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Kooyeen Posted 17 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Consonant devoicing

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That's what I'm talking about. How much difference is there? The mouth and tongue movements are the same, the only difference depends on how soon you start devoicing the consonant.
Problem: that difference sounds too small too me. It might be easier to detect in some pairs (ex: v/f) and be more difficult with plosives (ex: d/t). In connected speech, unless it's slow, that difference becomes too small. Regional and personal variations make everything even more complicated. There might be no difference at all unless it's in very slow speech, and I might be fooling myself.

What do you say about this? Thank you.
  

Top answer

Some people claim that the vowel that precedes the /f/ or /v/ (the /t/ or /d/) is different depending on which of the pair is used. They claim that a vowel is longer before an unvoiced consonant. So for some speakers, the preceding vowel may be the right thing to listen to for the difference.

— CalifJim

  • Some people claim that the vowel that precedes the /f/ or /v/ (the /t/ or /d/) is different depending on which of the pair is used.
  • They claim that a vowel is longer before an unvoiced consonant.
  • So for some speakers, the preceding vowel may be the right thing to listen to for the difference.
  • ) I don't devoice much, I guess, so I claim that I say those pairs differently.
  • save and safe , as I say them, sound different to me, even before files .
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7 Answers
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Some people claim that the vowel that precedes the /f/ or /v/ (the /t/ or /d/) is different depending on which of the pair is used. They claim that a vowel is longer before an unvoiced consonant. So for some speakers, the preceding vowel may be the right thing to listen to for the difference. (I can never hear this difference, though.)

I don't devoice much, I guess, so I claim that I
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CalifJim They claim that a vowel is longer before an unvoiced consonant.
Yes, but I noticed that vowel length only makes sense in stressed syllables, so as long as you stress the second word in each example this feature can be neglected.

Devoicing definitely varies from dialect to dialect, but... I can't "hear" all that difference. As soon as such ca
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CalifJimThey claim that a vowel is longer before an unvoiced consonant.

Now, that's new to me
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Thanks for pointing out that mistake. I meant to say it the other way round! Whoops!

... longer before a voiced consonant.

CJ
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I didn't notice the mistake either... I read it so fast I thought I had seen it right, lol. Yeah, longer before voiced consonants, and shorter before unvoiced consonants.... although I noticed that only applies to stressed syllables, and not always. I get the impression you can find long vowels before unvoiced consonants, but not short vowels before voiced consonants.

Anyway, this is pr
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KooyeenShe's slept for three hours
I've finished
I finally got around to listening to these examples, and I would be hard pressed to hear the difference between She slept and She's slept or between I finished and I've finished, given the way that that speaker says them. I think he's exaggerating th
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No, I'm still interested! I'm always interested, LOL.Thanks.
Yes, they are very devoiced in that clip, and I can't hear much gemination, so I think I'd have a lot of trouble to distinguish "She's slept" from "She slept", for example. Actually, I'm afraid I can't even pronounce them differently.

I might need to find a good book on English phonology if I want to know more. There are
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