2018-04-09 Pronunciation: voiced and voiceless

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
---
Voiceless and voiced sounds
---
Handout p. 18 - Mark the words you hear.
More often, people have trouble hearing (and pronouncing) voice at the ends of words.
p. 19 - Mark the words you hear.
---
/s/ is a voiceless sound
/z/ is a voiced sound
/f/ and /v/ are another pair
/p/ and /b/
/θ/ and /ð/ (the ‘th’ sounds)
/ʃ/ and /ʒ/ (‘sh’ and ‘zh’)
/tʃ/ and /dʒ/ (‘ch’ and ‘j’)
/k/ and /g/
/t/ and /d/
---
Remember, ‘s’ can sound like /s/ or /z/.
---
There are other clues in English that can help you identify voiced and voiceless sounds.
---
At the beginning of the word:
pad / bad
tad / dad
cad / gad
- /p/, /t/, and /k/ are aspirated at the beginning of words. This means there is a little “puff” of air or wind when you say them.
(They are not aspirated after ‘s’, like in “spot”, “stay”, or “skip”, but we never have voiced sounds in these places at the beginning of a word.)
---
At the end of the word:
We often don’t release the sound, so you can’t hear if it’s aspirated or not.
bet / bed
In many cases, the vowel before a voiceless sound is shorter than before a voiced sound.
excuse (n) / excuse (v)
Sometimes it’s even a slightly different vowel
rice / rise
(For me) there is a difference between “writing” and “riding”, even though the ‘t’ and ‘d’ are both pronounced the same in American English.
	(“ladder” and “latter” don’t sound different to me)
---
p. 21 exercise 5A - Say sentence (a) or (b), and your partner responds based on what they heard. Then switch roles and do it again.
---
p. 22 exercise 6A - Repeat the words, making sure to pronounce longer vowels for voiced endings.
exercise 6B - Say sentences with one word or the other, and your partner tries to identify which word you said.
---
We will also talk about /l/ vs. /r/ and the ‘th’ sounds this week.