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ELF Annual Research Journal 17 (2015) 75-92

Presenting Pronunciation in a Dictionary: A Critical Survey

of Bilingual English-Sindhi Dictionaries

Zulfiqar Ali Shah , Ghulam Mustafa Mashori

ABSTRACT: This study aims to investigate the approaches adopted by bilingual English-Sindhi dictionaries in presenting phonological information on headwords. Almost all important dictionaries are studied for this purpose. A unique trend has been identified. Most bilingual English-Sindhi dictionaries don’t provide phonological information on the entries at all. Few dictionaries set the trend of providing pronunciation (Shahani, 1939; Yadgar, 1988; Kifayat, 2001; Advanced Dictionary, 2007; and Oxford, 2010). Almost all dictionaries except the one-The Oxford Elementary Learner’s English-Sindhi Dictionary, (2006) which uses IPA, adopt the method of providing pronunciation in Sindhi characters. This study also tries to find the strengths and weaknesses of these dictionaries in the use of Sindhi characters for providing pronunciation. The study concludes by pointing out many shortcomings and weaknesses in the method of representing information on pronunciation for the headwords. The use of diacritic marks on Sindhi characters is strongly recommended. This study also suggests some guidelines for the future compilers to follow. In the light of these guidelines a better approach may be adopted in future.

Keywords: Microstructure, bilingual dictionary, pronunciation, English Sindhi

Introduction

Dictionary is an important reference work in general and in language learning and language teaching in particular. Lexicography is an academic field which studies the theory of dictionary research or dictionary criticism and practice of dictionary making (Hartmann, 1998; Bejoint, 2000; Landau, 2001 & Jackson, 2002). Sindhi language is one of the important languages in Indo-Aryan branch of modern languages. It is being spoken by about 40 million speakers around the world (Cole, 2005) with a very rich tradition of literature and culture. During the British rule over Sindh i.e. 1842-1947, Sindhi language got its present form, grammar, and structure. Present day Sindhi alphabet was introduced in 1853 by a committee of experts on it

Assistant Professor, & Ph.D Scholar, Institute of English Languages & Literature, Shah Abdul Latif University,

Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan.

** Professor and Director, Institute of English Languages & Literature, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Sindh,

Pakistan.

Z.A Shah, G.M Mashori / ELF Annual Research Journal 17 (2015) 75-92

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(Jetley, 1999, p. 163). This study aims to investigate one aspect of the microstructure (Jackson, 2002) of dictionary i.e. pronunciation in bilingual English Sindhi dictionary.

Six important dictionaries starting from the first dictionary to include pronunciations in it language (Shahani, 1939) to the latest one (Oxford, 2010) are selected for this purpose. List of the dictionaries analyzed is given in table 1 below:

Table 1 List of the Bilingual English Sindhi Dictionaries Analyzed

No. Dictionary Compiler Year

1 English Sindhi Dictionary Anandram T. Shahani 1939

2 Yadgar Dictionary Shah, A. D & Mangi, B. A 1988

3 Sindhica Dictionary English-Sindhi

Sindhica Academy, Karachi 2003

4 Kifayat’s English to English and Sindhi Dictionary

Rashid Ahmed Memon 2004

5 Advanced Dictionary: English to English and Sindhi

Abdul Nabi Pirzado 2007

6 Oxford English Sindhi Dictionary

Shah, Q & Abro, B 2010

Literature Review

Microstructure of a Dictionary

Usually, some information about a word or a lexical item is to be located and studied in a dictionary. We tend to find the form or spelling of a word, its structure, meaning, grammar, usage and information about its origin. This is the information or comment on the headword entry in a dictionary. The arrangement of such information within the entries of a dictionary is known as the microstructure of that dictionary.

The Micro structure of a dictionary includes:

• Spelling

• Pronunciation

• Inflection

• Word class

• Meanings

• Definition

• Usage

• Etymology (Jackson, 2002)

A Critical Survey of Bilingual English-Sindhi Dictionaries

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Pronunciation

Besides the main information on ‘meaning’, dictionaries are also consulted for the pronunciation of a word. Pronunciation is the symbolic representation of the sounds of a word. It is the ‘phonological counterpart of spelling’. It is the representation of words in ‘the medium of sound as against its shape in the medium of writing’. So, it is the fore most task of a dictionary to indicate the sounds that constitute the pronunciation of the word, and the stress pattern of the words having more than one syllable. Mostly, there are two ways to transcribe the pronunciation of a word in a dictionary. One is ‘respelling’ system used in the early edition of Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and also in the Chamber’s Dictionary. On the other hand, most modern dictionaries, and all learners’ dictionaries use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent pronunciation. Based on Roman alphabet, IPA was developed by the International Phonetic Association in the late nineteenth century and now is internationally recognised phonetic alphabet. IPA uses single symbol to represent a sound. It uses extra symbols besides the letters from Roman alphabet while ‘respelling’ system is restricted only to Roman alphabet. That is why, in ‘respelling’ system, dictionaries use diacritics or a large number of digraphs to represent correct pronunciation.

Here are few examples of ‘IPA’ system and ‘respelling’ system from Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary ‘OALD8’and ‘Chambers’, respectively.

Table 2 Presenting Pronunciations in a Dictionary

Word IPA (OALD8) Respelling (Chamber’s)

cheese ʧiːz che z cook kʊk kook

complex kɒmpleks kompleks

cricket krɪkɪt krikit

factor fӕktə(r) faktər infuse ɪnfjuːz infu z lash lӕʃ lash

niche oblige

niːʃ əblaɪʤ

ne sh

ə-bli j

The learners’ dictionaries of English now usually give American pronunciation also alongside the British one. Here is a list of few words with British and American pronunciation drawn from OALD8.

Table 3 Presenting British and American Pronunciations in a Dictionary


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Word British Pronunciation American Pronunciation

advance comment schedule farm record oppose

ədvaːns kɒment ʃedjuːl fɑːm rekɔːd əpəʊz

ədvӕns kɑːment skedʒuːl fɑːrm rekərd əpoʊz

As, there are many regional accents of English; dictionaries usually follow ‘standard accent’ or ‘received pronunciation’ RP accent.

Research Methodology

The present research is qualitative and critical in nature. It is carried out through objective observation and critical analysis (Hartmann, 2001). The research tools used in this study are ‘critical analysis’ (Hartmann, 2001; Akasu, 2013) and ‘content analysis’ (Scott, 2006; Julien, 2008; Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2011).

“Content analysis is an accepted method of textual investigation…In content analysis, researchers establish a set of categories and then count the number of instances that fall into each category” (Silverman, 2001, p.183 ).

Content analysis is an interpretive method of enquiry which involves the close and careful reading of the contents of a text. The findings based on content analysis may show ‘recurrent instances’ of “items” or “themes”. According to Julien (2008) the categories or clusters of data identified may represent discrete instances. It means whether something or some element is present or absent in the given text or document. In this method researcher classifies and identifies the categories in a text. ‘Ones thematic categories are identified, the careful researcher attempts to ensure that the groupings or categories of data are carefully defined in ways that are comprehensive.’ (Julien, 2008). The researcher has to confirm what is covered in the actual text and what is missing or not present in the text.

Data Analysis

English-Sindhi Dictionary by Anandram T. Shahani (1939)

The English-Sindhi Dictionary compiled by Shahani (1939) is the first English-Sindhi dictionary with pronunciation of English words in Sindhi characters. It was for the first time that pronunciation of English words was given in Sindhi characters in any English-Sindhi dictionary.


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The one thing for which this dictionary is popular is its presentation of pronunciations of English words. Before this dictionary, no other bilingual English – Sindhi dictionary made attempts in this area. As the compiler explains this in the preface, it is very difficult to give pronunciation of an English word in another language, because even two native speakers don’t pronounce a word exactly as the same. Yet, the compiler has tried his best to give more standard pronunciations commonly found with the native speakers.

As the pronunciations are given in Sindhi, the compiler makes them clear by placing diacritical marks on almost every letter. In this way pronunciations become intelligible and clear.

The dictionary gives two pronunciations of an English word where necessary as native speakers sometimes use both pronunciations, as,

barrage بئريج ، براج cabaret ڪئبريٽ ، ڪئبري

canine ڪنائين ، ڪئنائين celestial )سليس شل ، )ٽئل

clinch ڪلنچ ،ڪلنش courier ڪريئر ، ڪوريئر

distillery ڊس ٽلري ، ڊسٽيلري effectual )افيڪ ٽيوئل ، )چئل

The compiler explains the issue of pronunciation in the preface,

‘many words ending with ‘ture’ are pronounced by some as/tʃər/and by else

as/tʃuːər/, while the pronunciation of ‘tian’ in some words is made as

tʃʌn/ and /tʃӕn/, and of ‘du’ as /duː/ or /juː/.

In order to register all standard varieties and every day dialects, the compiler chooses to give them all in the dictionary. But at some places it has

uselessly been made complex, as ‘culture’ as pronounced both as /kʌltʃər/ and

/kʌltəʊr/ while only the first pronunciation is accepted universally as correct.

The most striking feature of Shahani’s dictionary is its use of diacritic marks on Sindhi letters to make the pronunciation as near to the standard one as possible. A few examples are illustrated below:

Burden برڊن Button بٽن

Dire ڊاير Dirt ڊرٽ

Emersion امرشن Stitch چٽ س

Turn ٽرن Yadgar Dictionary: English to English and Sindhi (1988)


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Two renowned teachers of English, Sayed Ali Dino Shah and Bashir Ahmed Mangi compiled this dictionary. In 1988, Yadgar Publishers, Hyderabad published it. It is well about 920 demy size pages and gives 18-20 lexical items per page, hence covering approximately 1800 lexical items. The latest edition of 2007 of the dictionary is under study for this research.

Pronunciation of English words in Sindhi is given in brackets. In the order of presentation, pronunciation is the first micro information given in the dictionary before the word class labeling.

The compilers have given a separate introductory note on the presentation of pronunciation in the dictionary. The compilers describe the pronunciation given in the dictionary as that of Received Pronunciation ‘RP’. They further inform that all pronunciations have been confirmed from ‘Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary’ and from the cassette which is accompanied with the BBC dictionary.

In spite of the hard work done by the compilers with respect to pronunciations, the dictionary is full of mistakes and misprints in this regard.

First and foremost factor is the absence of diacritical marks in the Sindhi form of pronunciations. It is not possible to describe the exact pronunciation of an English word in Sindhi without diacritical marks. Though sometimes these marks are placed, yet neither regularly nor in correct form. That is why, the pronunciation section of the dictionary is full of blunders and thus, misleading. Here are some examples:

The dictionary never makes difference in /ɑː/, /ɔː/and /ɒ/ as illustrated in table 4 below:

Table 4

Comparison of Dictionary Translations with their Phonemic Translations

Word Pronunciation given in Sindhi

Transcription of Sindhi

Pronunciation

Phonemic Transcription(OALD 8)

Apostle اپاسل əpɑ:sl əpɒsl

Applaud ڊاپال əplɑ:d əplɔːd

Copper اپرڪ kɑ:pər kɒpə (r)

Copulate ٽاپيوليڪ kɑ:pju:let kɒpjuleɪt


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Copy اپيڪ kɑ:pi: kɒpi

Hostile ائلٽهاس hɑ:staɪl hɒstaɪl

Order رڊآ ɑ:dər ɔːdə(r)

Oracle لڪآر ɑ:rkɪl ɒrəkl

Organ اوگن əʊgən ɔːgən

Profit ٽپراف prɑ:fɪt prɒfɪt

Project ڪٽپراجي prɑ:ekt prɒʤekt

No difference has been made between /əʊ/ and /ɔː/ in Sindhi

pronunciations; as ‘menopause’ مين پوز as /menəpəʊz/ while actually it is

/menəpɔːz/; few other examples are:

Odd آڊ

Odour اوڊر

Posture پاسچر

Potter پاٽر

Spot اسپاٽ

Snob سناب

Sock ساڪ

Sort ساٽ The well-known consonant sound of English /ŋ/is wrongly

interpreted and identified with Sindhi nasal implosive ڱ. Whole dictionary

carries this misunderstanding. Few examples:

blank بلئڱڪ

carbuncle ڪابڱڪل


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king ڪڱ

sink سڱڪ

link لڱڪ

Pink پڱڪ Another blunder in pronunciation is to describe the first consonant sound of

/s/ as /ɪs/ in the words beginning with /sp/ letter. This mistake is almost generally adopted through out in the dictionary. Just few examples are quoted as under:

spoon اسپون

split اسپلٽ

speak اسپيڪ

special اسپيشل

spread اسپريڊ

spy اسپاء

standard اسٽئنڊڊ

stem اسٽيم

Other Common Blunders of Pronunciation

There is an endless list of blunders in the pronunciation part of dictionary. Some of them may be mistakes of printing and some on behalf of the compilers. Few of them are:

alcohol آئل ڪهال /a:ɪlkɪhaːl/

complement ڪام پل نٽ /kɑːmpɪlnɪt/

conquest ڪا ڪئيسٽ /kɑːkʊest/

merchant مچنٽ /məʧənt/

merciful مسفل /məsfl/

mercury مڪوري /məkuːri/

naïve ناء ايٽو /nɑːiːtɪv/


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Kifayat’s Comprehensive English to English and Sindhi Dictionary (2001)

Kifayat’s comprehensive English to English and Sindhi Dictionary is a monumental work done in the field of Sindhi lexicography (Shah, 2009). The dictionary spreads over three huge volumes containing 3686 pages. The first volume carries letters from A to H, (1-1321) the second from I to R (1322-2659), and the third volume contains letters from S to Z (2660-2659). The information about abbreviations containing 36 pages is given at the end of the dictionary.

The dictionary is English to English and Sindhi; we are concerned only with the Sindhi portion of it in this study.

To give correct pronunciations in a dictionary is always a most challenging job. This becomes even more difficult when pronunciations are to be given in Sindhi. This is the third English-Sindhi Dictionary in which pronunciations are given in Sindhi characters. Shahani’s, (1939) and Yadgar’s dictionary, (1988) are predecessors to this one in this regard.

After the careful study of pronunciations in these dictionaries, it becomes quite clear that without diacritic marks on them, English pronunciations are not possible to produce in Sindhi.

The dictionary adopts the methods of diacritic marks regularly but only for the entries of first letter-A. Then, these marks appear less frequently. Without these marks, it becomes very difficult to distinguish two pronunciations from one another. For example, the pronunciation of the following words becomes identical in the dictionary and indistinguishable.

Bail bale bell

Bake beck

Check cheek

Card chord

Ferm firm

Glass gloss

Glow glue

Mail male meal

Mid mud

Pain pen

Some examples of homographs from the dictionary:

bow bow


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Close close

Row row

Sow sow

Use use

The user’s guide with the title of ‘using this dictionary’ reads; ‘attention to English spelling can only make it clear to the user to correctly pronounce the word’. However, it is quite clear even to a layman that one cannot pronounce English word from its spelling. Many times spelling of an English word is misleading. So, it becomes necessary to place diacritic marks on Sindhi spellings and their clear guide to the readers.

It is the pronunciation part, where the dictionary is full of mistakes. In order to make the distinction clear, a few examples are quoted as under (Adopted from Shah & Khand 2009, p. 39).

Pronunciation in the Dictionary RP Pronunciation (OALD-8)

Adjective ائڊ جيڪٽو /ӕdʤektɪv/ /ӕʤɪktɪv/

adjoin ائڊ جوائن /ӕdʤwɑɪn/ /ӕdʤɔɪn/

Bury بري /bəriː/ /beri/

Climb ڪالئيمب /klaɪmb/ /klaɪm/

Dengue ڊينيو /denjuː/ /deŋgi/

Enchant اين چانٽ /enʧɑ:nt/ /ɪnʧɑ:nt/

Encourage اين ڪريج /enkəreʤ/ /ɪnkʌrɪʤ/

Obedience اوبيڊينس /əʊbi:dens/ /əbidəns/

Obey اوبي /əʊbeɪ/ /əbeɪ/

These are just few examples to show that one cannot claim this dictionary as an authentic source on English language. However, one cannot deny the pain of collection and confirmation of the correct pronunciations through which the team of compilers under went. It makes the reader obliged to appreciate them.

Many words starting with /s/ sound are pronounced in the

dictionary as /ɪs/ which is clearly Sindhi style of pronouncing English words:


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spoon اسپون

skip اسڪپ

skill اسڪل

skin اسڪن

spray اسپري

state اسٽيٽ

All these words are wrongly pronounced by starting with /ɪs/ sound instead of /s/, which is the correct sound.

Advanced Dictionary: English to English and Sindhi (2007)

This is the latest English-Sindhi dictionary published in 2007 by Kathiwar Stores, Urdu Bazar, Karachi. The main body of the dictionary spreads over 1314 pages with 46 pages for other information at the end of the dictionary, making the total number of pages to 1360.

Main entries are given in bold type and almost all entries start with a capital letter. A table of ‘contents’ is given before the start of the dictionary. The contents cover the information about the location of words by mentioning their pages. So the table shows the page number for all letters from A to Z.

Pronunciation of English lexical items is given in Sindhi. Unfortunately, as with other dictionaries, this one also does not place diacritics on Sindhi words. That is why, the pronunciation part of the dictionary is deceiving and misleading. There are many words whose pronunciations cannot be differentiated without diacritic marks. Below are a few examples (Adopted from Shah & Khand, 2009, p. 39):

bale and bell )بيل( league, lag and leg )ليگ(

lake and leak )ليڪ( lodge and loge )الج(

pit and put )پٽ( lick and luck )لڪ(

main and mean )مين( mis and muss (مس)

steam and stem ٽيم()اس steep and step )اسٽيم( The dictionary is full of mistakes and blunders in the part of

pronunciations. The words starting with /o/ are pronounced as /əʊ/ while

most of them are actually pronounced as /ə/ as;


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‘obey, objective, object, obedient, oblige’ all these words are

presented as starting with /əʊ/ sound in the dictionary instead of /ə/. Same is practiced by Kifayat’s Dictionary which has been discussed in detail there.

Words like ‘adjective, adjoin, adjourn, adjust’ are pronounced with

the initial sound as /ӕd/, but in their actual RP pronunciation the /d/ sound in these words is not pronounced.

The other blunder is committed in the pronunciation of English words starting with /s/ sound. Most of these words are pronounced in the

dictionary as starting with /ɪs/ sound. For example;

‘school, student, stand, still, stone, stop, store’ etc all these words

have been given /ɪs/ sound in their start in the dictionary.

There is a long list of words, which are wrongly pronounced in the dictionary. Few examples with their pronunciations are:

ballad )بالڊ(

climb )ڪلمب(

coupdetat )ڪوپ ڊيتا(

debut )ڊي بٽ(

examination )ايگزاميننشن(

expand )ايڪسپانڊ( Oxford English Sindhi Dictionary (2010)

Oxford English Sindhi Dictionary (OESD) came out in 2010 and is published by Oxford University Press, Karachi. It is a good addition in the tradition of bilingual dictionary making in Sindhi. It spreads over almost 2100 pages. Though few popular English Sindhi Dictionaries were present in the scenario, there was a persisting need for a good dictionary in the field.

This dictionary is the directed adaptation of Concise Oxford Dictionary. As mentioned on the front matter of the dictionary English text is taken from the 9th edition of Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995).

The system of presenting pronunciation of an English word is based on the older version of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). All modern English dictionaries i.e. Oxford Advanced Learners’, Cambridge, Longman, give pronunciations in the revised version of IPA i.e. 2005. The learner who is familiar with OALD or any other modern English dictionary will find it confusing to read the correct pronunciation of an English word.


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The IPA symbols used in this dictionary are compared with IPA system in other modern dictionaries as under:

IPA in OESD

IPA Modern (2005)

Word Pronunciation

in OALD Pronunciation

in OESD

ʌ ӕ cat, fan kӕt , fӕn kat , fan

ʌɪ aɪ fine faɪn fʌɪn

ɛ e pen pen pɛn

əː ɜː girl ɡɜːl ɡəːl ɛː eə hair heə (r) hɛː

(Shah & Mashori, 2011, p. 43)

Instead of /e/ it gives /ɛ/ as for send, or self.

Instead of giving well known symbol of /ӕ/ in the words like ‘cat’, the dictionary provides /a/ for this double vowel sound. This feature runs throughout the dictionary, and is certainly misguiding.

The English diphthong/ɜː/ for the sound occurring in the words like

‘girl’ and ‘thirst’ is wrongly given as /əː/. It is actually an old system. Now

all English dictionaries represent this sound with the IPA symbol of /ɜː/. (Roach, 1983, Crystal, 1987; Cruttenden, 1994)

Pronunciation of English sound /ɜː/ in Sindhi is completely misleading. For example, the pronunciation of two English words ‘gurn’ and

‘gun’ appears as same as /گن/ on page no.781 & 782 respectively.

In the Sindhi characters these pronunciations are totally misguiding. In the following table we will illustrate with more examples how a misguiding pronunciation is given which is identical with a different word:

Word Pronunciation in

Sindhi

Transcription in IPA of Sindhi

Pronunciation

burn; bun نب bʌn

ton; turn; tonne نٽ tʌn

tough; turf فٽ tʌf

verdict ڊڪٽو vədkʌt

verge وج vəʤ

verb وب vəb

verbal وبل vəbəl

virgin وجن vəʤən


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virtue يوٽو vətjoʊ

word ڊو wəd

work ڪو wək

world ڊول wəld

(Shah & Mashori, 2011, p.44)

These are few examples to clarify that the present dictionary uses an outdated version of IPA system. This system is used for the description of Cardinal Vowel System but is not used for Transcription or for Dictionary Pronunciation. Though based on Concise Oxford Dictionary, this dictionary will be of less use for the learner who refers most modern dictionaries.

The system given by original version of the Concise Oxford Dictionary has been adopted without giving any second thought to it to make the dictionary updated.

Findings

To give pronunciation of English words in Sindhi characters is very difficult. However, editors have certainly done a good job. In many respects they are successful. But in the pronunciation of few English sounds they have

committed blunders. For example, for the English sound of /ŋ/ there is a Sindhi letter given, which is absolutely a different sound. This sound comes in words like ‘sing’, ‘thing’, ‘think’ and in ‘dengue’. When one sees the pronunciation of these and such like words one will be disappointed to find their substitute in Sindhi as

which is not an appropriate sound especially when fully released. An Arabic ,/ڱ/

diacritic mark of ‘mad’ may have been used over/ن/to represent this sound. For

example when we pronounce word ‘dengue’ it will never be /ڊيڱگي/ as the

dictionary says (p. 454). Few more examples with this mispronunciation are as under:

Table 5 Pronunciations

Word Pronunciation Provided

Adjunct ايجڱٽ Building بلڊنڱ Bank بيڱڪ Bunk بڱڪ

Junk جڱڪ

Prink پرنڱڪ Priming پرائمڱ


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Sing سڱ

Sink سڱڪ

Tonga گهٽاڱ

tongue ٽڱ

The English sound /θ/ is represented with Sindhi letter /ٿ/ which

is never the right symbol. /ٿ / is completely different sound and English

sound /θ/ is completely different. The Sindhi pronunciation of word ‘gigolo’

is given as/ گلومژ (p.735) where as it is without م sound as / گلوژ /. It may be

the mistake of proof reading.

Examples of some misguiding presentation of pronunciations

In addition to the mistakes in few important sounds of English and their counterparts in Sindhi as mentioned above, there are few other mistakes here and there in the dictionary. In the following table, we will cite few mistakes of the pronunciations which will illustrate this feature of the dictionary more clearly:

Word Pronunciation in OESD in

Sindhi Pronunciation in OALD

(8th)

bird Pronunciation missing

bunch بنش bʌnʧ

flow فالء fləʊ

situation سٽييئشن sɪʧueɪʃn

turf ٽف tɜːf

virtue وٽيو vɜːʧu

Conclusion

This study concludes that out of eleven bilingual English-Sindhi dictionaries, six dictionaries (Stack, 1849; Lakshman, 1868; Mirchandani, 1928; Bulchand, 1932; Mewaram, 1933; and Sindhica, 2003) don’t provide pronunciation at all. The five dictionaries give pronunciation on their entries which are Shahhani (1939); Yadgar (1988); Kifayat (2004); Pirzado (2007); and Oxford (2010).

Among these dictionaries only Shahani makes use of diacritic marks on Sindhi characters hence makes its pronunciations up to the mark and near to perfection. All other dictionaries are full of blunders and don’t follow any linguistic/lexicographic principle in this regard. Later on the Oxford English-Sindhi dictionary makes use of software exclusively developed for this purpose to read the IPA pronunciations in the Concise Oxford Dictionary whose translation it is and convert automatically into pronunciations in


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Sindhi. It may be because of some inbuilt faults in the software that this dictionary also commits mistakes in the pronunciation of some phonemes as described in detail in the body of this article.

As, it is very much evident from the above discussion that no English-Sindhi dictionary fulfills the criterion of the standard method of presenting pronunciation either in respelling system or in an IPA style. Most dictionaries prefer to provide pronunciation of English headwords in Sindhi characters. Many shortcomings and mistakes were found in Sindhi pronunciations. The major phonemes in English which cause problem to reproduce their meaning were found as in consonants:

/θ/, /ŋ/, /ʒ/ and in vowels: /ɒ /, /ɔ:/, /ɜ:/, and initial /s/in some English words.

The need to introduce a system for these problematic English phonemes is emphasized. These sounds cannot be represented in Sindhi characters without proper diacritic marks over them. It is strongly recommended that some diacritic marks be introduced by Sindhi lexicographers or publishers to make it authentic to produce original pronunciations in Sindhi.


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