The Concept of Neutral Accent & Spelling and Pronunciation

The Concept of Neutral Accent & Spelling and Pronunciation

Accent is defined as the pronunciation characteristic of a particular group of people relative to
another group. It is different from a dialect which is a variety of a language differing in grammar,
vocabulary and pronunciation. When we talk of a neutral accent we do not mean any particular
accent. A neutral English accent in the context of India is pronunciation of English without any
negative influence of a mother tongue or of a regional accent. It is advisable to adopt one of the
chief varieties as a model and maintain consistency in its use. For historical reasons India has been
following the British RP as a model, as already stated. The American accent is beginning to make its
presence felt in India also, especially at the individual (non-institutional) level. One thing worth noting here is that though these are two different varieties, they have far more similarities than differences. It may also be noted that our discussion below is based on Standard British English.

Spelling and Pronunciation

The lack of one-to-one correspondence between the spelling and pronunciation of a word has always
created problems for a speaker of English. In some languages, such as Hindi, a letter is always pronounced in the same way irrespective of its position in a word (beginning, middle, end). So there is no confusion as to how to pronounce that letter. But in English, the same letter or combination of letters can be pronounced in different ways. For example, in the words chef and chap, though the initial letters are the same, the pronunciation is different. Similarly, the letter g is pronounced in two different ways in ginger and gregarious and h is silent in hour but pronounced in horse. It is essential to know the different sounds that a language has so that one can internalize the rules of spelling and pronunciation.