Sure…

Warning - this blog might only interest fellow pronunciation obsessed devotees….but here goes": recently, I had some nice feedback about the chart with a caveat about the pronunciation of ‘sure’ on one of the films. The protagonist in the film for the phoneme /ʊə/, uses ‘sure’ as an example. It was pointed out that, according to the Cambridge online dictionary, ‘sure’ should be pronounced as /ʃɔːr/. I found this interesting. I checked the Cambridge dictionary, and indeed it states this for British English (and states /ʃʊr/for American English. Then I checked the Oxford online dictionary and it lists both /ʃʊə(r)/ and/ʃɔː(r)/ for the pronunciation of ‘sure’ and goes with the same American phonemic symbols.

So which one is right? And is any accent right? Now it has to be first stated that the person in the film comes from the north of England, and her accent produces the diphthong in the word. I would hesitate to suggest (because I’m no expert) that the further north one goes, the more the diphthong is pronounced in this word. I’m originally from Birmingham, and while these days you might not be able to hear the brummie in my accent, I would say that I probably say, /ʃʊə(r)/ and not /ʃɔːr/. But here’s the thing: yes, a standard is a useful benchmark, but this is where the phonemic chart lets down any teacher. When there are so many accents out there, and English is increasingly becoming a lingua franca in the world, why are we trying to fit all pronunciation into these 44 sounds, and surely it depends on the area we live, and must allow for the alternative accents around us. So I live in London and there are a plethora of accents out there - the key for me is to try to make sure the people I work with feel more confident in their voice, and take pride in their spoken words irrelevant of the accent they have.

A few people may have the ability to completely take on the accent and the sounds of the language they are learning. But the majority do not. Many people lack confidence, or might need help with certain sounds, and that’s where I think pronunciation teaching comes in as a valuable too: to develop ability in pronouncing so that you can be understood, to develop fluency, and to develop confidence in speaking generally. We all have an accent - may each and every one be celebrated as a symbol of diversity.