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Pronunciation of alphabets: Educate the children scientifically

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11459 M. Imran Qadir/ Elixir Edu. Tech. 52 (2012) 11459-11460

Available online at www.elixirjournal.org

Educational Technology
Elixir Edu. Tech. 52 (2012) 11459-11460

Pronunciation of alphabets: educate the children scientifically

M. Imran Qadir
College of Pharmacy, GC University, Faisalabad, Pakistan

A R TI C L E I N F O A B ST R A C T
Art i c l e h i st ory : Education may be regarded both as a science and an art since it consists of theoretical as
Received: 18 September 2012; well as practical knowledge and skills derived through various artistic and scientific
Received in revised form: methods. Like other science subjects, education also needs logic. So educate the children
15 November 2012; scientifically by teaching them the exact pronunciations of the alphabets. An English
Accepted: 15 November 2012; alphabet should be pronounced exactly as it is pronounced in a word known as “Qadir’s
Pronunciation” of Alphabet. Similarly, Urdu Hija should also be pronounced exactly as it is
K ey w or d s pronounced in a word known as “Qadir’s Pronunciation” of Urdu Hija.
Qadir’s Pronunciation, © 2012 Elixir All rights reserved.
English alphabets,
Urdu Hijay.

Introduction Similarly, he will pronounce “go” as “geeo”; “so” as

Science is a systematic and precise body of knowledge in a “aeso”; “no” as “en-o”; and “ant” as “a-en-tee”, etc.
particular field of the world. It seeks to discover the general laws He once again has to learn the exact pronunciations of all
regulating the phenomena in that field through observation and the alphabets.
experiments. As per this definition, education must be taken as a And waste time!!
science since it is a systematic body of knowledge accumulated But if he memorizes the exact pronunciations, known as
through ages by observation and experiments. It has its own “Qadir’s Pronunciation” of Alphabets, in place of “aay”, “bee”,
theories and laws for arrangement and organization of “see”, it will be easy for a child to read the joined words.
educational activities. Education has been developed as a
science during these recent years. Education has also been Table 1: Pronunciation of English letters
regarded as an art since it attempts to make human activities Letter Letter Pronunciation
beautiful and meaningful. It utilizes the knowledge and A a
techniques of its own and other disciplines like psychology, B bee
economics, philosophy and so on. On the whole, education may C cee
be regarded both as a science and an art since it consists of D dee
theoretical as well as practical knowledge and skills derived
E e
through various artistic and scientific methods and aims at
F ef (eff as a verb)
achieving desired objectives by applying them in human
G gee
behaviour and practices [1].
English Alphabets H Aitch, haitch
The modern English alphabets are Latin alphabets I i
consisting of 26 letters: J Jay
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ K kay
The names of the letters are rarely spelled out, except when
L el or ell
used in derivations or compound words (for example tee-shirt,
M em
deejay, emcee, okay, aitchless, wye-level, etc.), derived forms
N en
(for example exed out, effing, to eff and blind, etc.),
O o
pronunciation of certain acronyms (for example HTML, FBI,
etc.), and in the names of objects named after letters (for P pee
example em (space) in printing and wye (junction) in Q cue
railroading) [2]. English letters and their pronunciations are R ar
given in table 1. S ess
Qadir’s Pronunciation of English Alphabets T tee
When a child start to pronounce alphabets of English, he U u
says “aay”, “bee”, “see”, “dee”, “ee”, “aef”, “gee”, “aech”, .…. V vee
When he joins the alphabets, he has a problem to pronounce W double-u
them. e.g. X ex
When he joins “a” and “t” as “at”, he understands that it is Y wy
written as “aaytee”. Z zed, zee

Tele: +92-301-6515613
E-mail addresses: mrimranqadir@hotmail.com
© 2012 Elixir All rights reserved
11460 M. Imran Qadir/ Elixir Edu. Tech. 52 (2012) 11459-11460

Qadir’s Pronunciations of some alphabets are given here: Table 2: Pronunciation of Urdu Alphabets (Hijay)
“a” should be pronounced exactly (â) as it is pronounced in a
Letter English
word, not “aay”. Letter
Pronunciation Transcription
“c” should be pronounced exactly (ĉ) as it is pronounced in a ‫ا‬ alif a
word, not “see”.
‫ب‬ bay b
“g” should be pronounced exactly (ĝ) as it is pronounced in a
‫پ‬ pay p
word, not “gee”.
‫ت‬ tay t
“s” should be pronounced exactly (ŝ) as it is pronounced in a
word, not “aes”. ‫ٹ‬ tay t
Urdu Alphabets (HIJAY) ‫ث‬ say s
Look at the “Urdu alphabet chart” given in figure 1. The ‫ج‬ jīm j
Urdu letters are read from right to left, the lines from top to ‫چ‬ chay ch
bottom. The letters are here seen arranged in standard dictionary ‫ح‬ hay h
alphabetical order. Many letters belong to “groups” or “series” ‫خ‬ khay kh
which all have identical shapes; letters in the same series differ ‫د‬ dāl d
from each other only by their dots. The forms shown here are the ‫ڈ‬ dāl d
basic, unattached, "independent" forms of the letters. The names ‫ذ‬ zāl dh
of the letters are quite important and must be memorized [3]. ‫ر‬ ray r
‫ڑ‬ ray r
‫ز‬ zay z
‫ژ‬ zhay zh
‫س‬ sīn s
‫ش‬ shīn sh
‫ص‬ su'ād ṣ
‫ض‬ zu'ād z
Figure 1: Urdu alphabet chart ‫ط‬ to'e t
A list of Urdu alphabets and their pronunciation is given in ‫ظ‬ zo'e ẓ
table 2. Urdu contains many historical spellings from Arabic and ‫ع‬ ‘ain '
Persian, and therefore has many irregularities. Some of the ‫غ‬ ghain gh
original Arabic letters are not used in Urdu. This is the list of the ‫ف‬ fay f
Urdu letters, giving the consonant pronunciation [4]. Many of ‫ق‬ qāf q
these letters also represent vowel sounds.  kāf k
Qadir’s Pronunciation of Urdu Alphabets (Hijay) ‫گ‬ gāf g
When a child start to pronounce alphabets (Hijay) of Urdu, ‫ل‬ lām l
he says “alf”, “bay”, “pay”….., “jeem”, “chay”, “hay”,…..,
‫م‬ mīm m
“laam”, “meem”, “noon”….
‫ن‬ noon n
When he joins the alphabets, he has a problem to pronounce
‫و‬ vā'o v, o, or ū
them. e.g.
When he joins “
” and “ ‫ ” ج‬as “  ”, he understands that ‫ه‬ hay h
it is written as “payjeem”. ‫ء‬ hamza '
Similarly he will pronounce “ ‫ ” گ‬as “aagaaf”, “ ‫ ” ن‬as ( Chhoti yay y, i
“aanoon”. ‫ے‬ bari yay ai or e
He once again has to learn the exact pronunciations of all
the Urdu alphabets. Conclusion:
And waste time!! An English alphabet should be pronounced exactly as it is
But if he memorizes the exact pronunciations, known as pronounced in a word known as “Qadir’s Pronunciation” of
“Qadir’s Pronunciation” of Urdu Hijay, in place of “alf”, “bay”, Alphabet. Similarly, Urdu Hija should also be pronounced
“pay”; it will be easy for a child to read the joined words. exactly as it is pronounced in a word known as “Qadir’s
Qadir’s Pronunciation of some Urdu Hijay is given here: Pronunciation” of Urdu Hija. There should be meetings for the
“ ‫ ” ا‬should be pronounced as in “
” that is “ ‫ ” ا‬not “alf”. educationists to resolve and discus the problems that may be
“ ‫ ” ب‬should be pronounced as in “
” that is “
” not “bay”. evolved by using the Qadir’s pronunciations.
“
” should be pronounced as in “  ” that is “  ” not “pay”. References:
“ ‫ ” ج‬should be pronounced as in “  ” that is “  ” not “jeem”.
“ ‫ ” چ‬should be pronounced as in “  ” that is “  ” not “chay”.
“ ‫ ” س‬should be pronounced as in “  ” that is “  ” not “seen”.
“  ” should be pronounced as in “  ” that is “  ” not “Kaaf”.
“ ‫ ” گ‬should be pronounced as in “ ‫ ” گ‬that is “  ” not “Gaaf”.
“ ‫ ” ل‬should be pronounced as in “ ‫ ” ل‬that is “  ” not “Laam”.
“ ‫ ” م‬should be pronounced as in “ ‫ ” م‬that is “  ” not “Meem”.
“ ‫ ” ن‬should be pronounced as in “ ‫ ” ن‬that is “  ” not “Noon”.
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1. Ralston, G. The Art and Science of Education: Pedagogy
Includes Technology. The Technology Source. 1998; 11.
2. Al-Kufaishi, H.A. Unified English pronouncing alphabet. US
Patent (No.: 4193212). 1980.
3. Bailey, T.G. A History of Urdu Literature. London.
4. Bailey, T.G. The Pronunciation of Urdu and Hindi. Bulletin of
the School of Oriental and African Studies. 1922; 2: 539-547.