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Voiced palato-alveolar affricate
Voiced postalveolar affricate Voiced postalveolar affricate Voiced postalveolar affricate In Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /dʒ/ corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "job", and "jet" and the final one in "page" and “change.”
/dʒ/ is a voiced consonant; its unvoiced counterpart is IPA phoneme /tʃ/.
/dʒ/ is an affricate; its fricative counterpart is IPA phoneme /ʒ/.
Common words[edit | edit source]
- Initial pronunciation of /dʒ/
- as j: January - jam - Jamaica - James - Jane - Japan - jeans - job - John - join - joke - journey - July - jump - judge - June - just
- as ge/gi/gy: gentleman - gender - gene - general - generate - generation - genetic - Germany - George - Georgia - gesture - giant - gym
- See Decoding the letter G for exceptions.
- Mid-position pronunciation of /dʒ/
- as j: enjoy - injure - major - majority - object - project - reject - subject
- as dj: adjust
- as ge/gi/gy: agency - Algeria - Angela - apologiseBrE - apologize - Argentina - Belgium - biology - danger - Egypt - energy - engineer - imagine - Los Angeles - Niger - Nigeria - refrigerator - original - region - Roger - strategy - technology - urgent - Virginia
- as dge: budget
- Final pronunciation of /dʒ/
- as ge: advantage - age - average - change - charge - college - huge - image - language - large - manage - orange - page - range - stage
- as dge: badge - edge - fridge - judge - knowledge
Homophones:
- genes - jeans; Jim - gym;
Less common words[edit | edit source]
- genus - germ - gin - ginger - gist - gypsum - gypsy
/dʒ/ spelled with “d"[edit | edit source]
- education /edʒʊˈkeɪʃən/
- gradual /ˈɡrædʒʊəl/
- graduate (noun) /ˈɡrædʒʊət/
- graduate (verb) /ˈɡrædʒʊeɪt/
- individual /ɪndɪˈvɪdʒʊəl/
- procedure /prəˈsiːdʒər/
- soldier /ˈsəʊldʒər/
- dream /dʒrim/[1]
/d/ or /dʒ/[edit | edit source]
/dʒ/ spelled with “ch"[edit | edit source]
This is a common voiced mutation.
- sandwich: /ˈsænwɪtʃ, ˈsænwɪdʒ/
- spinach: /ˈspɪnɪtʃ, ˈspɪnɪdʒ/
- Greenwich /ˈgrɪnɪdʒ, ˈgrɪnɪtʃ, ˈgrenɪtʃ, ˈgrenɪdʒ/
- Norwich /ˈnɒrɪdʒ, ˈnɒrɪtʃ/
/dʒ/ spelled with "t"[edit | edit source]
- congratulations: /kəngrætʃəˈleɪʃənz/BrE AmE /kəngrædʒəˈleɪʃənz/AmE [2] The pronunciation with /dʒ/, even if it is recognized by Random House is regarded by some as informal or sloppy.[3]
Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1[edit | edit source]
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.=
German[edit | edit source]
German speakers often devoice this sound so it sounds like an unvoiced palato-alveolar affricate, so that “I am German" sounds like “I am Cherman.”
Spanish[edit | edit source]
As /dʒ/ doesn't exist in Spanish, many Spanish speakers pronounce the initial "j" in words like "job" and "jet" like /j/, i.e. they do not distinguish very well between "yet" and "jet" or "yob" and "job.” Other sounds that they may confuse this sound with are /tʃ/, a sound which does exist in Spanish, and two other sounds which don't: /ʃ/ or /ʒ/, especially as final sounds.
Some Spanish speakers even pronounce “g" as /h/ (actually [x]), just like in Spanish. It is not as uncommon as it should be to hear *[ɪnˈtelɪxənt] (from inteligente).
Argentinian Spanish[edit | edit source]
Most Argentinians pronounce "ll" and "y" as /ʃ/, while some pronounce them like /dʒ/ or /ʒ/. In any case, they confuse these three sounds in any position, not just final.[4] Moreover, since standard pronunciation of Spanish "y" is similar to /j/ some students may also confuse /j/ and /ʃ/.[5] For Argentinians English /j/ is like Spanish "hi" as in "hielo" [ˈjelo].
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Not really a dʒ, but it just sounds like it due to assimilation, with the first consonant becoming more similar to the second.
- ↑ Dictionary.com, congratulation
- ↑ Charles Harrington Elster, The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide for the Careful Speaker, 1999, page 104. Available in Google Books.
- ↑ Search for “Shack el Destripador" (Jack the Ripper) or “Shenifer Lopez.”
- ↑ Search for “Nueva Shork" or "shu tub" (YouTube).