The pattern in -ket, -llet, and -oir words & other commonly mispronounced words in English
martyr, regime, couture, marshal, martial, bald, halt, abattoir, reservoir, statute, gear, says etc
In all my years of teaching the English language, I keep getting fascinated more and more by the English sounds and letters. The reason is that the English language pronunciation is riddled with a lot of inconsistencies and nuances. One of the inconsistencies is that English language borrowed a lot of its words from many languages. As much as I love teaching English grammar, syntax and lexis, I think I enjoy teaching English pronunciation the most. But if I were learning English as a second language, I think I might have given up a long time ago.
As much as English pronunciation appears daunting, there are some underlying patterns that can catalyse English learners into correct, fine pronunciation.
In words like abattoir, reservoir, couloir, etc in English, the -oir ending sounds as wa because -oi words in French sound wa. For this reason, English still maintains the French pronunciation as abattoir /ˈabətwɑː/, reservoir /ˈrɛzəvwɑː/, and couloir /ˈkuːlwɑː/. In the same vein, word such as regime sounds /reɪˈʒiːm/ because it was derived from French (and from my long contact with French, there is no /dʒ/ in the language). No wonder couture is pronounced as /kuːˈtjʊə/, just like voiture, and culture sound in French. Perhaps, you are beginning to see that one’s knowledge of another European language can also influence one’s pronunciation very greatly. Well, English borrowed a lot of words from French. You should play the audio below for the correct pronunciation.
Martyr is not pronounced as /mahtaya/. It is pronounced /mahtuh/ as in /ˈmɑːtə/. Martial and marshal sound the same way: /ˈmɑːʃ(ə)l/.
The ‘al’ in bald /bɔːld/and halt /hɔːlt/ sounds like that in walk /wɔːk/. The only observable difference is the absence of the consonant l in walk.
We can also look at the pronunciation of statute /ˈstatʃuːt,ˈstatjuːt/ and that of gear /ɡɪə/. Says is pronounced as /sez/, but there is says /seiz/.
How to pronounce words ending in -ket, and -llet
For many of these words such as pallet, market, rocket, mallet, cricket, basket, singlet, pocket, bracket, pellet, bucket, etc, it sounds as /ɪ/ in sit.
Finally, quiet is pronounced /kwaɪət/ (a triphthong) and quite sounds as /kwait/ (a diphthong).
Further reading recommended:
With love and everything English,
Francis
The word "Memoir" is also part of the aforementioned words. Your doings, F.I, are akin or synonymous to the maxim that says "A cock that crows in the morning belongs to the owner but the benefit belongs to the society". Everybody always benefits from your works.
Seen by John