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The American English Accent : The Voiced And Unvoiced
By Frank Gerace, Ph.D,
New York, U.S.A.
fg at leerespoder.com
http://www.GoodAccent.com
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The
voiced and unvoiced consonants
In this section we will try to clarify the difference
between the voiced consonants and the unvoiced consonants.
If you want to master English pronunciation you have
to able to distinguish between these two types of
consonants. This is necessary for you to learn the
proper pronunciation when you learn new vocabulary.
And more importantly you need to know the difference
between voiced and unvoiced consonants to be able
to pronounce the words of English correctly. What
makes one consonant be voiced and another not?
A consonant is voiced when it makes the vocal cords
vibrate. It is voiceless when it is pronounced without
vibrating the vocal cords.
The sound of the letters "p" and "b"
For example, the sounds indicated by the letters "b"
and "p" differ only in their vocalization
(voicing). The are both "bilabials", that
is, they are produced by closing both lips. But the
"b" is voiced and the "p" is unvoiced.
In this article, we will follow common practice and
indicate the letters of the alphabet with quotes ("b"
and "p") and the sounds with slashes (/b/ and /p/)
You can appreciate the difference by lightly touching
with the tips of your fingers your "Adam's Apple"
(the voice box that you can see in the front of your
throat) as you pronounce the word bowl . You can feel
the vibration with the tips of our fingers. Concentrate
on the first sound, the consonant /b/ before passing
to the vowel represented by the "o". Notice
that you can lengthen the sound (something is heard!)
without the "o". This is because /b/ is
a voiced consonant.
Now pronounce the word pole. Do you feel the vibration
in the vocal cords? No. The reason is that /p/ is
an unvoiced consonant. Notice that you you can't lengthen
the sound or hear anything.
When you pronounce these sounds, don't forget the
advice we already gave you in other articles: exaggerate
the value of the vowel "o" with a strong
English accent!
Listen to the following exercise until you can distinguish
betwen the two sounds and produce them yourself.
You should be able to telll the difference between
the /p/ and the /b/ in the sentence The doctor said:
"Bill, take your pill!
Try it now!
The sounds of the English letters /k/ (sometimes "c")
and /g/
It is not only the sounds /p/ and /b/ that are voiced
or unvoiced. The same distinction holds for the sounds
represented by the letters "k" y "g"
in the International Phonetic Alphabet. By the way,
do you see that it will not be hard for you to learn
the symbols of the IPA? Many of the symbols, like
the k and the g are already familiar to you. They
are the normal letters of the alphabet.
The IPA symbol k interests us now. It is the "hard"
sound of the letter "c", the sound that
the letter "c" usually takes before the
letters "a", "o", and "u",
for example in the words car, coat, cube.
Now can you see how the IPA system makes it easy for
you to learn the pronunciation of new words? Now,
we don't have to worry that sometimes the letter "c"
has the sound of the IPA symbol k (as in the word
cold) or that sometimes the same letter "c"
of the English alphabet is pronounced as the IPA s
(as in the words cell ).
!
Now try to feel in your voice box the vibration in
the word coal! You can't because it is the unvoiced
partner in the pair. If you touch your voice box while
you pronounce the word goal, you do feel the vibration
because the sound g is voiced.
Practice the two words coal and goal. But keep on
pronouncing the the English vowel with its lengthening.
Exaggerate the English language character of the vowel.
Don't pronounce it as if it were col or gol in your
language. And also remember the explosive nature of
the consonant represented by the "c" in
English when it is pronounced as the IPA k. Blow out
the candle when you say coal.
Pero... ¡Qué no suene como si hablaras
de repollo (la col en el Perú) o del fútbol
(el gol)!
¡Cuidado con tu acento hispano!
Did you notice that we review various important things
about the English sounds as we move along in this
book. From now on, in your listening and in your practice,
you must remember the explosive consonants, the special
English vowels, and the voiced or unvoiced consonants.
Listen and practice all these essential elements of
English pronunciation.
The sound of the letters "t" and "d"
Consider the pair of words tear and dear. Do the same
with these words as you did above with the pairs of
words coal and goal, and pole and bowl. Can you distinguish
which of the initial sounds is voiced and which is
unvoiced? Both are pronounced in almost the same place
in the mouth but the initial sound of these two words
is different in that the letter "t" is usually
voiceless and the "d" is usually voiced.
However, do NOT think that the letter "d"
in English is always voiced. You will see that sometimes
this letter "d" represents a voiceless sound.
This is a VERY important lesson in the pronunciation
of English and when you learn how and when the "d"
is unvoiced it will be a valuable tool for you in
your mastery of English.
This difference between the letters "d"
and "t" in English is very important in
the matter of the past tense of verbs. We will treat
this elsewhere.
Also there is another pair of voiced and unvoiced
consonants, the sounds represented in English by the
letters "s" and "z". We will study
them in their most important contexts, that of the
third person singular of the present of verbs, and
that of the plural of nouns.
But for now, concentrate on the consonants we just
looked at.
Now listen and practice! Listen wherever you can (or
listen in our book) to the different pairs of voiced
and unvoiced consonants. Then make them yourself.
P and B
K and G
T and D
This lesson is taken from the book, "Word Power" which
contains sound files that let you hear the vowels
and consonants and practice their pronunciation. About the Author: Frank Gerace Ph.D has worked
in Latin America on UN and national Educational and
Communication Projects, and has taught in Bolivian
and Peruvian Universities. He currently teaches English
in New York City at La Guardia College/CUNY. He provides
resources on accent reduction and the proper American
English accent at http://www.GoodAccent.com
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