using

[Odessa Dawn]

Listening more than once to this video, I couldn't recognize whether the s sound in the word using at 0:34 voiced or voiceless. Will you help me, please?

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[5jj]

It sounded voiced to me.

 

[The apprentice]

Dear 5jj:

Can the S in any words related to USE sound voiceless?, such as:

Use, used, using, except usage.


Regards,


The Apprentice

 

[5jj]

Can the S in any words related to USE sound voiceless?, such as:

Use, used, using, except usage.

It is voiceless in the noun 'use' and in 'used to' and 'be/get used to'.

When the verb 'use' is followed immediately by a voiceless consonant, it may become partially devoiced. This may 'sound' voiceless to some people.

 

[Barb_D]

I"m just as likely to say "he yewz to" as "he yoostoo" so the s is voiced for me quite often in "used to."

Use as a noun is not voiced. Put it to good yoos.
Use as a verb is voiced. Yewz this.

 

[The apprentice]

Dear 5jj:

Thank you for your reply; it' s very interesting.


Sincerely,



The Apprentice

 

[Tdol]

It sounded voiced to me.

It sounded voiced to me too. She's not got a neutral accent- for example, the way she pronounces verb is far from neutral.

 

[N Senbei]

I'm sorry if it's impudent of me to say this, but I'm pretty sure that the "s" in the word "using" in that video is unvoiced.

 

[5jj]

It's not impudent at all. Mistaken, maybe, but not impudent.

 

[N Senbei]

Hello everyone,

Could you listen to the audio clip below?
I slowed down that “using” part in order to be able to find out whether or not the vocal folds are vibrating during the “s” of the word “using” more easily.
I believe you will find it very difficult to detect vocal folds vibrations in the “s” because even computer software like Praat and Wavesurfer can’t generate a pitch contour under the “s,” which means that they cannot detect distinct “voice” in there.

Vocaroo | Voice message

 

[Tdol]

They're there- as you slow it down, the sound changes to unvoiced, but that doesn't show to me that the original is completely unvoiced. There is an element of voicing there still- I have replayed the original and played your version several times, but can still detect some voicing in the original. Others may hear it differently.

 

[emsr2d2]

In the slowed down version it sounds more unvoiced (it sounds like "you sing"). In the original, I would say it's that halfway sound which I associate with many non-native speakers of English. It's somehow a rather sibilant voiced "s". It reminds me of the way that the girls in ABBA used to say the "s" at the ends of plurals and third person singular verbs in their songs. Because they weren't native speakers, the "s" never sounded properly voiced and was a just a little too sibilant but it wasn't completely unvoiced.

 

[N Senbei]

Thank you Tdol and emsr2d2 for you comments.

Maybe you are right.
I can say that “s” is not a fully voiced [z] and is devoiced to a great extent, but there can still be very weak vocal fold vibrations.