Whenever I try to search this up, I get explanations like “your throat vibrates” but that’s super abstract and hard to visualize. Is there an easier way someone can explain this to me?
In: Other
that IS the simple explanation.
you have vocal cords in your throat. if you use them for a constant it is voiced, if you don’t its unvoised.
think of the difference between s and z. your tongue is in the same place doing the same thing in both sue and zoo, but z is voiced because you also use your vocal cords, where as s is unvoiced.
there are a lot of voiced unvoiced pairs like b/p, f/v and some sounds with out a single letter like the th in feather vs thumb
It’s literally whether you’re using your voice, or just pushing air out of your mouth.
Make a f sound. Now hum, and do it again while humming. Suddenly it’s now a v sound. Your mouth didn’t change, you only started humming.
Voiceless: you make the sound with no vocal fold action. Just moving your mouth parts and pushing air up from your lungs.
Voiced: folds get in there and fuckin’ vibrate that air as it’s moving past, so your mouth parts get a bit of extra personality to work with. Lil extra kick in their cappuccino, if ya know what I mean, a little razzmatazz, a bit of the ol’ zhooby zhoo, the boopeeboopeeboo, a ba-da-ba-da-ba-be bop bop bodda bope, bop ba bodda bope, I’m the scatman, you picking up what I’m putting down? I really hope not because this became completely deranged. Sorry. I’m leaving it in though.
Anyway, you should be able to feel when your vocal folds are involved in producing a sound and when they’re not. Hold your fingees to your throat and make a bunch of noises, like “sh” (voiceless) and “zh” (like in “casual”) (voiced). You really can’t say “sh” with a voice, ‘cause that turns it into “zh.”
It’s the difference between holding an “fffffff” sound or a “vvvvvvv” sound.
Yep it’s actually just whether your vocal cords are vibrating or not. The only difference between a sustained “f” and “v” is whether it’s “voiced” or not. Your lips, tongue, etc are all in the same place, the only difference is your vocal cords (literally your voice) being active or not.
Think of a kazoo and how the paper vibrates against its housing when you blow through it and it makes that buzzy sound. You get a buzzy sound from your vocal folds when you bring them close enough together and blow through them.
Voiced is speaking. Voiceless or unvoiced is whispering.
Don’t know why other people used so many more words.
Put your hand on your throat and say the word “vision”, drawing out the “v” sound (vvvvvvvvvision). You should be feeling a vibration under your fingers on the “v” sound because this is a voiced consonant, meaning your vocal cords are helping make the sound.
Now put your hand on your throat say the word “snake” drawing out the “s” sound (sssssssnake). You should not feel vibrations under your fingers on the “s” sound. This is a voiceless consonant because you’re just pushing air through your mouth to make the sound, no vocal cords involved.
You don’t need to visualize it, literally just put your hand on your throat and go “SSSSSSS ZZZZZZZ FFFFFFF VVVVVVV” out loud. You’ll feel the vibration (on Z and V sounds but not S and F sounds) immediately. It’ll be similarly clear that that’s the only difference between S/Z and F/V, since you’re otherwise doing the exact same thing with your mouth.
Put your fingers on your throat, near your vocal chords, and feel the difference when you say the sounds for the following words demonstrating the difference between the voiced and unvoiced letter in the following pairs:
* G and K. G is the voiced version of K. Say “Gill” and “Kill”.
* B and P. B is the voiced version of P. Say “Bill” and “Pill”.
* D and T. D is the voiced version of T. Say “Dill” and “Till”.
* V and F. V is the voiced version of F. Say “Vat” and “Fat”.
* Z and S. Z is the voiced version of S. Say “Zane” and “Sane”.
When you say the voiced consonant sound, your fingers should feel your vocal chords vibrate. Try this and see if you can feel the vibration when you pronounce the voiced consonants.
Latest Answers