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Wein Posted 21 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Voiceless Sound vs Voiced Sound (Phonetics)

0 I am from Hong Kong and not a native English speaker. 02br
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00I was taught during childhood that the three consonants 'p', 't', 'k' should be pronounced as voiceless sound or breathed sound while 'b','d','g' be as voiced sound. 02br
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00In this regard, I find no difficulty in pronounce the words like pace, tea and kill where I would pronounce the beginning consonants as voiceless sound. 02br
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00However, if the three consonants were placed after the letter ‘s’, I find that I would pronounce them as voiced sound; i.e. ‘space’ would be read as ‘sbace’, ‘standard’ as ‘sdandard’, and ‘skill’ as ‘sgill’. I have discussed with my friends and they said they would read in the same way. 02br
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00I would be grateful if anyone could help clarify whether I have pronounced them wrongly or there are exceptional rules in phonetics. Thanks for helping. 02br
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00Regards 02br
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00Wein 0-
  

Top answer

0 Hi, Wein, 02br 02br 00The voicing of consonants after s (which itself is voiceless) sounds very strange to me. I think it is much more difficult to say 'sbace' and 'sdandard' (unless you say 'zbace' and 'zdandard') than pronounce two voiceless sounds at the beginning of the words. 02br 02br 00It is not correct to say 'sbace' etc.

— Miche

  • 0 Hi, Wein, 02br 02br 00The voicing of consonants after s (which itself is voiceless) sounds very strange to me.
  • I think it is much more difficult to say 'sbace' and 'sdandard' (unless you say 'zbace' and 'zdandard') than pronounce two voiceless sounds at the beginning of the words.
  • 02br 02br 00It is not correct to say 'sbace' etc.
  • But it is an interesting point you mention.
  • It is obviously connected with you native language: I think it makes it difficult for you to say 'space'.
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10 Answers
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0 Hi, Wein, 02br
02br
00The voicing of consonants after s (which itself is voiceless) sounds very strange to me. I think it is much more difficult to say 'sbace' and 'sdandard' (unless you say 'zbace' and 'zdandard') than pronounce two voiceless sounds at the beginning of the words. 02br
02br
00It is not correct to say 'sbace' etc. But it is an interestin
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0 In that case, should I just pronounce 'space' as 's'+'pace'? (as said, I have no difficulty in pronouncing the word 'pace' with a voiceless consonant). Thanks. 0-
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0 Yes, that's right, Wein. 02br
00Cheers! 0-
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0 In English those voiceless consonants (p, t, s etc.) are always "explosive". If you do not pronounce them, it will be very difficult for a native English speaker to understand you. When I visit my local Chinese chip shop I find it hard to understand when they ask "you wan' soy sau' on to'" instead of "Do you wanT soy sauCE on toP?" They also say "boy Rai" instead of "boileD riCE". 02br
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0The 3 unvoiced consonants should retain the same pronunciation even when they are placed after an 'S'.0-
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0 Initial p, t, k are aspirated. The same consonants after 's' are not aspirated, so they will definitely sound different to a non-English speaker.02br
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00 If your native language is Chinese, then you make contrasts between aspirated and unaspirated sets of consonants. To us English speakers it sounds like the difference between unvoiced and voiced consonants.02
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0 Is the pronounciation of unaspirated/voiceless "p" equivalent to "b"? 0-
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0 Wein does make a good point and a good analogy. 'p', 's', 't' by themselves are soft sounds and become hard sounds (b, z, d) when grouped with other consonants. 0-
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Hi Wein

I am a native english speaker and everybody i know pronounced 'space' as something similar to 'sbace'. If it try to make the 'p' voiceless it does not flow properly and it sounds very strange. So i have to say that you are right in pronouncing these words how i imagine you do.

However, though you have been told that p and b are the same sounds except that one is voiced
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AlvinSotonIs the pronounciation of unaspirated/voiceless "p" equivalent to "b"?

No. We are talking about three different kinds of sounds here.

b - voiced, unaspirated (base)

p - unvoiced, unaspirated (space)

p - unvoiced, aspirated (pace)

Similarly,

d - voiced, unaspirated
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