Say after me: pack, park, peck, perk

Even if you cannot hear and say after me, pronounce the words loud so that you can hear them. It is a way of welcoming you to another phonology diet in this class.

Pack, park, peck and perk spell and sound alike, but they should not be pronounced the same way. The reason is that the vowel element in each has a distinct sound which is, unfortunately, often confused with the others’.

Pack: This is comparatively easy to pronounce. After all, the letter ‘a’ in it comes out as the short A in common words like bat, bag, spat, mat, fact and sanity. So, you just say pAk and you are good to go. Little drama, no stress. Besides, the short A is familiar to many Nigerian speakers of English because it has close counterparts in their mother tongues. Consider the Yoruba language, where there is A in eja (fish), aja (dog), orita (junction), etc. No wonder, to articulate ‘pack’, you just say pAk.

Pack vs park: In the case of ‘park’, the story begins to change. For one, it is wrong to pronounce it as pAk, i.e., the way you do ‘pack’. The difference is that the A in ‘park’ is a long one. In it, we have a long vowel symbolised by ‘ar’, as different from the short one in ‘pack’. Unfortunately, not a few people say pAk when they mean pAAk. Here are some other pairs you need to watch:

Pack: pAk – park: pAAk

Lack: lAk – lark: lAAk

Shack: shAk – shark: shAAk

Back: bAk – bark: bAAk

Fat: fAt – fart: fAAt

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Cat: kAt – cart: kAAt

Bad: bAd – bard: bAAd

Between pack, peck and perk: It is wrong to pronounce ‘perk’ as pAk, pAAk or pEk. This means that it is no longer a question of a short versus long vowel, nor is it a matter of saying the E sound, like the one in pet, bed, well, keg and smell. Rather, we are dealing with another vowel sound entirely. It is the eerr vowel which is in charge in the word, and this should sound as pEERRk, not pAAk or pEk. Now, try to pronounce the three to establish the difference.

Here are other words where EERR is present: herb, superb, herdsman, shirt, bird, mirth, curve, hurt and burn.