Development of the Concept of Sub-Syllables in English Language
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Ningmareo Shimray *

Ningmareo Shimray,
Lecturer, Ukhrul Higher Secondary School,
Ukhrul, Manipur, India.
Recipient of National Award to Teachers 2021

Introduction

In early 2019, I conducted series of experimentations and found that the main hurdle of learning mathematics of any standard is the lack of reading skills. Later on, I found that the lack of reading skills is the main hurdle in teaching and learning of any subject/language of any standard, and that the only way to overcome this hurdle is to learn pronouncing skills.

Right from the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, I started writing a book to enable the students to overcome this hurdle by imparting pronouncing skills. I compiled all the possible sounds of syllables and over 10,000 words with all the possible syllables without using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Analysis of the syllables revealed that the syllable/sound of every alphabet has at least one letter - a, e, i, o, u, or y. And that every syllable has finite number of sound(s). And the sound of every syllable is determined by the sound of the alphabet, sub-syllables and the parts of speech (especially verb, adjective and noun) of the words.

Towards the end of 2020, I developed the Concept of Sub-syllables for English language which is non-phonetic. A sub-syllable is defined as an alphabet/letter or group of alphabet which forms a part of a syllable (if the word is multi-syllable)/monosyllable. The possible sounds of every sub-syllable is finite and that the sound of every sub-syllable depends on the meaning/origin and structure of a word.

The sub-syllables include all the sounds of vowels (short/long/diphthongal/triphthongal) and consonants (voiced and voiceless). The concept of sub-syllables is a new system for learning English pronunciation efficiently. It has enabled us to pronounce every word in an English dictionary correctly and easily.

It demands that we learn all the possible phonetic sounds of the English alphabet (individually and in combination) which reflect all other English phonetic sounds. It indicates the silence of sounds while pronouncing some words. It identifies different words having the same pronunciation and different words with similar pronunciations. Significantly, it has enabled to write the spellings of all the English IPA.

Contents

1. Spellings and classification of English IPA.
a) Primary sound of English alphabet.
b) Construction of English IPA.
c) The spellings of English IPA/the corresponding letter(s) in the spellings of pronunciation/classification of monophthongs & consonants.

2. Sounds of English Alphabet.

3. Formation of sub-syllables.

a) Formation of sub-syllables with vowels; a, e, i, o, u and semi-vowels; w, y.
b) Formation of sub-syllables with vowels; a, e, i, o, u, semi-vowels; w, y and consonants.

4. Applications of the concept of sub-syllables.
(i). Different words with same pronunciation (Homophones).
(ii). Different words with similar pronunciations.
(iii). Silence of sounds.
(iv). Pronunciatiation of words which are frequently used.
(v). New strategy of pronouncing words.

5. The chart of English IPA by applying the concept of sub-syllables.

Download the extract of the book: "New Strategy of learning English pronunciation" (PDF - 2 MB)