plosive (স্পিশ ধ্বনি) see Stop.
Re-conceptualisation (পূ িরায় প্রত্যয়ীকেে). This follows from Fraser’s (Fraser,
2006) definition of conceptualisation of sounds. When people confuse
two distinct sounds and use them interchangeably, then the two sounds
need to be re-conceptualised as two distinct and separate sounds.
Soft palate (big তালু) The technical name for this is Velum. When making a
nasal sound, the velum is raised to open the passage for the air flow to
move up to the nasal cavity. This is also used as an articulator when

making the two English velar consonant sounds /ক,গ/.
Stop (স্পিশ ধ্বনি) causes complete closure of the oral tract thus preventing the
air to flow out from the mouth. Such sounds are also called plosives.
Tongue (নিহ্বা) is used as an articulator in making speech sounds in all
languages. The tongue is divided into five parts all of which can be used
as articulators to make different sounds. They are (a) apex or the tip, (b)
the blade – the triangular part right in front of the tongue, (c) the front (d)
the back and (e) the root.
Fig. 4.4 Parts of the tongue
Source: Roach (2006, 9)

Velar sounds (পশ্চাৎ ত্ালবযধ্বনি) are produced between the root of the tongue
and soft palate. The two velar sounds in English are /ক, গ/
Velum – See soft palate.
Vocal cords/vocal folds (স্বরত্ন্ত্রী) Vocal folds are flap like muscles inside your
larynx which can open and close. The flaps vibrate when air passes
through them which make different sounds.
Fig. 4.5 Vocal folds inside the larynx
Voiced sounds (ঘঘাষ ধ্বনি) are sounds in which air starts from the lungs and
pushes its way up through the vibrating vocal folds. The voiced sounds
in English are / ব, ড, গ, জ, শ, দ/.
Voiceless sounds (অয়ঘাষ ধ্বনি) are those sounds which do not start from the
lungs but from the mouth space. The voiceless sounds in English are
/ক, চ, ট, থ, দ, প, ে, ে, ি, ে, হ, য়/
Vowel Quality (স্বরধ্বননর মাি) refers to the type of an English vowel sound or
the way it is pronounced. There are twenty different vowel types in
English.
Vowel Quantity (স্বরধ্বননর পনরমান) is the duration for which a vowel is sounded.
It is also referred to as vowel length.
Vowel sound (স্বরধ্বনন) is produced with the lips open, in different shapes for
different vowels, and the tongue in different positions, both horizontal
and vertical, in the mouth space and the air is free to move out of the
mouth without any obstruction or friction.
4.3 Five English consonant sounds which NBS need to

conceptualise - /f, v, z, ʒ, w/
4.3.1 The English consonant sound /f/

This is a labio-dental, voiceless, fricative, consonant sound.
Some NBS confuse the /f/ sound with the Bengali sound /ফ/. People from
certain regions of Bangladesh may also not distinguish the /f/ sound from the
/প/ sound. They may use the /f/ and /প/ sounds interchangeably. If you fall into
either of these two categories, then you should reconceptualise the sounds
/f, ফ, প/ sounds (see section 6.4). Note that the breathy sound /ফ/, which is
present in the Bengali language, is not present in the English sound repertoire.
Similarly, the fricative /f/ is not present in the Bengali language. It is an English
sound. So, you should never use the /f/ sound when speaking Bengali and
similarly, do not use the /ফ/ sound when speaking English.
The two articulators used to make the fricative sound /f/ are the upper teeth
and the lower lip. You must also remember that while making this sound, your
upper and lower lips must not touch each other. If you touch the two lips before
making the sound the sound that will come out will be the breathy /ফ/ sound, if
you started the airflow from your lungs/chest area. It will be the bilabial /প/
sound, if you did not start the air from the chest.
How to make the fricative /f/ sound
First, make a small opening between your upper teeth and your lower lip. Next,
start some air from inside your mouth space and force it out through the small
opening that you kept between your upper teeth and the lower lip. The air,
while being forced out of the mouth, will rub against the two articulators which
will cause some turbulence that will result in the /f/ sound. Now try making this
new /f/ sound using this technique.
Fig. 4.6 /f/– positions of articulators
Opening between upper teeth and the lower lip

through which air can pass
Vocal Exercise – “candle blowing” exercise
If you have difficulty understanding the above description of making the

sound, imagine that you have to blow out all the candles on your birthday cake.
Try blowing out your imaginary birthday candles. Keep a mirror in front of you
and watch very carefully what happens to your mouth and the two articulators
- the upper teeth and the lower lip. I call this the “candle blowing” exercise.
Whenever you have to pronounce an English word which has an /f/ sound in it
you may start with the candle blowing exercise and then follow through to make
the /f/ sound.
Audio & video examples

You can find audio and video descriptions of how to make this sound at the
following two links:
(a) https://soundcloud.com/zamosc/lesson-2-f-the-consonant-faw
(audio)
(b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9-fxk1DKTg (video)
Practice words
You may practise pronouncing the English words in the table below. Start by
doing the “candle blowing” exercise, whenever you come across the symbol
“f’” and then follow through.
While learning to make the /f/ sound, transcribe the pronunciations of the
English words using BPA characters on a piece of paper - i.e., you will use the
nineteen Bengali common consonant characters, the new symbol “f”, and the
Bengali vowel diacritics. The only thing new will be the “f” symbol which, from
now onwards, we will use to represent the English /f/ sound.
Table 4.1 BPA of English words which contain the new consonant sound
- /f/
Word BPA Word BPA

fabric fYaব সেক face qfইি
fame qfইে fan fYaন
fat fYaট fax fYaক্স
fed q fড feint qfইন্ট
felt qfল্ট fetch qfচ
fifty eff টী fist efস্ট
film efল্ম fit ef ট
flabby f
লYaব ঈ flag িYaগ
f
flame q িইে
f flesh qfিশ
flight f
িaইট fling efিZ
flip flop efলপ fিপ folly fল ঈ
folks qfaক্স fond fন্ড
font fন্ট foot fuট
footlight fuট িaইট footstep
fuট জস্টপ
forest fর ইস্ট foreign fর ইন
frank freight qfyইট
fyYaন্গ্ক
French qfyন্গচ fresh
qfyশ
friend Friday
f
q yন্ড fyaই জডই
fringe efyন্গজ full
fuি
full scale full time
fuি কেইল fuি টাইম
BOLD = primary stressed syllable in multi-syllabic words (columns 2 & 4)
Points to note:
1. The only new symbol we have used here is “f”

2. The transcription of the pronunciation of the English word
“frank” contains three cluster sounds as shown in the table. If
you find it difficult to pronounce the triple sound cluster,

pronounce it as a double sound cluster / fyYaন্ক/.
3. Bengali vowel diacritic symbols have been used on the BPA
symbol /f/.
4. The conjunct symbol, /fল/, has been used for the sound cluster
of /f/ and /l/.
5. The conjunct symbol, /fy/, has been used for the sound cluster
of /f/ and /r/.
6. For multi-syllaboc words, syllables are separated from each
other with space characters. The primary stressed-syllables
are highlighted in BOLD.
4.3.2 The English consonant sound /v/

This is a labio-dental, voiced, fricative, consonant sound.
This sound is different from the Bengali breathy sound /ভ/. People from
certain regions of Bangladesh do not distinguish this sound from the bilabial
sound /ব/ and use the /v/ and /b/ sounds interchangeably instead. If you fall
into that category, then you should first learn to distinguish between /v/ and /b/.
How to make the /v/ sound
The articulators used to make this sound are the upper teeth and the lower lip,
i.e., the same articulators you use to make the /f/ sound. Your upper and lower
lips should not touch each other when you want to make this sound.
Fig. 4.7 /v/ - positions of

Upper lip articulators
Lower teeth
Gap between the upper teeth and

the lower lip
The air flow coming from the lungs
The main difference between the /v/ and the /f/ sounds is that you should
make the /v/ sound by first collecting some air in your lungs and then passing
the air through your vocal cords up into your mouth space through the vibrating
vocal folds. From the mouth you should expel the air out through the small
opening in between the upper lip and the lower teeth. The air will undergo
some friction while passing through the small opening and there will be some
air turbulence. This will result in the /v/ sound.
Vocal Exercise - the “steamer horn blowing” exercise
You can learn to make this sound by practising as follows: First, place the edge
of the palm of your hand vertically in front of your lips keeping a small gap
between your palm edge and the lips. Then blow on the palm edge. The
vibration will result in the /v/- like sound which will sound like the blowing of a
horn of a steamer that ply on the rivers of Bangladesh. I therefore call this the
“steamer horn blowing” exercise. When practising to make this sound check
against a mirror, the positions and movements of the articulators. Practise by
pronouncing the English words from the table 4.2 below. Initially, you may start
by doing the steamer horn blowing exercise to make the /v/ sound and then go
on to pronounce the rest of the sounds in a word.
Audio/video examples
You can find audio and video descriptions of how to make the sound at the
following two links and in the accompanying disk:
(a) https://soundcloud.com/zamosc/lesson-3-v-the-consonant-vaw
(audio)
(b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhsTLVSnLd0 (video)
In the video clip you will see how your mouth should look like when you
make this sound. There should be a slight opening in between your upper lip
and the lower teeth.
Practice words.
Table 4.2 BPA of English words which contain the consonant sound - /v/
Word BPA Word BPA

vac vYaক vague qvইগ
vail qvইল vain qvইন
valet vYaল এই valid vYaল ইড
vamp vYaম্প van vYaন
vault vল্ট veg q vজ
veggy qvজ ঈ veil qvইল

venge qvন্গজ verify qvর ঈ faই
vest qvস্ট vestige qvস টিজ
vet q vট vex qvক্স
vibrate vaই qব্র্ইট vice vaইে
vide evড এই vigil evজ ইি
village evল ইজ vindicate evন সড
জকইট
vindictive evন জডক vine vaইন
টিv
viscount vaই কাউন্ট vitiate evশ ই এইট
vitric evট সেক vivisect evv ই কসক্ট
voice qvaইে voicemail qvaইস
জম্ইল
void qvaইড voile qvaইি
volley vল ঈ vomit vম ইট
vouch vaউচ voyage qva ইজ
BOLD = primary stressed syllable (columns 2 and 4)
Points to note:
1. The new symbol introduced is “v”

2. The Bengali diacritics have been used with the new BPA symbol
“v”.
3. The BPA transcription for the pronunciation of the word “vault”
is /vল্ট/. The /v/ does not need any diacritic as it has the inherent
vowel sound of /অ/.
4. The BPA for the word “volley” is /vল ঈ/ where /v/ has the
inherent vowel sound of /অ/).
5. For multi-syllabic words, the syllables are separated from each
other with space characters. The primary stressed-syllables are
highlighted in BOLD.
4.3.3 The English consonant sound /z/

This is an alveolar, fricative, voiced, consonant sound.
This sound is not the same as the Bengali affricate sound /জ/ which some
NBS use in place of the /z/ sound due to the absence of this sound in the
Bengali language. If you do that, then you have to make every effort to learn
to make this very improtant new English sound. If you pronounce the “z” in
English words as /জ/, which happens to be an affricate, a non-NBS listener,
may not understand you. “zero” and “zoo” are two common English words
mispronounced by the NBS. First, make sure that you pronounce these two
words correctly.
How to make the /z/ sound
To make this sound you place the tip of your tongue below the alveolar or your
gum ridge leaving a small gap between the two articulators. Since this is a
voiced sound you start the air flow from the lungs and pass it up through the
vibrating vocal folds. When the air will pass through the small gap in between
the gum ridge and your tongue there will be some friction and the turbulence
thus created will result in the /z/ sound.
Fig. 4.8 /z/ - positions of articulators
Vocal Exercise - the “bumble bee” exercise

When learning to make the /z/ sound, imagine that you are a “bumble bee”
flying around and making the sound that it makes.
You will find more examples in the table below. Try pronouncing the words
loud and clear before a mirror and check that there is a gap in between the two
articulatorrs - your gum ridge, behind your upper teeth, and the upper part of
the tip of your tongue.
You will also find audio and video descriptions of how to make the /z/ sound at
the following two links and in the accompanying disk:
(a) https://soundcloud.com/zamosc/lesson-4-z-the-consonant-zaw
(audio)
(b) https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10205978263278142&set=v
b.1307114722&type=2&theater (video)
Practice words
Remember the following when reading English words where you are deciding
whether the sound is going to be /z/ or /জ/.
1. If the letter is “g” , “j” or “d”, the sound CANNOT be /z/. Examples:
(a) “gentleman”, (b) “jack” and (c) “gradual”. The characters
marked in bold in these words have to be pronounced as /জ/ .
2. If the letter is “z”, “s” or “x”, the sound CANNOT be /জ/. Examples
(a) “zone”, (b) “rose” and “xylophone”. The sound has to be /z/.
Practise with the words in the following table.
Table 4.3 BPA of English words which contain the consonant sound
/z/
word BPA word BPA

as অYaZ ads অYaডZ
capsize কযাপ সাইZ crazy কেই ZE
daisy কডই ZE dizzy জডZ ঈ
glazed জেইᶻড fizzy efZ ঈ
hazy কহই ZE lazy কলই ZE
maze জম্ইZ maize জম্ইZ
oxidise অক সি prize প্রাইZ
ডাইZ
razing করইZ ইিং size িাইZ
zed qzড zany qzই নী
zap zYaপ size িাইZ
zen qzন zest qzস্ট
zilch ezল্চ zip ezপ
Points to note:
1. The only new symbol used in the BPA transcriptions in the table
is “Z”
2. The Bengali vowel diacritics are used with the new BPA symbol
“Z”.
3. Cluster sounds are transcribed using conjunct symbols combining
Bengali and new BPA symbols as in “ads” and “glazed”. To
represent other English cluster sounds in English containing the
/z/ and other consonant sounds, similar conjunct symbols can be
used.
4. For multisyllabic words, syllables are separated from each other
with space characters. The primary stressed-syllables are
highlighted in RED.
4.3.4 The English consonant sound /ʒ/

This is a palato-alveolar, voiced, fricative consonant sound.
This sound is not very common in English. Still you should learn this sound.
You should not pronounce it as the Bengali sound /ঝ / as many do. Some NBS
pronounce this sound as /z/. Although when a word having the /ʒ/ isound is
pronounced with the /z/ sound, the word may be comprehensible, you should
still try to learn this new English sound.
How to make the /ʒ/sound
You make this sound by first placing the middle part of the upper blade of your
tongue just below the hard palate (palato-alveolar) without touching it. Keep a
small gap between the two articulators. You start the flow of air from your
lungs (voiced sound) and send it up through the vibrating vocal chords to get
the air inside your mouth space and then force the air out through the gap
present in between the two articulators.
Fig. 4.9 /ʒ/ - positions of articulators
Air coming from the lungs

Vocal Exercise - the “angry bumble bee” exercise

You can learn to make this sound as follows: Pretend that you are an angry
bumble bee. Somebody is bothering you and you want to sting that person.
Make a ferocious face and try to make a loud /ʒ/ sound so that everyone
around you gets scared. We will call this the angry bumble bee exercise.
If you do not know this sound and have never used this sound in English
then it may be a little difficult for you to conceptualise it. You have to practise
and, if necessary, ask someone who can make this sound to check if you are
making it correctly.
Audio examples
You can find audio and video descriptions of how to make the /ʒ/ sound in the
following two links and in the accompanying disc:
https://soundcloud.com/zamosc/lesson-5-zh-the-consonant-zhaw
Practice words
Try pronouncing the words from the following table:
Table 4.4 BPA of English words which contain the consonant

sound /Ʒ/
Word BPA Word BPA

Asia এই ƷƏ aversion Ə vYː Ʒəন
beige জবইƷ casual কযাƷ ঊ Əল
collision কƏ জলƷ əন conversion কƏন vYː Ʒəন
ə
decision সড জসƷ ন delusion সড লূ Ʒəন
disclosure সড স্ক্লƏউ Ʒəে diversion ডাই vYː Ʒəন
enclosure ইন লƏউ Ʒə ে exclusion ইক স্ক্লূ ƷƏন
excursion ইক েযː Ʒəন invasion ইন qVই Ʒəন
leisure কলƷ ə ে measure কমƷ Əে
ə
persuasion পƏ q wই Ʒ ন
স perversion পƏ vYː Ʒəন
ə
revision সে eVƷ ন television জটল ই eVƷ əন
treasure কেƷ əে vision eVƷ əন
Points to note:
1. From a survey that I conducted by email and on FACEBOOK, I

found that about half the respondents, from a total of about 200,
pronounced the word “Asia” with the /শ/ sound and the other half
pronounced it with the /Ʒ/ sound. From the above list of words,
with the exception of the “beige” and “casual” some may use the
/শ/ sound while pronouncing some of the other words as well. I
don’t think that listeners, NS or NNS, will have any difficulty in
understanding such pronunciations.
2. With the exception of the word “beige”, all other words in this table
contain a symbol “Ə” which we have not yet discussed. We will
cover it later. It stands for a very short vowel sound, called
schwa, which happens to be the most frequently used sound in
English speech. In RP, this sound is sometimes so short in
duration that the two consonants around it are pronounced
together as a cluster sound. In such cases, the schwa symbol is
written as a superscript as you will notice in many of the
transcriptions in the table.
3. In RP, the “r” sometimes behaves like a vowel and the terminal /র/
sound in an English word is either not pronounced or pronounced
very lightly. This is again shown in the transcriptions as a
superscript.
4. None of the words in the above list needed any of the Bengali
diacritics. That is because all words used the schwa.
4.3.5 The English consonant sound /w/

This is a labia-velar, approximant sound.
You have to articulate it like a vowel with your mouth open all the time. As
there is no contact between the articulators, it is termed a semi-vowel.
How to make the /w/ sound
First, make the shape of your lips round as if you were going to pronounce the
vowel sound “u”. Push your tongue far back towards your velum or the soft
palate. Then suddenly open your mouth sending some air out through the
opening of your mouth to make the sound. Two easy words with which you may
practise making this sound are “wow” and “wonderful”.
Many NBS mispronounce this sound as a different vowel or a diphthong and
pronounce English words like “water”, “wet” and “wool” as /অ্ টəর/, /ওএট/ and
/উল/ respectively. Some may also mis-pronounce names of persons like
“Wali” , “Wasim” and “Wajid” as /ওজল/, /অ্সীম/ and /অ্জিদ/ respectively.
If you mispronounce the English words and names cited above, then you
have a problem and should try to conceptualise this new English sound.
Fig. 4.10 /w/ - positions of articulators
Vocal Exercise – the “throwing up” exercise
If you fail to make the /w/ sound using this technique, then after your tongue is
in the far back position, pretend to vomit and make the “throwing up” sound.
We will call this the “throwing up” exercise.
You will find audio and video descriptions and examples of this sound at the
following links and the accompanying disk.
https://soundcloud.com/zamosc/lesson-6-w-the-consonant-waw
(AUDIO)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/525938710788205/ (VIDEO)
Practice Words
Try to pronounce the words in the following table which contain the /w/ sound.
Table 4.5 BPA of English words which contain the consonant

sound /w/
Word BPA Word BPA

wad wড wade qwইড
wag wYaগ wail qwইল
waist qwইস্ট waiting qwই টিZ
waive qwইv wake qwইক
wallet wল ইট wane qwইন
was wz wasabi wYaস অYaব ঈ

wash wশ washed-out wশট আউট
washing wশ ইং waste qwইস্ট
watch wচ watchdog wচ ডগ
watt wট wave qwইv
wavelength qwইv way q wই
qিন্গ্থ
well q wি went qwন্ট
wept qwপ্ট wet q wট
wick ewক width e w ডথ
wi-fi Waই faই wigwam eWগ wYaম্
wiki ewক ঈ will ewল
wine waইন win ewন
wipe waইপ wife waইf
wit ewট wise waইz
wool wuল wood wuড
Points to note:
1. The new symbol used in this table is “w”

2. The Bengali vowel diacritic symbols have been used with the
symbol “w”.
3. Check out how the BPA of words “wad”, “was”, “wash”, “watch” etc.
are written. As /অ্/ is the inherent vowel sound for consonant
sounds in BPA, no vowel diacritics are added to the “w” symbol in
these words.
5 English vowel sounds which NBS need to

conceptualise
The English language has five vowels which are represented by the following
five symbols - “a, e, i, o, u” in the English Alphabet. But there are 20 vowel
sounds which include some diphthong vowel sounds as well. In Bengali, 18 of
the 20 English vowel sounds are present. The English vowel sounds which
are not present in the Bengali language, are the ubiquitous and the most
frequently used schwa sound and the half vowel “uh” sound as in “but”, “shut”,
“cut”, and the diphthongs which have the schwa sound in them.
In IPA, the English schwa sound is represented as /ə/ and the half vowel
sound as /ʌ/. Instead of inventing new vowel symbols and diacritics to
represent these sounds, we will use these same symbols in BPA.
So, with the addition of these two symbols, we have two more vowel
quantities or vowel lengths - a short vowel sound for “আ” (/ʌ/) and a very short
vowel sound /ə/ which can be used for different individual vowels and
combination of vowels as we shall see later.
IPA also uses another symbol, the vowel sound lengthening symbol /ː/.
This is used to extend the length of a long vowel sound to very long. This
appears in IPA transcriptions of words like “heart”, “sheep” and “rude” etc. We
will also use /ː/ in BPA and thus we will be able to write the RP pronunciations
of these words in BPA as /িাːট/, /শীːপ/ and /রূːড/ respectively. In these three
words, the long vowel sounds /আ/, /ঈ/ and /ঊ/ have been converted to very
long vowel sounds with the addition of the vowel sound lengthening symbol.
In the following sections, we will come across these three new vowel
symbols.
5.1 The English vowel sound /ə/

The symbol for representing a very short duration vowel sound is /ə/, which
is known as schwa.
It is called a central vowel, because to make this sound the tongue position
in both the horizontal and vertical directions should be in the centre of the
mouth space. The shape of the lips required for making this vowel sound is
“unrounded”.
As the word “schwa”, written in Bengali as “qশaয়a”, means one fourth (1/4),
we will call it the quarter vowel sound implying that the duration should be about
quarter of a full-length vowel sound. As there is no character in the Bengali
alphabet which may be used to represent this new English sound, we will use
the IPA symbol /ə/ in BPA to represent this vowel sound.
Schwa is a very important vowel sound, because it is the most frequently

used speech sound in English. All the five English vowels “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”,
as well as, a combination of them, can take the schwa sound in different English
words. See in the table below. Therefore, if you want to understand NS and
be understood by NS when you speak English, you MUST get familiar with this
sound and learn how to pronounce it.
A good way to learn to pronounce this sound is to read aloud common
English words containing the schwa vowel sound, record your reading, and
play back the recording and listen. Check where you had prolonged the
duration of the sound of schwa. Practise reading/saying those words again
and again until you do not have to think about the duration but it comes
automatically to you.
How to pronounce the vowel sound /ə/
For this sound the vowel quality does not really matter as it can be used in
place of different individual vowels or a combination of vowels. But the vowel
quantity matters very much. When you will see a schwa in a transcription, you
will make a vowel sound for a very short duration while pronouncing that word.
At the appropriate point, you will just pronounce the sound very briefly, as if
you are just “touching it”, while passing by it without stopping at it and then
move onto the next consonant sound. Let me try to clarify it further by some
examples where the schwa appears at the initial, medial and terminal positions
of English words.
Example 1: Take the word “about” whose BPA transcription is /ə বাউট/. The
first letter “a” is to be pronounced as a schwa sound. We will briefly pronounce
or just touch the schwa vowel sound and then pronounce the second syllable
“bout” as /বাউট/.
Example 2: Let us take the word “enemy”. Its BPA transcription is /এন ə মী/.
The schwa vowel sound comes in place of the letter “e” as the second syllable.
So, we will first pronounce the first syllable as /এন/ and then before
pronouncing the third syllable /মী /, we will briefly make or touch on the schwa
vowel sound.
Example 3: Now, let us try pronouncing a word where the schwa vowel comes
at the terminal position as in “gallon”. Its BPA transcription is /গযাল əন/. We
will first pronounce the first syllable /গযাল/ and then pronounce the
/ন/ consonant sound with a very short schwa sound before it as /əন/. When
you hear an NS pronounce the word “gallon” you may feel that he made no
vowel sound in between the two consonant sounds /ল/ and /ন/ but paused
very briefly after stressing on the primary stressed syllable /গযাল/.
Practice Words
Now try pronouncing the words from the following table
Table 5.1 BPA of English words containing the /ə/ vowel

sound
Word BPA Word BPA
abash ə বযাশ abate ə কবইট

abdomen অ্Yaব ডə ability ə জবল ə টী
ম্əন
about ə বাউট advantageou AYaড VYaন টটই
জəে
s
affect ə qf ক্ট again ə কগন
ahead ə কহড alike ə লাইক
airmail এə জম্ইল air এə
away ə qwই banker বযাাং কə
dairy কডə েী deposit
ডə পz ইট
deputy কডপ য়ə টী dialogue ডাই ə লগ
empathy এম পə থী emphasis এম fə সিি
enemy এন ə ম্ী estimate এস টি ম্əট
(noun)
ethanol এথ ə নল gallon গযাল əন
gingham জগাং əম্ gastronome গযাস ট্র নəউম্
absentia অYaব কসন টী ideal আই জডəল
ə
incongruent ইন কাং গ্রূ əন্ট inclement ইন কলম əন্ট
kinless জকন লəি inward ইন wəড
piteous eপট ঈ əে portrait qপa ট্রəট
promote প্রə মəউট pursue পə িেূ:
seldom কসল ডəম্ prestigious জপ্রি টিি əি
BOLD = Primary stressed syllable (columns 2 and 4)
Underline = the character(s) in the word which is/are pronounced
as a schwa sound) columns 1 and 3)
Points to note:
1. The new symbol used in this table is “ə” which stands for the
schwa sound.
2. It represents a VERY SHORT duration vowel sound in English
speech.
3. It is the most frequently occurring vowel sound in English
speech.
4. It has no corresponding diacritic. So, when combined with a
consonant sound, it has to be written after the corresponding
BPA consonant symbol.
5. It is never stressed and does not occur in stressed syllables.
5.2 The English vowel sound /ʌ/

This vowel sound appears in words like “cup”, “shut”, “but etc. As this sound
is not present in the Bengali language, there is no vowel character or diacritic
to represent this sound. So, we shall use the IPA symbol /ʌ/ to represent this
sound.
It is a SHORT vowel sound similar in length to the other short English vowel
sounds we use when pronouncing words like “hit”, “hat”, “hot”, “put”, and “cat”
for which vowel symbols exist. In BPA, we will add this new vowel symbol so
that we can represent the vowel sound “uh”, and specify the sound duration in
words like “hut”, “cut”, etc. These words are NOT to be pronounced with the
LONG vowel sound as /িাট/and/কাট/. They are to be pronounced with the
short vowel sound /ʌ/ and will therefore be transcribed in BPA as /িʌট/ and
/কʌট/ respectively.
In an earlier section, I have mentioned that although in the Bengali
alphabet there are different letters and diacritics for short and long vowel
sounds, which one uses when writing in Bengali, in Bengali speech these rules
are not followed.
Vocal Exercise – “expressing annoyance” exercise
The sound is something like saying “uh” which NBS utter when a person is very
busy doing something, including taking a nap, and someone disturbs that
person in some way and the person, without saying it in so many words,
expresses his annoyance by making the “uh” sound.
Practice Words
There is a tendency by some NBS to pronounce single syllable English words

having short vowel sounds with long vowel sounds. So, you need to be aware
of this problem and take special care when pronouncing English words
containing this short vowel sound. Try the single syllable words from the table
below. Pronounce them one after another very quickly remembering that the
vowels are all of a short duration.
Table 5.2 BPA of English words having the vowel sound /ʌ/
Word BPA Word BPA
bun বʌ ন bus বʌ ে
but বʌ ট blood ব্লʌড
come কʌ ে cut কʌ ট
done ডʌন fun fʌ ন
gun গʌ ন glove
গ্লʌv
month েʌন্থ nun নʌ ন
once Wʌন্স one Wʌ ন
rough েʌ f run েʌ ন
suck েʌ ক sun েʌ ন
tongue টʌঙ্গ touch টʌচ্
won Wʌ ন worry Wʌর ঈ
honey হʌন ঈ London লʌন ডʌন
money মʌন ঈ Monday মʌন সডই
monkey মʌন কী Sunday সʌন সডই
BOLD = Primary stressed syllable (columns 2 and 4)
Underline = the character(s) in the word which is/are pronounced
as a schwa sound (columns 1 and 3)
Points to note:
1. The new symbol used in this table is “ʌ”

2. It represents a SHORT vowel sound.
3. When “ʌ” is combined with a consonant sound, it has to be written
after the corresponding BPA consonant symbol.
6 Consonant sounds NBS need to re-conceptualise
6.1 Reconceptualising existing sounds

You learned earlier that the following 19 Bengali sounds are already present in
the English language.
/ক, গ, চ, জ, ট, ড, থ, দ, ন, প, ব, ম, র, ল, শ, স, হ, য়, Z/
There would be no problem if all NBS pronounced the above sounds as per
the Bengali language pronunciation standard. But, unfortunately, this does not
happen. This is because, not only in Bengali, but in all spoken languages, there
are regional variations in pronunciations of different sounds in the native
dialects. Some pronunciation variations can be tolerated and understood,
particularly by other natives, as natives are generally familiar with the regional
variations of a sound. But if such sound variations are used when speaking
with native speakers of another language, then it becomes a problem. NS and
non-Bengali speaking NNS willl have diffficulty in understanding such
variations in English pronunciation. Therefore, when a sound already exists
in Bengali, but due to regional variations in pronunciation you interchange the
sound with one or more existing sounds, then you have to reconceptualise
each of these sounds as distinct and independent sounds so that you can
distinguish between them and use them correctly while speaking English.
In the next section, we will identify some of these sounds and
reconceptualise them.
6.2 Group 1 - Reconceptualising sound group 1 - /চ, স, শ/
6.2.1 Reconceptualising the English consonant sound /চ/

This is a palato-alveolar, voiceless, affricate, consonant sound.
It is found in English words like “chin”, “child”, “catch”, “match” etc. When
speaking English, NBS often use the English fricative sound /স/ instead of this
sound and may pronounce the above four words as /জসন/, /সaইল্ড/, /কযাস/ and
/মযাস / respectively. If you also do this then you have to reconceptualise the
two sounds /চ/ and /স/. You have to learn to distinguish them from each other
and know when to use which sound. Here, we will first look at the /চ/ sound.
We will discuss the /স/ sound in the next section.
The two articulators used to make this sound are (a) the gum ridge behind
the upper teeth and (b) the top front part of the tongue’s blade.
How to make the /চ/ sound
You start by first touching the gum ridge, which is just behind your upper teeth,
with the upper triangular part (apex) of your tongue. Then suddenly remove
your tongue from the gum ridge and simultaneously release the air outwards
from your mouth. The important part in this exercise is the intitial touching of
the two articulators. If you do not touch the gum ridge with your tongue tip,
then there will be an opening between the two articulators and the air will
escape through the gap causing some friction. The result will be the /স/ sound
instead. To confirm the proper use of the articulators, use a mirror to check
that your tongue is touching the gum ridge when you start.
Fig. 6.1. /চ/ - positions of articulators
Fig. 6.1 /চ/ - positions of articulators
Vocal Exercise – “pitying a person” exercise
This is the same sound which NBS make when they want to express in sound
that something has gone wrong, or when they want to express their sympathy
after hearing some sad news, by making a sound like / tch.. tch... tch/. We will
call it the “pitying someone” exercise.
Practice Words See Table 6.1
Points to note:
1. This sound is different from the fricative sound /স/

2. Before starting to make this the tongue blade MUST touch the gum
ridge.
6.2.2 Reconceptualising the English consonant sound /স/

This sound is a voiceless, alveolar, fricative, consonant sound.
That means to make the sound there must be a small opening between the two
articulators through which you will force out the air. It is a voiceless consonant
sound which means that the sound must not be started from the chest but from
the mouth space.
Some NBS confuse this sound with two other sounds - the affricate /চ/ and
the palato-alveolar fricative /শ/.
How to make the /স/ sound
You make this sound by first placing the upper front part of your tongue (apex),
just below your upper teeth keeping a small opening between the teeth and the
tongue. Then blow out some air from your mouth forcing it out through the
small opening. This will cause some friction which will create a turbulence and
thus make the /স/ sound. If your tongue is not in front, but a little behind, just
below the hard palate, then instead of the /স/ sound you will make the /শ/ sound.
Fig. 6.2. /ে/ - positions of articulators
gap
Vocal Exercise – “snake hissing” exercise
This sound is very similar to the hissing sound of a snake. Therefore, I call it
the “snake hissing” exercise.
Audio example
You will find audio description with practise exercises on how to make this
sound in the following link.
https://soundcloud.com/zamosc/lesson-7-s-the-consonant-sa (audio)
Practice Words: Table 6.1
Points to note:
1. This sound is different from /চ/ and /শ/.

2. The two articulators, the tongue and the gum ridge, must not touch
each other. There must be a gap between them.
3. The tongue must not be placed too back; it must be just below the
gum ridge. The airflow must NOT start from the lungs but from the
mouth space.
6.2.3 Reconceptualising the English consonant sound /শ/

This is a palato-alveolar, voiceless, fricative, consonant sound.
The two articulators are the front part of the blade of the tongue and the
middle part of the hard palate. As it is a fricative, you must keep a small gap
between the two articulators, through which you will force out the air when there
will be a friction, and air turbulence, which will result in the sound.
How to make the /শ/ sound
You start the air flow from your mouth space and then force it through the small
opening in between the two articulators – (1) the hard palate and (2) the front
part of the blade of the tongue, out of your mouth. The turbulence caused by
the friction of the articulators will result in the /শ/ sound. Note that if you do not
keep an opening between the tongue and the hard palate, and your tongue
touches the hard palate. Then the sound that will come out will be the affricate
sound /জ/.
Fig. 6.3 /শ/ – positions of

articulators
gap
Vocal Exercise – “keep quiet” exercise

You can make this sound when you are in a room with a lot of children who are
all talking and/or making a lot of noise and you want to make them quiet by
saying “shhhhh” indicating to them that they should stop making noise and be
quiet. That is the sound. I call this the “keep quiet exercise”.
Points to note:
1. The sound is different from the /স/ and the /চ/ sounds.
2. This is a fricative sound. There has to be a slight opening between
the two articulators, the blade’s front part and the hard palate.
3. It is a voiced sound. The airflow is to start from the lungs and sent
up to the mouth space through the vibrating vocal folds.
Practice words for conceptualising the /চ, স, শ/ sounds
If you have difficulty in re-conceptualising these three consonants as three

distinct sounds, then you must first learn to make each of these sounds
independently, using the relevant articulators in the way described in the
previous three sections. Once you are confident that you are using the
articulators correctly and making the right sound in each case, then you must
pronounce a lot of English words containing the sound you mastered. Try
pronouncing the words from the following table.
The words are randomly arranged. You should try pronouncing each word
in sequence and switch from one sound to another as a word demands. You
may either ask someone to check whether you are using the correct phoneme
while you are saying the words. Alternatively, you may record your reading,
play them back later on and take any corrective action, if necessary.
Table 6.1 BPA of English words containing the /চ/, /স/ and the /শ/
sounds.
Word BPA Word BPA

chap চযাপ sit সিট
send জিন্ড chain জচইন
shave জশইv match ম্যাচ
sin সিন short qশaːট
chat চযাট chit সচট
hash িযাশ bush বুশ
best জবস্ট sail জিইল
chilly সচল ঈ fish e fশ
chimney সচম্ নী send জিন্ড
shall শযাল sat িযাট
chip সচপ bash বযাশ
roast েəউস্ট chit সচট
ship সশপ bench জবন্গচ
miss সম্ি six সিক্স
belch জবল্চ gash গযাশ
gas গযাি chest জচস্ট
BOLD = /চ/,
underlined = /ে/
italicised = /শ/ (columns 1 and 3)
6.3 Re-conceptualisation sound group 2 - /ি, z/
6.3.1 Re-conceptualising the English consonant sound /ি/

This is a palato-alveolar, voiced, affricate, consonant sound.
NBS often consider this sound to be the same as the English fricative sound
/z/. The two most common English words that contain the /z/ fricative which
NBS mispronounce, are “zero” and “zoo”. In both cases the tendency is to use
the English affricate sound /ি /. On the other hand, while pronouncing words
like “digital”, “general”, “village” etc. the reverse happens. Instead of the /ি /
sound they use the /z/ sound.
How to make the /জ / sound
You have to start the air from your lungs, and pass it up through your vocal
cords into your mouth space. When the sound comes inside your mouth space,
your tongue’s upper surface should be touching your hard palate. Then
suddenly you should remove your tongue from the hard palate, causing the air
to be released and passed through the opening. This causes some friction
against the two articulators resulting in the /ি/ sound.
Fig.6.3. /ি/ - positions of articulators
air flow
Vocal Exercise – “shooing away” exercise
This sound is similar to the shooing away of birds and small animals in Bengali
when they attack yourr food or come too close to you for comfort and you say,
“jah, jah”. I will call it the “shooing away” exercise.
Points to note:
1. The sound is different from the /z/ sound.

2. This is an affricative sound. It starts as a stop when the articulators
touch each other and then they are separated to release the air through
the gap.
3. It is a voiced sound. The airflow is to start from the lungs and sent up
to the mouth space through the vibrating vocal folds.
6.3.2 Reconceptualising the English consonant sound /z/

In section 4.3,3, we have talked about conceptualising the English fricative
sound /z/. This sound is different from the English /ি/ sound discussed in
section 6.3.1.
If you interchange the /ি / and the /z/ sounds, then you have a serious
problem. You have to make a determined effort to recitfy that problem.
Otherwise, when you use words in your English speech containing these
sounds, and you have interchanged these two sounds, your listeners, if they
are not Native Bengali Speakers, may not understand you. You must learn to
distinguish between these two sounds and treat them as two separate and
distinct sounds.
Practice Words
Practice pronouncing the English words listed in the table below. The
words are arranged in random order to provide a varied practice
between the two sounds /জ/ and /z/. Challenge yourself by randomly
switching between these sounds as you say each word. To enhance your
pronunciation skills, have a friend or teacher check your pronunciation,
and take note of any areas that may need attention. Alternatively, you
can record yourself reading the words, listen to the playback, and
identify areas where improvement may be needed.
Table 6.2 BPA of English words containing the /z/ and the /ি/ sounds
Word BPA Word BPA

zone ZƏউন jail জজইল
jig সজগ village eVল ইজ
digital জডি ই টƏল general কিন Əে Əল
zigzag eZগ ZYaগ hose িƏউZ
jade জজইড just জʌস্ট
maze জম্ইZ journal িযː নƏল
jazz জযাZ size িাইZ
hazy কহই ZE gaze জগইZ
jazy িযাZ ঈ object অব কিক্ট
jacuzzi জƏ কূː ZE quiz eকWZ
jumbo িɅম বƏউ exalt ইগ Zল্ট
cosy কƏ উ Z E jetty কিট ঈ
kanji কযান জী jump জɅম্প
gauze জগাːZ zip eZপ
dizzy জডZ ঈী jet জজট
italicised = /z/ sound (shown in the original English word)

(columns 1 and 3)
BOLD = /ি/ sound (shown in the original English word) (columns
1 and 3)
BOLD italicised = primary stressed syllable (shown in BPA
transcription) (columns 2 and 4)
6.3.3 Summary
Note that the /জ / affricate sound is to be used only with English words having
the letters “j” as in “jail”, “g” as in “digital” or “d” as in “gradual” in them. When
these letters are present in an English word, they should NEVER be
pronounced with the /z / fricative sound. If you do that, then that will be an error
and if you use such pronunciation in your English speech then your listener
may not understand you. First, try to pronounce the three common words,
“general”, “digital” and “village”, which many NBS pronounce incorrectly.
You should also know that only certain letters of the English alphabet can
be used in English words for the /z/ sound, e.g., “s” as in “rose”, “z” as in “zero”
and “x” as in “xylophone” give the /z/ sound and NEVER the /জ / sound. First,
try to pronounce the two very common words “zero” and “zoo” which some of
you may be mispronouncing.
6.4 Sound group 3 for re-conceptualisation - /f, প /

In some regional Bengali dialects, the two sounds /f/ and /প/ are considered
to be the same. They interchange these two sounds at random and the locals
have no difficulty understanding. For example, some pronounce the English
word “pen” as [qfন]. If you fall into this category, then you have to
reconceptualise the sounds /f/ and /প/ as two distinctly separate sounds
and pronounce English words containing these sounds with the correct sound.
Moreover, neither of these two sounds should be interchanged with the Bengali
sound /ফ /, which is NOT present in the English language. If you do any of
these interchanges then non NBS listeners will not understand you.
6.4.1 Reconceptualising the English consonant sound /f /

In section 4.3.1, we have already discussed how to pronounce the /f/ sound.
You may like to revise that section again and try out the exercises and
pronounce the words in Table 4.1. To reconceptualise the /প/ sound, you
should go through the following section.
6.4.2 Reconceptualising the English consonant sound /প/

This is a bilabial, voiceless, plosive/stop, consonant sound.
This sound is present both in the Bengali and the English languages. But
NBS should be aware that the English /প/ sound is different from the English
/f/ sound. In English speech, these two sounds should NEVER be
interchanged.
How to make the /প/ sound
You have to start by first closing your mouth and protruding your lips so that
the front parts of your two lips touch each other and there is no gap in between
the lips. Next, you should suddenly separate your two lips to get the /প/ sound.
When separating the two lips do not force out any extra air from your mouth.
If you do that, then you will get the Bengali breathy stop, the /ফ/ sound,
which is not one of the sounds in the English language. You can check whether
you are forcing out extra air or not by placing the palm of your hand in front of
your mouth. If you feel some hot air on your hand, then you are not doing it
right. Try again.
Fig.6.4. /প/ - positions of articulators
Vocal Exercise – water dropping from a leaky tap exercise
It is similar to the sound one hears when water drops from a leaky tap onto a
bucket of water. Therefore, I call it the water dropping from a leaky tap
exercise.
Practice Words
Table 6.3 BPA of English words containing the/f/and the /প/

sounds
Word BPA Word BPA

fat fYaট fail qfইল
panic পYaন ইক fabric fYaব সেক
pan পYaন fan fYaন
fetch qfচ patch পযাচ
fade qfইড paid সপইড
pillow পপল əউ fellow q fি əউ
pence সপন্স fence qfন্স
happy হযাপ ঈ goofy
গূ: fE
pair সপə ে fair qfəে
rough ে ʌf dump ডʌম্প
feather q fদ ə ে helper কহল পəে
furniture fY: সন চəে pension সপন শəন

underlined = /প/ sound in the English word (columns 1 and 3)
italicised = /f/ sound in the English word (columns 1 and 3)
Points to note:
1. The /প/ sound is different from the /f/ sound.

2. The sound is different from the Bengali /ফ/ breathy stop sound, which
is not present in the English language.
3. It is a voiceless sound, which means that you should not involve your
lungs/chest and vocal folds to make this sound..
6.5 Reconceptualising sounds - group 4 - /v,ব/

While the phonemes /v/ and /ব/ are two separate sounds in the English
language, in some regional Bengali dialects these two sounds are considered
to be the same sound and hence are used interchangeably, particularly when
speaking Bengali. Another problem arises when the English /v/ sound, not
present in the Bengali language, (see section 4.3.2) is replaced by the Bengali
breathy stop sound /ভ/. Incidentally, the /ভ / sound is not present in the
English language. Therefore, this type of sound interchanging leads to
unintelligibility in English speech. To make things worse some NBS use the
English character “v” when writing in English where they are using some
Bengali salutary words. For example, many write “vaই“, instead of “ভাই”, in
emails. If you interchange the /v/ and the /ব/ sounds, then you have a problem.
You have to reconceptualise the two sounds.
6.5.1 Reconceptualising the English /v/
We have already discussed how to conceptualise the new English sound /v/ in
section 4.3.2. You may revise that section to reconceptualise the sound so that
you can distinguish it from the /ব/ sound which you should also reconceptualise
as described below.
6.5.2 Reconceptualising the English sound /ব/
This is a bilabial, voiced, plosive/stop, consonant sound.
This sound is present both in the Bengali and the English languages. But
NBS should be aware that the /ব/ sound is different from the English /v/ sound.
In English speech, these two sounds should NEVER be interchanged.
How to make the /ব/ sound
First, close your mouth and protrude your lips so that the back parts of your two
lips touch each other and there is no gap in between the lips as you are about
to start crying. Starting from your lungs send some air up through your vocal
cords and then suddenly separate your two lips to make the /ব/ sound. When
separating the two lips do not force out too much air from your mouth then you
will get the Bengali breathy stop, the /ভ/ sound, which is not one of the sounds
in the English language.
Fig.6.4. /ব/ - positions of articulators
Vocal Exercise – “bubbling” exercise
You can initiate this sound by “bubbling” with your lips. If you cannot bubble
then place your thumb and second finger on your two cheeks and then try
bubbling. I will call it the “bubbling exercise.
Practice Words
Practise with the words from the following table.
Table 6.4 BPA of English words containing the/v/and the /ব/ sounds
Word BPA Word BPA

vat vYaট bat বযাট
bandit বযান সডট vanish vYaন ইশ
ban বযান van vYaন
vet qvট bet জবট
bade জবইড have িযাv
vase va:Z better কবট əে
vandalise vYaন ডəি banner বযান əে
আইZ
vestige qvস টিজ havoc হযাv əক
boy জবাই suave স
wa:v
voyage qvaই ইজ void qvaইড
vest qvস্ট best জবস্ট
love ি ʌv venison qvন ই েəন
Underlined = /v/ (columns 1 and 3)
Italicised = /ব/ (columns 1 and 3)
Points to note:
1. The / ব/ sound is different from the /v/ sound.

2. The /v/ sound is different from the breathy Bengali stop sound /ভ /,
which is not present in the English language.
6.5.3 Caution
You should be very careful and make every effort to reconceptualise the four
English sounds - /f, প, v, ব/. Treat them as four separate and distinct
sounds. Also, make sure that you do not use the new sounds like /f/ and /v/ in
Bengali. These sounds do not exist in the Bengali language, although the /f/
sound is present in some regional dialects of Bengali.
You should not replace the existing Bengali sounds like / ফ / and /ভ/ by
/f/ and /v/ respectively, either in spoken or written Bengali, even if you
speak a regional dialect of Bengali. If you do not make the distinctions
between the Bengali /ফ / and the English /f/ sounds, and between the Bengali
/ভ/ and the English /v/ sounds and in Bengali, if you write words like
“vaই” (brother), “fি” (fruit) and “fuি” (flower) etc. and accept them as OK,
then there is a great possibility that in time, this will lead to change in the
Bengali pronunciations of the two Bengali breathy stop sounds, /ফ / and /ভ/.
When someone makes such mistakes, you should point them out to the
speaker.
7 Other English sounds NBS need to be aware of
7.1 The English consonant sound /য়/

The /য়/sound is present in the Bengali language but it never appears in the
word-initial position of a Bengali word as it does in English in words like “year”,
“you”, “yes” etc. NBS, including me, while pronouncing these words add an
/ই/ vowel sound at the beginning. So we pronounce these words as /ইəে/,
/ইউ/and /ইএে/respectively. While you may try to learn to pronounce these
words as /সেəে/,/েু/ and /জেি/, you do not have to lose your sleep to
learn to pronunce them so. One thing you may try though. Make the duration
of the /ই/ sound very short and you will be all right.
Fig.7.1 /য়/ - positions of articulators
Vocal Exercise – “ya” exercise
This sound becomes clearer when you say the American/German word for
“yes” – i.e. “ya”. Watch carefully, either your own or someone else’s
pronunciation of the word “ya”. You will notice that the initial /ই/ is omitted. We
will therefor call this the “ya” exercise.
Practice Words
Table 7.1 BPA of English words containing the /য়/ sound
Word BPA Word BPA

yacht েট yield েীːল্ড
yahoo য়াː িূ ː yoga য়Ə উ গ Ə
yak েযাক yogurt য়গ Əট
yam েযাম্ yoke েƏউক
yard োːড yolk েƏউক
yarn োːন yonder য়ন ডƏ
yawn জোːন yore জোː
yearn েযːন yorker কয়াː কƏ
yeast েীːস্ট you েূ
yell জেল young েɅZ
yellow কয়ল Əউ your জোː
yelp জেল্প yourself জোː কসলf
yen জেন youth েূːথ
Points to note:
1. This sound is present in the Bengali language but does not appear
at the word initial position.
2. When pronouncing English words with /ে/ at the word initial
position, the word will still be intelligible, if an /ই/ sound is added
at the beginning.
7.2 The extra short duration English vowel sound - /ə/

When a schwa vowel symbol appears in a BPA transcription, the corresponding
vowel sound is supposed to be very short. But sometimes a vowel sound can
be still shorter, i.e., extra short, almost as if there was no vowel between two
consonant sounds. To show such extra short duration pronunciation of a
vowel, the schwa vowel symbol is written as a superscript. For example, in the
table below, the BPA of the word “acceptance” is written as /Əক কসপ টəন্স/.
While the word started with the very short schwa vowel sound, /Ə/, before the
/ক/, the superscripted schwa /ə/ between /ট/ and /ন্স/ means that the
duration of the vowel sound is extra short as if /ট/ and /ন্স/ form a cluster
sound. Similarly, in the transcription of the pronunciation of the word
“beautiful” (ব্য়ূː টি fəল), the vowel sound in between the /f/ and /ল/ is
negligible as if /f/ and /ল/ form a cluster sound.
Practice Words
Now practise pronouncing the words from Table 7.2.
Table 7.2 BPA of English words containing the extra short vowel
sound / ə/
Word BPA Word BPA

acceptance Əক কসপ টəন্স agreeable Ə গ্রীː Ə বəল
beautiful ব্য়ূː টি fəল cattle কযাট əল
cavalry কযা Vəল েী celebrant কস সল ব্র্əন্ট
convertible কƏন vYː doggerel ডগ əে əল
টি বəল
eventful ই qVন্ট fəল figurative efগ əে Ə টিV
impractical ইম্ প্র্যাক টিক indifferent ইন জডf əে əন্ট
ə
ল
intellect ইন টəল এক্ট mention কমন শəন
7.3 The English consonant “r” sounding like a vowel
The English letter “r” is pronounced differently by speakers of different NS

countries. Americans and Scotsmen pronounce it very strongly, which is
termed the rhotic “r” pronunciation. In BrE, the “r” is pronounced very lightly
whereas in Australian English, you will hardly hear the “r” sound. You may
pronounce it anyway that comes naturally to you. But as we are using the BrE
standard pronunciation in this guidebook, we will denote that the “r” sound in a
word will be lightly pronounced by showing it as a superscript – like /ে/.
Practice Words
Now practise pronouncing the words in Table 7.3. Make sure that you
pronounce the superscripted /ে/ very lightly. It will not matter if you do not
pronounce the /ে/ sound at all.
Table 7.3 English words containing the very light /ে / sound
Word BPA Word BPA

are আːে bare জবƏে
beer সবƏে car কাːে
care জকƏে dare জডƏে
dear সডƏে deer সডƏে
ear ইƏে fair qfƏে
fare qfƏে fear efƏে
fire faইƏে hare জিƏে
hair জিƏে rare জেƏে
roar জোː ে share জশƏে
Point to note:
1. All three pronunciations – i.e., pronouncing the /ে/ sound (a)

strongly, (b) lightly or (c) not at all, are OK. Use the pronunciation
that you feel comfortable with or the one which comes naturally to
you.
7.4 The English consonant sounds /ট/ and /ড/

The native speakers of most Non-English languages, carry over some features
of the pronunciation system of their native language when speaking English.
French use the glottal “r” sound. French, Italian and Spanish, when speaking
English, use the dental /t̪ /, /d̪/ sounds etc. Similarly, many English speakers
from the subcontinent, pronounce the /ট/ and /ড/ very strongly as used in their
native languages. Words with such strong pronunciation of these two sounds
are easily understood. But Native English Speakers find them very amusing
and caste Indian characters who speak with such accents on films and popular
TV serials to entertain the NS viewers. I do not think any viewer has ever
complained.
As no listener, neither an NS nor an NNS, has any difficulty in understanding
such pronunciations of /ট/ and /ড/, you may continue to pronounce them the
way you are used to doing. However, if you feel embarrassed when NS
communicators smile and/or smirk at you when you speak to them this way,
you may try to make the sounds slightly lighter and try the following:
How to make the two sounds - /ট/ and /ড/
These are both alveolar sounds. Whereas /ট/ is a voiceless sound, /ড/ is a
voiced sound. The two articulators are: (a) the tip of the tongue and (b) the
gum ridge. You make these sounds by first touching the gum ridge with the tip
of your tongue and then suddenly removing the tongue from the gum ridge.
Some of us make these sounds very strong, because we touch the gum ridge
with our tongue very strongly without leaving any gap between the articulators.
To make the sounds lighter, try to touch the gum ridge with your tongue very
gently. Try practising this technique by pronouncing different English words
containing the “d” and “t” in different positions. Initially, you will have to do it
consciously. With repeated practice, you will be able to subconsciously
pronounce the sounds lightly.
Fig. 7.1 /ট/ and /ড/ sounds – positions of articulators
Practice Words
Try practising with the following words.
Table 7.4 BPA of English words containing the /ট/ and the /ড/
sounds
Word BPA Word BPA
add অ্Yaড adder অ্Yaড əে
and অ্Yaন্ড baptise বযাপ টাইZ
bed জবড bend জবন্ড
buddy বɅ ড ঈ but বɅট
caddy কযাড ঈ candy কযান ডী
cut কɅ ট don’t ডƏউন্ট
duct ডɅক্ট dust ডɅস্ট

dizzy জডZ ঈ handyman হযান সড ম্যান
hot- িট কহড ইড jetty কিট ঈ
headed
jolt জƏউল্ট pet জপট
pot পট potato পƏ কটই টƏউ
red জেড ride োইড
sad িযাড shut শɅট
suddenly সɅড Əন লী tackle টযাক Əল
taxi টযাক িী tent জটন্ট
test জটস্ট tight টাইট
toffee টf ঈ tomato টƏ মা টƏউ
tuck টɅক type টাইপ
7.5 The English consonant sound /kw/

It is a labio-velar voiceless stop and consonant sound.
In most cases, when a vowel character “u” or the semi vowel “w” appears
after the initial letter “q” in an English word, it is pronounced as a cluster sound
combining the /k/ and the /w/ sounds. In rare cases, it takes some other sound.
How to make the two sounds - /kw/ sound

First, open your mouth and make the shape of your lips to an “oh”, “eh,” “u” or
“I” vowel making shape, depending on the vowel that will follow the cluster
sound. Then push your tongue towards the back in front of your velum. Next,
give a gentle forward push with the back of your tongue and simultaneously
make the sound by separating the two lips further.
Many, including me, pronounce English words like “queen”, “quick”, “quota”
as /কুঈ:ন/, /কুইক/and /জকা: টə/ respectively. Such pronunciations are quite
intelligible. Still, you should try to learn how to pronounce the cluster /কw/
sound. But as the /w/ sound is not present in the Bengali language and you
may have difficulty conceptualising this cluster, you may postpone learning this
sound. Try to concentrate on (re)conceptualising some other more important
English sounds. Come back to it later after you are confident that you have
fully conceptualised the English /w/ sound.
Vocal Exercise – “crow cawing” exercise

This sound is somewhat like the sound when a crow caws in the
morning. Therefore, I will call it the “crow cawing” exercise. Try to mimic the
cawing of a crow and you will get the /কw/ sound.
Practice Words
Try practising with the following words.
Table 7.5 BPA of English words with the letter “q”
Word BPA Word BPA
quiche কী:শ quack ক
wYaক
quadrant wড রəন্ট
ক quartz
q wa:ট্ি
ক
quash
qকwa:শ
quasi q w ই za ই
ক
quality queen
ক
wল ই টী ক
wE:ন
quench q wন্গচ
ক question q wস চəন
ক
queue ক
েূ: quorum q wa: রəম
ক
quota q w a: ট ə
ক qwetzal ককট্স əল
qwerty ক
wY: টী quick eকwক
Points to note:
1. The sound is mostly a cluster of the two sounds /ক/ and /w/.
2. In some rare cases, as in “quiche”, “queue” and “qwetzal” the sounds
are different.
3. In “qwetzal”, where “w” follows “q”, there is no /w/ sound!
8 English words with (a) duplicated letters and (b)

cluster sounds
8.1 English words with duplicate letters
In many English words, you will find a particular letter duplicated, appearing
one after another. You may think that that would lead to a cluster sound. But
no, the two duplicate letters in English are to be pronounced as a single sound.
For example, the pronunciation of the word “common” is /কম əন /. There is a
single /ম্/ sound, not two as you may have expected. In table 8.1, I have
included words with different letters duplicated. All are to be pronounced with
a single consonant sound, instead of being treated as cluster sounds.
You may note that whenever a letter is duplicated then the previous syllable
ends at that point and the next syllable starts with the next set of BPA
characters. This is done also when using foreign words in English speech,
even if the words are pronounced as clusters in the foreign language. For
example, the word “sunni” is pronounced as [িুন্নী] in Arabic and other
languages. But in English it is pronounced as [সুন ঈ ].
Practice words
Now try pronouncing the words from the following table. All contain duplicated
letters which are to be pronounced without cluster sounds.
Table 8.1 BPA of English words containing duplicate letters
Word BPA Word BPA

rabbit েYaব ইট account ə কাউন্ট
rudder রʌড əে affair ə qfəে
soggy সগ ঈ hajji হযাি ঈ
trekking কেক ইিং spelling জেল ইিং
humming হʌম ইিং runner রʌন əে
happy িযাপ ঈ carry কYaে ঈ
dismissal সডি জমস əল nutty নʌট ঈ
skivvy জেv ঈ blizzard জিz əড
underline = duplicated letters in English (columns 1 and 3)

8.2 Clusters comprising common sounds and new English

sounds
The Bengali language has cluster sounds – i.e., two or more consonant sounds
are pronounced together as a single sound. While in IPA, clustering of sounds
is shown by transcribing the two or more consonant symbols one after another,
in Bengali, the clustering is specified by writing the corresponding characters
as a single conjunct symbol. In Bengali, specific conjunct symbols exist to write
different permissible cluster sounds. In BPA, we will employ this same
technique for transcribing English cluster sounds.
For example, the word “best” is transcribed in BPA as /জবস্ট/. The cluster
sound comprising the consonant sounds /ি/ and /ট/, are written as a single
conjunct symbol /স্ট/. As we have five new consonant symbols, /f,v,z,ʒ,w/, in
BPA we also need new conjunct symbols to represent cluster sounds to
combine two or more English and Bengali sounds. They are:
/সf, fট, fy, ে,
f
ি,
f ল
f, গz, টw, ডz, নz, ন্ডz, লz, মz, শW, দ
z, z
ড, ড
z, vz,
v
ড, fয়, zেূ, Z
z, Z/
ে
Practice Words
In the following table, you will find examples of English words containing new
cluster sounds which will be represented in BPA by the above conjunct
symbols.
Table 8.2 BPA of English words containing sound

clusters
BPA English BPA BPA English BPA

conjunct word conjunct word
symbol symbol
ক
W queen ক
:ন
WE
গ
w anguish অYaZ
eগw শ
গ
z eggs এগz ঙ্গ
z lungs লʌঙ্গz
ট
w twin eটwন ট
z blitz eব্ল টz
ড
w dwell qডwল ড
z aids এইডz
থ
w thwart qথwaːট দ
z breathe ব্র্ী:দz
s
ন
Z lines িাইনZ ন্ড
z amends ə সেন্ডZ
ব
Z Arabs অYaে ম
f lymph সলমf
əবZ
ম
z alms আ:মz
ে
Z airs এəেZ
গ
W Gwen qগWন শ
W schwa শ
Wa:
ি
f self জি fি ি
v resolve সে Zিv
ল
z annals অYaন স
f sphere eসfəে
əলZ
sweet wEːট square qস্কwəে
ি
স
w স্ক
w
িə ট ি fট
f
Z
z surroun loft
dings োউন
সডZz
ড
f
laughed লা:fড
f
য় refute সে fেূːট
fি afflict ə efিক্ট fy freight qfy ইট
BOLD = sound clusters in English words and conjunct symbols in BPA

(columns 2 and 4)
Points to note:
1. The words “amends” and “square” are both clusters of three different
sounds
9 Aspiration of English sounds /ক/, /প/, /ট/

Most English dictionaries I have seen, give the phonemic transcription of the
pronunciation of a word in IPA. But you may notice that NS speakers may
sometimes pronounce some sounds in English words differently to what are
written in the phonemic transcriptions. This is known as the allophonic or the
surface pronunciation.
For example, Native English speakers pronounce many English words
having the voiceless sounds /ক/, /প/, /ট/, in certain positions as lightly aspirated
like [কহ],[পহ] and [টহ] respectively. They add a mild /হ/ sound and blow out
some air when pronouncing the relevant consonant . Some Native Speakers,
particularly children, who are not used to listening to a foreigner speaking
English, may have difficulty in uderstanding you if you do not aspirate these
three English sounds in certain positions. For example, if at a garden party in
an NS ‘s house you say to a child, “please pass me the pepper” as [প্লীːz পাːস মীː
দə qপপ əে] , She may say, “pardon?” ( [পহaː ডəন ]) and not pass the requested
item until some adult who is familiar with unaspirated pronunciations by NNS,
may repeat the sentence for the young child by aspirating the “p”s in the words
“pass” and “pepper” as [পহaːি] and [qপহপ əে ] respectively
I shall not go into a detailed discussion on the rules of aspiration – when to
aspire and when not to. All I will tell you is that you must become aware that
NSs aspirate these three voiceless sounds when they appear in certain
positions in English words. They aspirate by blowing out a small burst of air at
the time of pronouncing /ক/, /প/ and /ট/. When you hear an NS speak, listen
very carefully for such aspirated sounds. They will sound like [কহ],[পহ], [টহ] to
you. Note that I have used a subscripted “হ” (হ)in the three sound samples
to denote that they are aspirated. Also, I have enclosed the aspirated sound
symbols within square brackets to signify that I am talking about the actual
surface or the allophonic sounds and not the phonemic sounds.
I would advise you not to practise making your /ক/, /প/, /ট/ sounds as
aspirated at the early stages of your learning English Pronunciation. This is
because in the Bengali language, there are three corresponding voiced sounds
/খ/, /ফ/ and /ঠ/ which you may start using instead of the voiceless [কহ], [পহ], [টহ]
sounds when trying to aspirate. That will not be right. As an example, some
NBS pronounce the English name “Thomas” as [ঠম্ əি] instead of /টহম্ əি/.
Thus, to prevent the use of the three Bengali breathy stops I just mentioned,
you may postpone the learning and the use of aspiration for a later stage. It is
quite possible that by becoming aware, and being on the lookout for aspiration
of the English sounds /ক/,/প/,/ট/, you will automatically start aspirating.
As a final note on this topic, the allophonic pronunciations of the words,

“cut”, “pat” and “tap” will be [কহʌট], [পহYaট] and [টহYaপ] respectively. I will not
provide you with any list of words to practise with. Once you have started
aspirating, you may prepare a small list of English words where the consonants
“c”,”k”, “t” and “p” are to be aspirated and practise with them. If you don’t
aspirate and you are not talking to a child, then it will not matter. It will not be
considered a crime, I hope not, because most of the time I do not aspirate and
I have never been taken to task for that!
10 Prosody /Suprasegmentals
Although I prepared this guide book to introduce you to BPA so that you can
use the English Pronunciation dictionary for Native Bengali Speakers, I thought
that I would also give you some tips on another very important aspect of English
Pronunciation known as suprasegmentals (American term) or prosody (British
term). Segmentals deal with individual sounds in words and suprasegmentals
deal with those areas of English pronunciation, which are beyond individual
English sounds.
10.1 When and how should prosody be taught to NNS
In Native English speaking countries, when pronunciation is taught to children

and adults, first they are introduced to the suprasegmentals, either formally or
informally, because that is supposed to improve the meanings of words and
sentences in their English speech. Informal teaching of stress, rhythm and
intonation may be done through teaching children to recite and sing nursery
rhymes and songs. This is all right for NS, because they are already familiar
with the English sounds or hear them all the time around them and can get
acquainted with each sound in time. That is not the case with Non-Native
English Speakers like the NBS. They hear very little English in their day-to-day
life and are not familiar with many English sounds which they need to first
master, to be able to pronounce English words intelligibly before they are
introduced to the suprasegmentals of English Pronunciation
In this guidebook, I have already touched upon some aspects of
suprasegmentals. For example, I have introduced you to syllables in English
words, and in multi-syllable words I have shown the different syllables
separated from each other by space(s). Another important part in English
pronunciation is that in multi-syllable words, certain syllables are to be
stressed. They are termed as primary stressed syllables and secondary
stressed syllables. You have seen in the previous sections, that I have
highlighted in bold the primary-stressed syllables in words where you should
put extra emphasis when pronouncing them. I have intentionally left out
marking the secondary stressed syllables, because I believe that including
them here would be counter-productive, as I cannot expect new learners to
learn them. Also, both primary and secondary stressed syllables in words are
not always fixed. Speakers of different dialects of English may stress on
different syllables in the same word. I may confess that I personally do not
bother about secondary stressed syllables when speaking English with NS and
NNS, and so far I have got along fine. The other supra segmental feature we
have covered is vowel quantity.
I have never attended any formal course on English Pronunciation where

suprasegmentals like the following were taught –
(a) stressing on words in sentences

(b) maintaining a rhythm between pronouncing subsequent stressed
syllables in a phrase or sentence,
(c) pitch, tone and intonation, and
(d) adding sound dynamics to speech by pausing, changing speed and
volume to make sentences more meaningful for listeners.
It is difficult to teach all these through a self-study guide book like this,
particularly as it takes a lot of time to explain and teach these different
concepts, especially to new learners of English who are still struggling to learn
the English sounds, trying to build their English vocabulary and learning to
communicate in this foreign language, for a limited time in an artificial
environment, i.e., a maximum of three to five hours per week in their classroom.
10.2 Tools and techniques to help NNS learn prosody
To help learners in these areas, I have included a video disc which contains
audio and texts of some famous speeches and also some recitations of poems.
Due to resource limitations, both human and financial, I have had to do all the
recordings by myself using my portable recorder. Instead of getting a
professional broadcaster, I have used my croaking voice in the readings of the
speeches and recitations. I have also done all the sound editing myself.
I may add that the readings of the poems and speeches contain MY view of
which words should be stressed, how I should intonate at different points,
where I should pause and how I should increase or decrease the sound volume
to convey the meanings of the speeches and poems. Another person, an NS
or an NNS, may read the same speeches and poems in an entirely different
way. He or she will use the suprasegmentals according to his or her
understanding of the meanings of the relevant texts. If you want, you may also
record recitations and speeches by other people from the YouTube, Vimeo,
Soundcloud etc. Whichever recordings you use, you should listen to the
audio/video recordings whenever you get an opportunity and observe how the
person in a recording intonates, pauses, puts stress on words etc. If you are
serious in improving your supra segmentals of English Pronunciation, you may
listen to the same recordings, the ones you like, over and over again, and do
the following:
(a) With the text before you (either on the screen or the text book), listen
to the audio and make notes to indicate where the speaker is raising
his/her voice high or low, on which word (s)he is giving a special
emphasis, where (s)he is increasing or decreasing the volume and
where (s)he is pausing and for how long etc.
(b) With the text before you, listen to the audio and try to read along with
the speaker. Do this several times until you are satisfied that you can
read the text in the same way the speaker did.
(c) Without the audio recording read the text aloud. Repeat several times
until you are satisfied.
(d) Using a recording device, record your reading of the text.
(e) Listen to your recording and try to identify those sections which you
think you should have read differently.
(f) If you have memorised the text, then recite the text whenever you have
the opportunity.
To get familiar with suprasegmentals, you may also listen to the radio and/or
watch on television English news, English speeches and debates, English
sports commentaries, English plays, and English feature movies. The more
time you spend on these activities the quicker you will improve.
I give below three examples of reciting a poem, which I hope will take you
from one stage of using prosody to the next. You can find out where you
currently fit and then try to move onto the next stage. The first example shows
how a beginner level learner of English may recite the poem. A person who
has just learned to read by spelling English words, one at a time, may separate
and pause after each syllable and word. The second example demonstrates
how a next level learner of English who has learned to recognise multi-syllabic
words and put stress on the primary stressed syllables, may recite the poem.
The third example shows how a slightly advanced learner of English who
speaks English with some degree of fluency and learnt to connect subsequent
words in a sentence, may recite the same poem. Of course, not all learners
who have reached the third stage will connect the same set of words as shown
in the example.
Table 10.1 BPA showing possible pronunciation by a new

learner of English
Out of the night that covers me আউট্ অv দীː িাইট্ দযাট কɅv əz মীː
Black as the pit from pole to ব্ল্যাক অYaz দীː পপট্ ᶠরম জপাːল টু জপাːল
pole
I thank whatever gods may be আই থযাাংক wট্ এv əর গডz জদə ে

মমː বী
For my unconquerable soul fর মাই Ʌন কাং কə রə বəল জিাːল
Points to note:
1. How the multi-syllabic words - “covers”, “whatever” and

“unconquerable” may be pronounced syllable by syllable.
2. How the words - “of”, “that”, “as”, “there”, “to”, “from” and “for” may be
pronounced by new learners
3. How the diphthongs in words - “pole”, “soul” and “may” are replaced by
monophthongs with the sound lengthener.
Table 10.2 BPA showing possible pronunciation by a medium level

learner of English
Out of the night that covers me আউট্ অv দীː িাইট্ দযাট কɅv əz মীː
Black as the pit from pole to ব্ল্যাক অYaz দীː পপট্ fরম জপাːল টু জপাːল
pole
I thank whatever gods may be আই থযাাংক wট্ এv əর গডz জদə ে

মম: বী
For my unconquerable soul fর মাই Ʌন কংকə রə বəল জিাːল
Points to note:
1. All pronunciations are as in Table 1 except point 2

2. In multi-syllabic words like “covers”, “whatever” and “unconquerable”,
special stress is given on the primary stressed syllables which are
marked in red.
Table 10.3 BPA showing possible pronunciation by an advanced

learner of English
Out of the night that covers আউটəvদəিাইট দəটকɅvəzমী

me
Black as the pit from pole to ব্ল্যাকəৠদəপপট্ fরəম পəউলটəপəউল

pole
I thank whatever gods may be আইথযাাংকwটএvə গডzদəমমইবী
For my unconquerable soul fəমাই Ʌনকংকəরəবəল সəউল
Points to note:
1. How successive words are connected in speech and may be written

in BPA transcriptions.
2. How pronunciations of some words like “of”, “that”, “as” ,”to” , “there” ,
“for” change in connected speech.
3. How the words “pole”, “soul”, “may” are pronounced as diphthongs.
10.3 A holistic approach to learning English
English pronunciation should not be learned in isolation. Just by having a very

good English pronunciation does not mean that you have acquired good
knowledge and skills in the English Language. English pronunciation forms
part of the two components, Listening and Speaking. I would suggest that you
also include learning of English Pronunciation as part of the other two
components, i.e., Reading and Writing as follows:
Improving your English Reading Skills
While learning English pronunciation, you will surely come across many new
English words and phrases. Learn their meanings. Add the new words into
your permanent vocabulary list and also build up your English phrase repertoire
which may contain not only phrases from British English but from other
countries as well. When you listen to an English speech or recite an English
poem, try to understand the message inside the speech or poem. Do the same
when you read a newspaper or a story book. Read it aloud to improve your
pronunciation and note down any new words or phrases that you encounter.
Find out their pronunciations and meanings. This will improve your Reading
skills in English.
Improving your Writing Skills in English
Similarly, use the new English words and phrases whose pronunciations you
have learned in your informal writings – i.e., in email and other social media
that you use. You may also use them in formal writings like in your study
assignments or company reports or social or business speeches. Once you
have written something read it aloud to find out how the sentences sound.
Make necessary changes. It is a good practice to leave aside your writing for
some time and then come back to it later and read it as if you are reading
someone else’s writing. See if you get the message.
If you use the above holistic approach, you should enjoy learning English
Pronunciation and no one knows where it will ultimately take you.
10.4 Conclusion
Now we have come to the end of our virtual workshop. If you have attended
the entire workshop, you may have found that you had to devote more time on
some sections to master the new sounds and/or concepts presented there.
You may go back to those sections again and again until you are completely
satisfied.
At this stage you may also find that you have become more aware of English
Pronunciation than you were before – your own pronunciation and that of
others. As I have said before, you do not have to speak like a Native English
Speakers. Your goal should be to speak English intelligibly so that others do
not have any difficulty in understanding you. You should aim to pronounce all
the individual sounds and stress on the primary stressed syllables in multi-
syllable words. You should also become aware of the suprasegmental features
of English Pronunciation and use them appropriately to make your speech
more meaningful to your listeners. If you do this then you will be on the right
track.
You may also revisit and attend the entire workshop periodically. You may
revise the materials once every six months or each year. Also, as I said before,
I prepared this guidebook so that you can use the English Pronunciation
Dictionary for Native Bengali Speakers (EPDB) effectively. Use the dictionary
as often as you can – i.e., whenever you want to learn or check out the correct
RP pronunciation of an English word.
In the absence of any national guidelines or directives by the educational
authorities on which pronunciation should be followed, in this guidebook I have
given most examples using RP. In the EPDB also I have provided the BPA
transcriptions of only the RP pronunciations of English words. If needed, we
can also add the GA or any other accepted pronunciation standard, like the
Asian Pronunciation or even Bangladeshi standard, if and when they are
available, both in the EPGB and the EPDB. When that will happen it is difficult
to say at this moment. It will depend on some serious empirical research study
that will result in the codification of these new standards. Until then let us use
this guidebook in its present form and let us get ready for the future.
You may use the audio/video recordings accompanying this guidebook as

and when you like.
Finally, if you have any comments or feedback do not hesitate to email them to
me at aminrahman43@gmail.com
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EPGB 17 Dec 6 by 9

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English

© Zobeda & Amin Rahman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced

The advice and information in this guide book are believed to be

Kishwar Rahman (Lima)

A book entitled "ইংরেজী উচ্চােরেে গাইড বই," was

In the Bengali version, I had provided a

I would like to express my gratitude once again

1.1 Why use Bengali Phonetic Alphabet (BPA)

1.2 Why do we need an English Pronunciation Guide book

1.3 Structure of the EPGB

1.4 Which pronunciation standard

1.5 How you may use the EPGB

To help you conceptualise a new sound, I have provided the following

1. Basic information about the sound.

1.6 The virtual workshop and the desired outcome

(a) Train Trainers of Trainers of BPA and English Pronunciation,

2 Representation of speech sounds

2. 1 Characters and sounds

(a) One English alphabetical character may result in different

This means that there is no direct correlation between the English

2.2 Legends and conventions

“x “ means x is a character of a language.

3.1 Common consonant sounds

Sl. English sound BPA Sl. English sound BPA

Bold = the English consonant sound

3.2 Common vowel sounds

a consonant sound, then a diacritic is used on the consonant – before, after

Table 3.2 BPA of English vowel sounds

Sl. English el BPA of BPA of English

RBOLD = the English vowel(s) in column 1

speech, no distinction is made between long and short vowel

3.2.1 English Vowel Quality

Table 3.3 BPA of Vowel Quality in English words

English word BPA Vowel Quality

BOLD = English vowel(s) in column 1

1. In the BPA transcriptions of the words- “sheep”, “port” and

3.2.2 English Vowel Quantity

Table 3.4 Vowel Quantity in English words

English BPA Vowel Vowel

BOLD = English vowel(s) in column 1

1. Be very particular about using the correct vowel

3.3 Pronunciations of English words in BPA

Table 3.5 BPA of English words containing sounds common in English

Word BPA Word BPA

egg এগ end এন্ড

1. Only Bengali characters and Bengali vowel diacritics have been

4 English sounds not present in the Bengali

4.1 Conceptualising new English sounds

4.2 English consonant sounds not present in Bengali

4.2.1 The human sound making device

(a) The broad category of the sound (consonant, vowel etc.)

Fig. 4.1 The human vocal system

In this guidebook, I will be referring to some terms which I am explaining below.

Allophones are shown in the transcriptions by enclosing the sound

Fig. 4.2 Articulators above the larynx

Fig. 4.3 Positions of articulators for making

Conceptualisation (প্রত্যয়ীকেে) (Fraser, 2006) of sounds. In simple words,

Diphthong (Qদ্বত্স্বরধ্বনি) is a combination of two vowel sounds. It starts with one

move up to the nasal cavity. This is also used as an articulator when

Fig. 4.4 Parts of the tongue

Source: Roach (2006, 9)