Re: What's the different between /tS/ as one phoneme and as two?

From: Tor (tor826_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 07/21/04 

Date: 20 Jul 2004 23:47:03 -0700

tor826@yahoo.com (Tor) wrote
>
> You are quite right. What I mean by "voicing" here is a VOT that is
> earlier than the VOT of French initial [p], [t], or [k], which I'm
> taking as the standard for a voiceless, unaspirated stop.
>
> My first assertion is that the average VOT of English initial [b] is
> earlier than the average VOT of French initial [p], and that this
> difference and the difference in muscular tension are usually
> noticeable to both English and French speakers.
>
> My second assertion is that the VOT of an English [b] is earlier
> enough relative to the VOT of a French [p] for this additional voicing
> to make a difference in distinguishing English /b/ from English /p/.
> Hence I would not call English /b/ a voiceless unaspirated stop as I
> would call French /p/.
>
> When English speakers hear a French [p], they don't usually think it's
> in the range of English /b/. They usually notice that it's different
> from both English /b/ and English /p/, but they don't know what to do
> with it. Sometimes they assign it to English /b/ and sometimes they
> assign it to English /p/.
>
> Tor

Correction: substitute "smaller" wherever it says "earlier".

Tor

Relevant Pages