According to a world economic forum article, English is the world’s most widely spoken language. What is interesting about this fact is that majority of the speakers are actually non-native users of the language. This is enough reason to maintain a certain standard in the pronunciation of English words to reduce miscommunication.
Imagine if the world had all the variants of English – Indian English, Chinese English, Nigerian English, Senegalese English and so on. How would we be able to achieve harmony and effectiveness in communication? It would be total chaos because the Indian would pronounce a word in Indian English, which might mean something different in Chinese English.
Why Proper Pronunciation is Important
Let’s look at the example of “Deceased” and “Diseased”. A lot of times, people pronounce these two words the same way. There is the tendency to give the pronunciation of “Diseased” to “Deceased” and this could cause quite some confusion especially since both words have some relation to health and death.
Interestingly, when I looked up the phonetic spelling of “Deceased” on Wiktionary, it was surprising to see that the pronunciation of “Diseased” had been ascribed as the Nigerian English version for “Deceased”.
While it may look like a good thing to actually have your own brand of English, it is worthy of note that everywhere else, the pronunciation remains unchanged. So if a Nigerian were to be having a conversation with anyone else using the Nigerian English version, there might be some miscommunication.
Want to know what the proper way to pronounce these two words and how they differ? Listen to spi:k rait’s ‘Biola Ufeli in the video below.
Do you have a word you find difficult to pronounce? You can let us know in the comments. Book a course with us today and let’s increase your confidence and fluency in the English language.
