Enunciation vs Pronunciation
Remember the time when you were a small kid and often scolded by your English teacher to stop slurring or mumbling in your elocution class? The teacher would make you stand up and ask to enunciate a line or a paragraph clearly. This was just to make you a better speaker as enunciation is an art of speaking clearly. There is another English word called pronunciation that is used for a similar purpose and confuse many. This article attempts to find the subtle difference between these two similar meaning words.
Enunciation
Learning a language has two components of speaking and writing. It is the verbal part or the one that is called spoken English that is important as it requires clear and concise speaking, as opposed to mumbling. Spoken English is what is required during conversation and enunciation is the art of speaking clearly to create a good impression on the listener.
Pronunciation
There are many words in English language that are spelled differently when writing and differently when spoken. This is because certain alphabets require stress while some are silent making usage difficult for non natives. The art of clearly speaking a word laying stress where it is required while omitting the sound in case of silent alphabet is known as pronunciation.
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What is the difference between Enunciation and Pronunciation? • Enunciation is an art of speaking clearly and is taught early in the classes of elocution where teachers make a child speak out poetry or passage aloud in the class • Pronunciation is the art of speaking words clearly knowing where to lay stress and where to omit the sound in case of silent vowel • Pronunciation is a component of enunciation • Enunciation is taught to stop bad speaking like slurring or mumbling • Pronunciation is extremely important for the non-natives; they need to master the usage to avoid being a butt of ridicule |
Thank you, this really cleared it up for me.
Enunciation has to do with crisp sounding of consonants; pronunciation is putting the correct emphasis on the right syllable; e.g. not bah’l but bottle with the t sound clearly enunciated. There will always be regional differences but across the board there is an educated class versus the ignorant (unknowing).