Voiced And Voiceless Sounds Of English - Essay Example

Voiced and Voiceless Sounds of English English Language Essay

There are distinct sounds made when using spoken English. They are either voiced or voiceless sounds. Unvoiced sound is another term used for voiceless sounds. So try not to get confused when the words are used interchangeably. So why would one word be identified as voiced and another as unvoiced or voiceless?

It is simple: voiced sounds are those that are used with the help of the vocal cord. It is discussed in detail in subsequent sections in this voiced and voiceless sounds of English English language essay. But first, it is worth noting that there are thirty-nine distinct sounds made by the twenty-six alphabetical letters used in the English language. These sounds help in the identification of different types of vowels and consonants, even as learners are familiarized with the entire concepts used in spoken English.

Vowel sounds are the easiest to voice out since they are very few as compared to consonant. They include the following letters: A, E, I, O, and U.

These are clearly defined letters and have no such jargons as pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp. Regardless, there are moments when the letter Y is included in the list of vowel sounds, but this depends on how it is used in a sentence or word. For instance, the letter always tends to take the form of a consonant when placed at the beginning of a word. Again, you won't find such letters as pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp since vowels are more defined and lack the letters p, n, or b.

Learners need to understand that vowels are voiced. There is a technique used to produce vowel sounds. Air should be allowed through the throat without being blocked.

Consonant sounds come out a bit differently compared to how vowels are produced. These letters are also many compared to vowels. They include the following:

B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, and Z

These letters, used on their own sound more else like pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp. It is because they lack meaning when used on their own. For instance, you cannot reach such words like pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp or BCDFG. Perhaps you could take part of the pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp, such as the letter p and b, and add a consonant like 'u' to read something like 'pub'.

Individuals have to stop the air from the lungs flowing through the mouth to produce a distinct consonant sound. As you can probably see, consonant has odd letters like p, n, and b, which make no sense when used without vowels. For instance, a word like pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp makes no sense in the English language. While all are consonants, none of them make sense when used vowels. As you might have noticed by now, consonants always produce meaning when used side by side with vowels.

How to Identify Voiced and Voiceless Sound

As earlier mentioned, English sounds are either voiced and voiceless. Among the two, voiced sounds are the simplest to identify. To do this, place your hands on the neck as you speak out any word. If it is a voiced sound, then you should clearly feel some vibration coming from the vocal cord since voiced sounds use the voice box. As you might understand, the voice box is known to produce vibrations from the vocal cord as the sound is generated from it.

You should try out any of the voiced sounds using this technique to understand how the voice box vibrates when any sound is created through it. If you can't feel any vibrations in the vocal cord, then it would mean that you are either not creating voiced sounds or doing it wrongly. As a learner, this is the only best way to try being as accurate as you can when voicing the different English words.

Holding the throat is not the only test that can be used to identify consonant and vowel sounds. Many other experiments could be tried. For instance, there is the paper test, where a piece of paper is placed before the mouth as one speaks. If the sound is voiceless or unvoiced, then the paper should move as you speak out the sound. It happens to be the best way to feel or identify voiceless words as they cannot necessarily be identified using the 'vocal cord vibration' test. As you might understand, voiceless sounds never produce any throat vibrations, which is why the paper test is more efficient in noticing them.

People find it easier to identify vowels as opposed to consonants. One of the reasons for this is due to the fact that consonants are fewer in number, making it easier to memorize how they sound or feel. Notably, all vowel sounds happen to be voiced, as opposed to the mixture of voiced and voiceless sounds noticed with any consonant. Based on this, it is challenging for a non-native speaker to understand or effectively produce the most appropriate sound assigned to each consonant. A good example is z and s, where z is a voiced consonant while the letter s is a voiceless letter.

Understanding consonant

Again, these are words like pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp. It is just an example of a meaningless word made up of p, n, b to create pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp. It shows that consonant sounds are never stand-alone words.

Hopefully, you already know that some consonants are voiced while others are not. It is also worth noting that every consonant is always in pairs. For instance, s and z are two words that are always paired together. It is because the two pairs of consonants produce somehow similar sounds. As a result, learners are expected to be keen enough to spot the difference between an unvoiced and voiced sound. Other paired words are consonants likes of t and d, which also seem to have the same sound when voiced.

The best way to separate any of the two is by mastering the technique used to produce voiced sounds and how unvoiced sounds are also produced. Perhaps you need to feel each to have a vivid understanding of the concepts used. It is why learners are encouraged to use the paper or vibration tests to feel each sound. Regardless, it is necessary to try as hard as possible not to make one sound when another was intended. For instance, make the s sound when z was the intended sound makes it hard for anyone to understand exactly what was meant.

Learners could play around with letters like s and z by adding them to different words to see how they change the sound of such words. For instance, adding the letter s to the word 'cup' turns it to 'cups.' Note that the word 'cups' would lose meaning if it were made to sound like 'cupz.'

You could also play around with words like pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp, adding them to vowels to see what can be created. However, try using two or three words from the pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp rather than struggling to produce a long word.

The technology could play a crucial part in helping leaners develop an in-depth understanding of voiced and unvoiced sounds. For instance, these voiced or unvoiced sounds could be clicked on the computer, and learners made to repeat them. As a learner, you will have to be as perfect as possible in your pronunciation of the words based on what is heard from the computer. It could be your way to becoming a proficient English speaker. Listening to the sounds being spoken before repeating them also helps with the process of memorization. As you will realize, it is easier to remember what you heard being said than what was just mentioned to you.

Voiced and Unvoiced Consonant

Voiced Consonant

Voiced consonant depends on the vibration of one's vocal cord as the sound is made. It is easy to know when one is using these sounds by touching the throat and trying to feel if there is any vibration produced in the vocal cord. These voiced sounds are always made up of any of the few known vowels in the English language. Voiced consonant includes the following:

- b – (bend)

- d – (don't)

- g – (goat)

- j – (judge)

- l – (landlord)

- m – (mummified)

- n – (notice)

- ng –(long)

- r – (ready)

- sz –(vision)

- th –(then)

- v – (liver)

- w –(wed)

- y – (yours)

- z – (zombie)

Unvoiced Consonant

Voiceless consonant is any word that doesn't depend on the larynx to produce sound. It is, as a result, that you will discover minimal vibrations from the vocal cord when such sounds are produced. Generally, these words are much harder to use as opposed to the voiced consonant. They include the following:

- c- (car)

- ch-(charm)

- f-(family)

- h –(helm)

- p –(pen)

- s – (sail)

- sh –(shame)

- t -(top)

- th – (thank)

The above lists should help you separate the voiced from unvoiced consonant. Pay keen attention to each sound and been keener on the vibrations made from your throat when the consonants are used. The good idea is to put a voiced and unvoiced consonant side by side. For instance, try saying a voiced word while holding your throat.

After that, do the same for any of the unvoiced consonants on the list. Repeat the same process as many times as you can with hands still held to your throat. Do this for all the other voiced and voiceless consonants until you feel more confident with the words. Note that a relatively strong vibration will be felt coming from the vocal cord when making the voiced sounds. Some voiceless sounds might produce a slightly low vibration based on how they sound. Hopefully, you will not be confused by that.

As is seen in the lists above, pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp is made up of both voiced and unvoiced letters. You can write down the letters pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp and repeatedly identify each letter as you move from start to end.

Caution! Some consonants could be voiced when they are actually not voiced. There are moments when a consonant could change in quality – from voiced to voiceless. A good example can be seen in the past simple form of a regular verb. If you didn't know, -ed- is always added to verbs in Past Simple tense.

Here are some examples to show you how verb forms are changed in the Past Simple tense and how their sounds also change when this happens.

Example: wash – washed, cash - cashed.

All the above Past Simple verbs have an -ed- at the end. However, a voiceless "t" is used to pronounce some of the verbs. You might need to understand the rules for such differences in pronunciation to use them appropriately.

Connected Speech

Connect speech is when the spoken language is produced in a continuous sequence, that some sounds end up being lost in the process. Others might term this as a connected discourse. It is what can be heard from a typical conversation between two people. As a learner, you might have already noticed the difference that exists between spoken and written English. In other words, spoken English always sounds less like written English.

It is because of some emphasis placed on certain words, as well as the distortion that is often made when pronouncing other voiced or voiceless words. For instance, the word 'going to' might be spoken as 'gonna.' Others like 'want to' will be expressed as 'wanna.' Thus, it becomes hard to understand native English speakers even after learning the English language in its entirety.

Here is a recap of what you need to understand. First is that all English letters or words have unique sounds that make them what they are – some are voiced while others are not. Make the right sound, and you will be understood. However, it becomes hard if you use the wrong sound on the wrong word since this distorts the whole meaning of whatever is said. It is also necessary to feel the vocal cords when speaking. If words are spoken as is needed, then you should be able to feel a clear vibration coming from the vocal cords whenever voiced words are used.

Unlike voiced sounds, you shouldn't feel any clear vibration from the voice box whenever voiceless consonants are used. Regardless, some people might struggle to feel the vibration since it is never as clear to everyone. As a result, it is only right that you first familiarize yourself with the feeling before you try voicing out the different vowels and consonants in the English alphabet or language.

So the best test to understand how vocal cord vibrations feel when using voiced words is by speaking the word 'ah.' Put your fingers on the throat as you voice out this word. Being a voiced word means that you should be able to feel a very distinct vibration from your throat clearly. If it is your first time trying to make a voiced word, then there is a high chance that you might try this test more than once to have a more distinct vibration.

Try again and make sure you can feel a vibration from the vocal cord. Now that you have it right, next is to try pronouncing all the above-listed pairs. Make sure you place your fingers on the throat. If you do it correctly, then there shouldn't be any vibration produced when you speak out the first letters. Just know that you are making the wrong sound if you feel a vibration. Vibration should only be produced when making the second sound in each pair.

As already mentioned, voiced consonants are supposed to produce a vibration. The best way to feel the throat vibration is to place your hands directly on the throat and make an "ah" sound. You should be able to have a clear vibration. If not, then you are doing it the wrong way.

Learners have an easy time when they learn the voiced and voiceless words together with their native English speaking classmates and friends. It allows them to have the first-hand experience on how to use different English words. It is particularly important when you desire to familiarize yourself with connected speech. As already mentioned, a student might have an excellent understanding of written English but fail to understand spoken English. It is due to the shortening of words by native English speakers. It is as a result that students should endeavor to interact with native speakers to avoid such barriers.

Notice that English words are not as long as pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp. In fact, pnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp is a word that might be typed on a computer keyboard by mistake.