THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

The change of Pronunciation from Vowel ‘o’ Sound to ‘a’ Sound in

English Words

BY

KINZA ASHRAF

KINNAIRD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, LAHORE

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to investigate the pronunciation of students especially in the

articulation of a vowel sound ‘o’ in modern which change into vowel sound ‘a’ and become

madern. The study is conducted to ascertain to what extent students make pronunciation

mistakes in the English words which contains vowel ‘o’ sound. The target audience of a study is

female students of an intermediate level at Govt. Gulberg College. The adopted methodology is

mixed method approach focusing on both qualitative and quantitative. The sample is collected

from the 50 participants through the reading passage. This study would suggest the beneficial

solution to deal with the issue of pronunciation face by the second language learner at an

intermediate level.

Key terms: vowel sound, pronunciation, mistakes, qualitative, quantitative

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

Table of Content

Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................6
1.1Statement of the Problem:...............................................................................................................6
1.2 Objectives:........................................................................................................................................6
1.3 Research Questions:........................................................................................................................6
1.4 Historical Background:...................................................................................................................6
1.5 Significance of the Study:................................................................................................................7
1.8 Hypothesis:.......................................................................................................................................8
2. Research Methodology..........................................................................................................................9
3.1 Type of Method:................................................................................................................................9
3.2 Research Design:...............................................................................................................................9
3.3 Research Setting:...............................................................................................................................9
3.4 Scale of Measurement:......................................................................................................................9
3.5 Type of Questionnaire:......................................................................................................................9
3.6 Sample Size:.....................................................................................................................................10
3.7 Sampling Technique:........................................................................................................................10
3.81 Target Population:.....................................................................................................................10
3.9 Data Collection Procedure:..............................................................................................................10
3. Data Analysis...................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Tabular Representation................................................................................................................11
4.2 Graphical Representation.............................................................................................................12
4.2.1 Pronunciation of a Word Modern:....................................................................12
4.2.2 Pronunciation of a Word Toffee:.......................................................................13
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

Toffee
100%
90% 86%
Percentage of Participants Response

80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20% 14%
10%
0%
Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation
. 13
4.2. 3 Pronunciation of a Word Shopper:.................................................................14
4.2.4 Pronunciation of a Word Job:..............................................................................15
4.2.5 Pronunciation of a Word top:..............................................................................16
4.2. 6 Pronunciation of a Word College:...................................................................17
4.2. 7 Pronunciation of a Word Doctor:.....................................................................18
4.2.8 Pronunciation of a Word body:..........................................................................19
6. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
7. Recommendation......................................................................................................................24
8. Bibliography.................................................................................................................................28
Appendix..............................................................................................................................................32
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

1. Introduction

1.1Statement of the Problem:

The problem of a research was based on the pronunciation errors by pronouncing the

word modern /ˈmɒd(ə)n/ as madern/ˈma:d(ə)r n/ due to the change of vowels from ‘o’ to ‘a’

sound by the intermediate students whose first language is Urdu.

1.2 Objectives:
These are the research objectives which hoped to be achieved at the end of the study:

 To determine the reasons for the phonetic variation from vowel ‘o ’sound to ‘a’ sound
in English words.

To investigate to what extent students mispronounce the words like modern as madern.

1.3 Research Questions:

To what extent intermediate students make mistakes in the pronunciation of vowel ‘o’ by
changing into ‘a sound’ in English words?

How does the Urdu speaker pronunciation style interferes with the British pronunciation style in
English words?

1.4 Historical Background:

Speaking a language other than the mother tongue is a challenging phenomenon because

of the interference of first language always occurs while speaking it. When the first language

interferes with the second language it creates problem in learning different skills of the target

language. The influence of first language distract a second language learner to learn the skills in

the target language. The major problem which the speaker face in second language is
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

pronunciation. A pronunciation is defined to be the act of producing sounds of a language

together. Pronunciation of a speaker of second language can be either accurate or inaccurate.

Correct pronunciation lead towards the proficiency in a second language, whereas incorrect

pronunciation shatter the level of confidence of a speaker and it cause hindrance in learning of a

target language. Pronunciation is dependent on the exposure of a language.

1.5 Significance of the Study:

This study would be expected to be a significant endeavor in exploring the factors which

play a vital role in making an incorrect way of pronouncing words. This study is an attempt to

understand how interference of the first language plays a role in the pronunciation of sounds in a

second language. There are many words which illustrate how vowel ‘o’ sound becomes ‘a’

sound in the pronunciation of English words. There are many words like modern/ˈmɒdən/ which

would be included are toffee / tɒfi/, shopper /ˈʃɒpə/, job /dʒɒb/, top /tɒp/, college /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/,

doctor /ˈdɒktə/, and body /ˈbɒdi/ which are mispronounced in the English language due to the

influence of the first language which is The Urdu language.

One of the benefits that we would be expected to avail through this study is to become able in

distinguishing the speakers who are good in pronouncing the words containing ‘o’ vowel and

also the one who mispronounce the words by converting the ‘o’ sound into the ‘a’ sound in

English words. In addition to this, it will help to find out the factors that contribute to an obstacle

in making correct pronunciation in English as a second language. This study will be an attempt at

resolving a very serious issue of pronunciation of words containing vowel ‘o’ by paying attention

to the factors that cause hindrance in accurate pronunciation. Therefore, this is considered to be

a rationale study because the issue of pronunciation occurs in a real-life situation and there are

many speakers who face many difficulties only due to the wrong way of pronouncing words.
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

Hence, the following study would provide an aid to those who really want to improve their

pronunciation and are unaware of the facts which are always responsible for their wrong way of

pronouncing words. So, this study would tend to be realistic in nature focusing on the individuals

who mispronounce the vocabulary of daily usage.

1.8 Hypothesis:

Due to the influence of the pronunciation of first language i.e. Urdu,

the vowel sound ‘o’ pronunciation in a word like modern /ˈmɒd(ə)n/ change

into the vowel sound ‘a’ as madern /ˈma:d(ə)r n/ which leads towards the

incorrect pronunciation.
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

2. Research Methodology

3.1 Type of Method:

The research methodology used in this research was quantitative method.

Quantitative research is phenomenon through which numerical data is analyzed and the results
are gathered from the sample which is representative of the population.

The quantitative researcher asks a specific, narrow question through questionnaire and finds out
a conclusive result from participants. It is a data in numerical form such as statistics, percentages.
Mean, median etc.

3.2 Research Design:

• Cross sectional study

3.3 Research Setting:

• A comparative study conducted in Kinnaird College and Govt. APWA College.

3.4 Scale of Measurement:

• Likert scale was chosen for this research.

3.5 Type of Questionnaire:

The appropriate scale used in this questionnaire was Likert scale. A Likert Scale is a five (or
seven) point scale which is used to allow the individual to express how much they agree or
disagree with a particular statement.
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

3.6 Sample Size:

The sample size for this research is 100

• Sample size for Govt. APWA College is 50

• Sample size for Kinnaird College is 50

3.7 Sampling Technique:

• The sampling technique used in this research was convenience sampling.

3.81 Target Population:

Female undergraduate students of private and government institution.

3.9 Data Collection Procedure:

• Data was collected by a single investigator through a questionnaire containing
information on demographic and inferential details.
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

3. Data Analysis

3.1 Tabular Representation

British English Pronunciation Pakistani English Pronunciation

IPA Vowel Words Transcription IPA Vowel Words Transcription

Symbo Positio Position

l n
/ɒ/ back modern /ˈmɒdən/ /ɑː / back madern /ˈmɑːdərn/
/ɒ/ back toffee / tɒfi/ /ɑː / back taffee / tɑːfi/
/ɒ/ back shopper /ˈʃɒpə/ /ɑ: / back shapper /ˈʃɑːpər/
/ɒ/ back job /dʒɒb/ /ɑː / back jab /dʒɑːb/
/ɒ/ back top /tɒp/ /ɑː / back tap /tɑ:p/
/ɒ/ back college /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/ /ɑː / back callege /ˈkɑːl.ɪdʒ/
/ɒ/ back doctor /ˈdɒktə/ /ɑː / back dactor /ˈdɑːktər/
/ɒ/ back body ˈbɒdi/ /ɑː: / back bady ˈbɑ:di/
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

4.2 Graphical Representation

4.2.1 Pronunciation of a Word Modern:

Modern
70%
62%
Percentage of Participants Response

60%

50%

40% 38%

30%

20%

10%

0%
Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation

Figure 1. Modern

62% students were good in pronouncing word modern as/ˈmɒdən/, in English, whereas 38%

were those who pronounced ‘modern’ as/ˈmɑːdərn/ ‘madern’ in the given passage. The total

number of appearance of vowel /ɒ/, in ˈmɒdən/ pronounced accurately by 31 participants.

However, L1 Punjabi speaker replaced /ɒ/ into /ɑ: / in ˈmɑːdərn/ by 19 in number.

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

4.2.2 Pronunciation of a Word Toffee:

Toffee
100%
90% 86%
Percentage of Participants Response

80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20% 14%
10%
0%
Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation

Figure 2. Toffee

86% students were accurate in pronouncing word toffee as / tɒfi/, in English, whereas 14% were

those who pronounced ‘toffee’ as/ tɑːfi/ taffee in the given passage. The total number of

appearance of vowel /ɒ/, in/ tɒfi/, pronounced accurately by 43 participants. However, L1

Punjabi speaker replaced /ɒ/ into /ɑ: / in / tɑːfi/ by 7 in number.

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

4.2. 3 Pronunciation of a Word Shopper:

Shopper
120%
Percentage of Participants Response

100% 96%

80%

60%

40%

20%
4%
0%
Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation

Figure 3. Shopper

96% students were good in pronouncing word shopper as /ˈʃɒpə/, in English, whereas 4% were

those who pronounced ‘shopper’ as /ˈʃɑːpər/ ‘shapper’ in the given passage. The total number of

appearance of vowel /ɒ/, in /ˈʃɒpə/, pronounced accurately by 48 participants. However, L1

Punjabi speaker replaced /ɒ/ into /ɑ: / in /ˈʃɑːpər/ by 2 in number.

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

4.2.4 Pronunciation of a Word Job:

Job
80%
Percentage of Participants Response

70% 68%

60%

50%

40%
32%
30%

20%

10%

0%
Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation

Figure 4. Job

68% students were accurate in pronouncing word job as /dʒɒb/, in English, whereas 32% were

those who pronounced ‘job’ as /dʒɑːb/ ‘jab’ in the given passage.

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

4.2.5 Pronunciation of a Word top:

Top
100%
90%
Percentage of Participants Response

90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
10%
0%
Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation

Figure 5. Top

90% students were good in pronouncing word top as /tɒp/, in English, whereas 10% were those

who pronounced ‘top’ as /tɑ: p/ ‘tap’ in the given passage. The total number of appearance of

vowel /ɒ/, in /tɒp/, / pronounced accurately by 45 participants. However, L1 Punjabi speaker

replaced /ɒ/ into /ɑ: / in/tɑ:p/ by 5 in number.

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

4.2. 6 Pronunciation of a Word College:

College
90%
82%
Percentage of Participants Response

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20% 18%

10%

0%
Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation

Figure 6: College

82% students were good in pronouncing word College as /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/, in English, whereas 18%

were those who pronounced ‘college’ as/ˈkɑːlɪdʒ/ ‘collage’ in the given passage. The total

number of appearance of vowel /ɒ/, in /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/, pronounced accurately by 41 participants.

However, L1 Punjabi speaker replaced /ɒ/ into /ɑ: / in /ˈkɑːlɪdʒ/ by 9 in number.

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

4.2. 7 Pronunciation of a Word Doctor:

Doctor
120%
Percentage of Participants Response

98%
100%

80%

60%

40%

20%
2%
0%
Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation

Figure 7. Doctor

98% students were good in pronouncing word doctor as /ˈdɒktə/, in English, whereas 2% were

those who pronounced ‘doctor’ as /ˈdɑːktər/ ‘dactor’ in the given passage. The total number of

appearance of vowel /ɒ/, in/ˈdɒktə/, pronounced accurately by 49 participants. However, L1

Punjabi speaker replaced /ɒ/ into /ɑ: / in /ˈdɑːktər/ by 1.

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

4.2.8 Pronunciation of a Word body:

Body
56%
54%
Percentage of Participants Response

54%

52%

50%

48%
46%
46%

44%

42%
Correct Pronunciation Incorrect Pronunciation

Figure 8. Body

54% students were good in pronouncing word body as /ˈbɒdi/ in English, whereas 46% were

those who pronounced ‘body’ as ˈbɑ:di/ ‘bady’ in the given passage. The total number of

appearance of vowel /ɒ/, in/ˈbɒdi/ pronounced accurately by 27 participants. However, L1

Punjabi speaker replaced /ɒ/ into /ɑ: / in ˈbɑ:di/ by 23 in number.

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

6. Conclusion

The errors in the pronunciation of vowel sound that apparent in English

words was considered to be a very crucial issue faced by students in

speaking of L2 i.e. English language. Well, this issue was important because

many students unconsciously mispronounced these types of words including

toffee, top, job, modern, doctor, body, shopper and college. This problem

need to be given worth importance because inaccurate pronunciation lead to

the poor speaking skill in English which is a second language. Therefore, this

study managed to establish a valid claim regarding the wrong pronunciation

of the vowel sound ‘o’ in words.

The purpose of a study was to monitor the pronunciation of the second

language speakers specifically considering the two vowel sounds ‘o’ and ‘a’,

where o was marked as correct pronunciation and ‘a’ was marked as

incorrect one. The intermediate students whose mother tongue was Urdu

when speaking the vocabulary items from English language made

pronunciation errors unconsciously. The accurate pronunciation of the words

just because of the phonetic variation from ‘o’ sound to ‘a’ became

inaccurate. As a result, during the utterance of toffee, / tɒfi/, shopper /ˈʃɒpə/,

job /dʒɒb/, top /tɒp/, modern /ˈmɒdən/, college /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/, doctor /ˈdɒktə/, and

body /ˈbɒdi/ changed into taffee / tɑːfi/, shapper /ˈʃ ɑːpər/, jab /dʒɑːb/, tap
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

/tɑːp/, madern /ˈmɑːdərn/, callege /ˈkɑːl.ɪdʒ/, dactor /ˈdɑːk.tər/, and bady

/ˈbɑːdi/.

This study enabled to draw a conclusion regarding the pronunciation

skills of the intermediate students by looking at the two sides; firstly it

focused on to what extent intermediate students make phonetic variation of

‘o’ sound to ‘a’ sound and secondly, observed the factors which were

responsible for the wrong pronunciation of these words.

The researcher had considered the long and short vowels in such a

way that ‘o’ was considered as short vowel and ‘a’ was considered as long

vowel. Basically, this study focused on the transformation from the short to

long vowel. The English word like ‘body’ when pronounced with short vowel

‘o’, it seemed to be exist in correct pronunciation. Likewise, when there were

phonetic transformation into vowel ‘a’ sound, it became incorrect

pronunciation of a word.

The correct or incorrect was dependent on the speaking skill of the

participants because those students who had good command in English

language and spoke well, had pronounced all these words accurately.

However, those who had poor speaking skill in English had mispronounced
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

many, some and few vocabulary item that was given to them in the form of

an oral drill.

The collection of data established a claim for the researcher to figure

out ‘how many words’ and ‘how much participants’ made pronunciation

errors in uttering the words having vowel ‘o’ sound because this study

focused was on the incorrect pronunciation of the vowel sound ‘o’ in the

words which lead towards the poor speaking skill in English.

During analyzing each student pronunciation regarding these words

toffee, top, job, modern, doctor, body, shopper and college, there were some

essential factors which were derived from the observational study by the

observer. These factors were taken into account with the perspective of

wrong pronunciation of the words which followed phonetic variation from ‘o’

to ‘a’ sound. Among all the mentioned factors, the most effecting factor of

our study was the influence of mother tongue on the pronunciation of a

second language on word level.

It was evaluated that the words of English language containing vowel

‘o’ sound were mispronounced due to the pronunciation which was exercised

in the Urdu language. As in Urdu language, words are spoken in such a way
THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

of pronouncing it in a stretched tone. Consequently, when the words are

stretched, then the short vowel ‘o’ converted into long vowel ‘a ‘in English

words.

The results of a study were satisfactory as well as unsatisfactory because

although many participants made pronunciation mistakes in these words but

at the same time, there were also other who made no pronunciation

mistakes in the ten words. The maximum results were in support of a

problem statement because through this study, it was tried to explore the

students who were more inclined towards the inaccurate pronunciation and

therefore converted ‘o’ sound into ‘a’ sound in words. Except the 13 students

who were enough proficient in their pronunciation, all the other students

made wrong pronunciation somewhere.

Hence, the researcher had raised some important issues regarding the

articulation of vowel sound ‘o’ which had a great impact on the pronunciation

of these words. Through the data, it was exposed that when L2 learners

uttered a particular word like ‘modern’, then he might relate his first

language pronunciation with the second language and as a result he made

pronunciation in a wrong way. In order to solve the problem of pronunciation

in these types of words containing a vowel ‘o’, it is important to motivate the

L2 learner in making good pronunciation. Furthermore, the factor of

influence of Urdu language upon the students need to be study in deep

THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION FROM VOWEL ‘O’ TO ‘A’ SOUND

manner. So, that the pronunciation errors could be eliminated from the

English words.