Correct pronunciation

We are lucky that being Bengalees , the wide range of alphabets in Bangla allow us to be able to pronounce almost all the sounds required in the main international languages.

I have noticed that phonetics is very important in any language. A certain word, if mispronounced, can mean a totally different thing altogether e.g. in Chittagonian "uunii" means dried fish (shutki maach) and "unnii" means heard (shunaychi). In urdu, "kabr" means grave and "khhabr" means news. Pronouncing "stretch" as "stress" will make a serious difference in the meaning of a sentence.

In Bengali we often pronounce the words phul, phawl as FOOL, FALL whereas in our alphabet we do not have ANY letters to be pronounced that way. To pronounce PAW and PHAW, both our lips need to be used, whereas to pronounce F, our top set of teeth and lower lip is needed.

In English on the other hand, Phaw does not exist. Unconscious of this fact, we tend to pronounce the English words FOOL and FALL as phuul, and phaawl !!!

All one needs to do is just be constantly alert and conscious about the different sounds around us. With the cable TV nowadays, one has easy access to the channels with many different languages.

Conscious effort should be made by all educational institutions to raise awareness about this very common error which can so easily be rectified.