[General] voiced consonants and unvoiced consonants

[leungss]

I have checked several websites about voiced consonants and voiceless consonants, but each site has different lists of voiced and voiceless consonants.

voiced: b, d, th, v, z, g (some other sites list the following in addition: l, r, j, m)

voiceless: p, t, k, s, sh, ch, (some other sites list the following in addition: f, th)

are those lists completed? did I miss anything?

recently I 've been practising the z sound as in "these", "assign", "shells", "machines", but I always ended up pronouncing the z sound as s . It's very hard for me vibrate my vocal cord while pronouncing the s sound, any advice will be appreciated. thanks in advanced!

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by leungss

I have checked several websites about voiced consonants and voiceless consonants, but each site has different lists of voiced and voiceless consonants.

voiced: b, d, th, v, z, g (some other sites list the following in addition: l, r, j, m)

voiceless: p, t, k, s, sh, ch, (some other sites list the following in addition: f, th)

are those lists completed? did I miss anything?

recently I 've been practising the z sound as in "these", "assign", "shells", "machines", but I always ended up pronouncing the z sound as s . It's very hard for me vibrate my vocal cord while pronouncing the s sound, any advice will be appreciated. thanks in advanced!

There's no /z/ is assign. The others are OK.
The sites you've checked were the wrong ones.
The site below gives the whole consonant table with sound files:
Constanants
On any IPA table the voiceless consonants are on the left, the voiced on the right.
Voiceless: p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ(sh), h, ʍ(wh), tʃ(ch)
Voiced : b, d, g, m, n, ŋ(ng), v, ð(th), z, ʒ(zh), ɹ, l, j, w, dʒ (dzh)

[leungss]

thanks a lot. somehow some of the IPA symbols appeared as a square on this page

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by leungss

thanks a lot. somehow some of the IPA symbols appeared as a square on this page

Oh, never mind, you can find them anywhere.

[Mad-ox]

Originally Posted by Raymott

There's no /z/ is assign. The others are OK.
The sites you've checked were the wrong ones.
The site below gives the whole consonant table with sound files:
Constanants
On any IPA table the voiceless consonants are on the left, the voiced on the right.
Voiceless: p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ(sh), h, ʍ(wh), tʃ(ch)
Voiced : b, d, g, m, n, ŋ(ng), v, ð(th), z, ʒ(zh), ɹ, l, j, w, dʒ (dzh)

Please, give me examples of words where we can find the voiced consonant W and the voiceless consonant ʍ. In fact I do not quite understand the difference between these two consonant sounds.



Madox

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by Mad-ox

Please, give me examples of words where we can find the voiced consonant W and the voiceless consonant ʍ. In fact I do not quite understand the difference between these two consonant sounds.



Madox

ʍ(wh) - where, which, whether ...
w - we, were, Willy Wonka ...
I wouldn't worry about this too much. These days many people do not both to pronounce 'wh' and use 'w' for all these words. It's rare in Australia. I never use ʍ.
It sounds like /hw/ - hwich, etc. or a simultaneous /w/ and /h/.

[Mad-ox]

Originally Posted by Raymott

ʍ(wh) - where, which, whether ...
w - we, were, Willy Wonka ...
I wouldn't worry about this too much. These days many people do not both to pronounce 'wh' and use 'w' for all these words. It's rare in Australia. I never use ʍ.
It sounds like /hw/ - hwich, etc. or a simultaneous /w/ and /h/.

I see,
thanks for the explanation,

Unfortunately, I have to worry since I will have to take a difficult exam in phonetics and phonology.


best regards,
Madox

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by Mad-ox

I see,
thanks for the explanation,

Unfortunately, I have to worry since I will have to take a difficult exam in phonetics and phonology.


best regards,
Madox

Ah, then you are right to worry.

[orangutan]

Originally Posted by leungss

recently I 've been practising the z sound as in "these", "assign", "shells", "machines", but I always ended up pronouncing the z sound as s . It's very hard for me vibrate my vocal cord while pronouncing the s sound, any advice will be appreciated. thanks in advanced!

I am no expert on phonetics, but I have found the following useful for learning difficult voiced sounds in another language.

If you stop your ears and say voiceless and voiced sounds alternately, you should be very aware of the resonance that goes with voiced sounds (whereas voiceless ones are just like a whisper). Then practise saying /s/ but trying to get the same resonance.

Good luck!

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Mad-ox

[COLOR="Blue"]...

Unfortunately, I have to worry since I will have to take a difficult exam in phonetics and phonology.

Originally Posted by Raymott

Ah, then you are right to worry.

I'm not sure you are. For the purposes of TEFL, there are 44 English phonemes, listed in a site that Raymott recommended in another thread: IPA Typewriter it has no ʍ.

That voiceless sound does exist in some versions of English. I have told elsewhere the story of a dictation I was given by an English teacher born in Edinburgh, who expected us to distinguish between "Wales" and "whales". Her accent was Scottish. The distinction does not exist in RP, and we only hear it when a Br English speaker is whispering. (See the table of RP consonants in Received Pronunciation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ).

Madox, you should check with your teacher whether you are right to worry. It depends how difficult your exam is. Raymott is right to say that [ʍ] is distinct from [w], but there are many many speech sounds that your course may well not cover.

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