New Article : Bilal Blames English

[Abu Tariq Hijazi]

BILAL BLAMES ENGLISH

BY ABU TARIQ HIJAZI

When my younger son Bilal faired nicely in knowing English Alphabets I sat with him to give the first lesson in English pronunciation. He brought his new book to me and started reading. The first word was ‘Cat’.

I said C’ A’ T- Kat He said, No C’A’T’ Sat. I told that C is pronounced as ‘K’ as in Cow, Camel, or Class. He accepted.
The second word was ‘City’. I said C’I’T’Y’ Sity. He said C’I’T’Y’, Kity. I said, No sometime C is pronounced as ‘see’ like Cell, Cent, Cement. He replied, it in funny, sometime “C” sometime ‘K’. I said it is so.

The 3rd word was ‘Cycle’ I said C’Y’C’L’E’ Cykil. He said Sysil, I said No then he said Kykil. I said No then, he said Kysil. I told him it is Cycle read first C as See and second C as K as in circuit. He gazed up on me without saying a word.

The other word was Cancel. He read it Sankel. I said no, here the case is reverse, read first C as K and second C as See.

The next word was ‘Access’. He read it “Asses” I said no, then he said hurriedly Akkes I said no this is Akcess, read first C as K and second C as ‘See’ as in Accept. He cried, but you told me just now, first C as ‘See’ and second as K. I said yes but it is not so here, say it Akcess.
The next word was Concord. He pronounced it as ‘Sonsord’ I said No then he said sonkord and konsort. I told him, it is konkord like contact or calculate , both Cs are pronounced as K. He smiled and said Daddy you are playing with me.

The two other words were Accord and Accessories. I told him that the pair of C in accord is ‘K’ but pair of C in Accessory is ‘See’. He was again surprised.

When I noted that he is getting much confused and loosing interest in the first lesson, I tried to explain the pronunciation of C in different formats and I narrated, Look my dear son, C is See when you read medicine but it is K when you read medical.

Some time we add H to C and pronounce it in various forms as
Ch is K when we say Christ or chemistry but it is “chay” when in champion, cheque.

But ‘ch’ is ‘sh’ when used in Champaign and chimpanzee.

But on other occasion ch and C are pronounced as chay and ‘K’ as in chocolate.

And some time they use Ci as ‘sh’ as in social but Not in science.

At this stage Bilal was quite, in bad mood so I tried to finish the lesson hurriedly I told that some time letter C appears in 2 to 3 places in a word. In Circumstance they pronounce first C as ‘See’, But second as K and third again as ‘See’, but in Coincidence they say first C as K second as ‘See’ and third as See. In Concordances they call first ‘C’ as K second as K and third as See. In circumscribe first C is See second C is K and third is K.
Bilal could not control himself, he threw the book and cried running away from me.

“Daddy you are not teaching me you are befooling me”.

I saw him sympathetically and murmured
“I am not befooling you my cute, they are befooling the whole world”
English pronunciation is very defective. This is the reason Bernard Shaw once said,” I will write ‘GHOTI’ and read it ‘fish’. (gh from enough, i from women and ti from national). It is not so in Arabic. When Dr. Bilal Hijazi, who is a surgeon now, reads this article, he laughs with his children.