[General] Pronounce - Speak,Space,Mistake,Skate

[yiuho]

Hi All,

I was wondering how come we pronounce Speak, like Sbeak, Space like Sbace, Mistake like Misdake, Skate like Sgate.......can anyone explain to me?
Thanks

Regards,

William

[Soup]

Originally Posted by yiuho

Hi All,

I was wondering how come we pronounce Speak, like Sbeak, Space like Sbace, Mistake like Misdake, Skate like Sgate.......can anyone explain to me?
Thanks

Regards,

William

Hello William

It has to do with voice onset timing (VOT):

In phonetics, voice onset time, ... , is a feature of the production of stop consonants. It is defined as the length of time that passes between when a stop consonant is released and when voicing, the vibration of the vocal folds, begins .

The vocal folds in anticipation of a vowel, say the vowel in skate for example, start to vibrate early, resulting in the preceding voiceless stop /k/ sounding like [g]; but, it's not [g] at all. It's a de-aspirated /k/. In other words, the puff of air, called aspiration, that usually releases with /k/ (e.g., king) is not fully released. The result is a de-aspirated /k/, a sound similar to [g], but not [g].

Hope that helps.

[yiuho]

Originally Posted by Soup

Hello William

It has to do with voice onset timing (VOT):

In phonetics, voice onset time, ... , is a feature of the production of stop consonants. It is defined as the length of time that passes between when a stop consonant is released and when voicing, the vibration of the vocal folds, begins .

The vocal folds in anticipation of a vowel, say the vowel in skate for example, start to vibrate early, resulting in the preceding voiceless stop /k/ sounding like [g]; but, it's not [g] at all. It's a de-aspirated /k/. In other words, the puff of air, called aspiration, that usually releases with /k/ (e.g., king) is not fully released. The result is a de-aspirated /k/, a sound similar to [g], but not [g].

Hope that helps.

Hi Soup, thank you very much for your detailed reply. I'd like to know if we pronounce "Mistake", like "Misdake"...I understand this is not a [d] sound after your explanation....Can I don't change the sound of "Mistake", just say "Mis" "take" without change the sound of [t], is it correct? Hope you understand what I mean. Thanks.

William

[Soup]

Originally Posted by yiuho

Hi Soup, thank you very much for your detailed reply. I'd like to know if we pronounce "Mistake", like "Misdake"...I understand this is not a [d] sound after your explanation....Can I don't change the sound of "Mistake", just say "Mis" "take" without change the sound of [t], is it correct? Hope you understand what I mean. Thanks.

William

William, I understand your question.

The process by which voiceless stops become de-aspirated after /s/ and before a vowel is a characteristic of English pronunciation. That is, pronounce /t/ in mistake as [t], with aspiration, and your pronunciation wouldn't sound all that native-like. It would be understandable, though.