Synopsis – 01

Interference of Non-similar Mother-tongue Syllable Structure: A Problematic Area of

Pronunciation for Marathi ESL Learners

Introduction

The purpose behind selecting the area of study is very clear. In today’s modern time we are well
familiar to the importance of English language in our country, India. No need to talk much about it.
But it cannot be ignored that still the quality of English spoken in our country is not up to the mark.
Most of us are ESL learners. After struggling years and years we learn average to manage with
written English, but when it comes to speaking in English we intend to step back. What requires to
speak in English or any language in the world is nothing but the spoken form of the language. Spoken
form of a language consists basically pronunciation. English is not an exception for this thing. English
also have its own sound system (consonants, vowels and syllable structure). Unlike most of Indian
languages English is stress-timed language where stressed (strong) and unstressed (weak) syllables
are focused to get the proper pronunciation in it. Thus knowing the nuances of syllable structures
comparatively in Marathi and English will help Marathi speaker of English to get the correct
pronunciation in English without much difficulty.

Scope of the study:

Like different varieties of English in India (Hinglish- English spoken by native speakers of Hindi
from North part of India, Tinglish- English spoken by Telugu speakers in Telangana and Andhra
Pradesh and so on), Marathi-English (Minglish) also has an influence of Marathi language on its own.
Like other most of languages in Indo-European family Marathi also has its own phonotactics and
syllable structure whereas English has its own distinguished sound system different from that of
Marathi. Most of the Marathi ESL learners get mispronunciation as their mother-tongue interferes
with its own syllable structure. A syllable is a crucial thing in spoken language _ “There do exist,
however, circumstances where points of syllable separation are well marked in pronunciation, and
must be shown in transcription in order to render them unambiguous.” - (‘An Outline of English
Phonetics’ by Daniel Jones). They, unconsciously, syllabify English words as per Marathi syllable
structures, and this non-similar syllable structure of Marathi causes many constraint violations in their
English speaking. This is one of the major reasons that prevents Marathi ESL learners from getting
proper pronunciation in English.

Thus the research will focus on:

 the comparative study of syllable structure (onset, rime (nucleus and coda)) in Marathi and
English.
 phonotactics and permissible sound sequence in Marathi-English syllable structure.
 vowel quality in Marathi-English and SANDHI effect.
 different ways of resolving constraint violation. (deletion, insertion and assimilation of a
sound in Marathi-English).
Literature Review

A great deal of previous research by different scholars has focused on the difficulties faced
by Marathi speakers in pronouncing English sounds (e.g. V.V. Yardi & Rubby Rani and
Gokhle Sridhar B on supra-segmental study) but not much study has been done on syllable
level which is the mediator between segmental and supra-segmental studies, and base of all
supra-segmental studies in a language like English. The supra-segmental features (stress,
intonation and rhythm) of English completely rely on proper syllabification of words or
sentences/utterances in other words this syllable structure of English is very much crucial in
order to determine the higher features of spoken English.

Actual work on syllable in Tamil has been done by -----is a great motivation for my study.
But my study will be different from the study in the aspects of methodology, language
specification and analysis. Since both Marathi and Tamil language relate themselves to two
different language families there is far more difference between Marathi and Tamil sound
systems. They have their own distinguished syllable structures.

Methodology:

I would like to prefer mixed (i.e. inductive and deductive) approach for the study. I will collect the
actual data as well as make good use of previous related work in the area for better analysis. The
study will also include comparative approach between experiments in Marathi-English on the basis of
previous work assumptions in the area and contemporary actual observations. The study will equally
take into account both actual data and previous work assumptions for the final conclusion.

References:

Yardi V. (1964). A Comparison of Sounds of Marathi and English. P.G.R.D. thesis. CIEFL,
Hyderabad.

Gokhale S. (1984). Prosodic System in Marathi and Marathi English. Ph.D. thesis. CIEFL,
Hyderabad.

Roach P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology. (Ed.4th ). Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Prakash K. ( ). Basics of Communication Skills.

Sethi J & Dhamija P. (2008). A Course in Phonetics and Spoken English. Prentice-Hall of
India. New Delhi.

Cruttenden A. (2008). Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. (Ed. 7th). Hodder Education, UK.
Murcia M., Brinton D. & Goodwin J. (1996). Teaching Pronunciation. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Wray A. & Bloomer A. (2011). Projects in Linguistics. (Ed. 2nd). Hodder Education. UK.

Daniel J. (2006). English Pronouncing Dictionary. (Ed. 17th). Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 6, No. 2; 2016. Published by Canadian

Center of Science and Education.