Re: Subtitutes for English /T/ and /D/

Seán O'Leathlóbhair <jwlawler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have often wondered why non-natives use [s] and [z] or [t] and [d]
but many natives use [f] and [v]. [s] and [z] or [t] and [d] mark you
as non-native but [f] and [v] might not.


Maybe because they were formally taught the way of pronouncing the
consonants with the tongue touching the teeth, and failing that, [t] [d] or
[s] [z] are close, while [f] and [v] are pronounced radically differently.
Orthography also plays a rôle (at least for [t] [d]).

Incidentally, I observed several times when people having no knowledge of
English at all tried to repeat some English words (without seeing them
written down) and came up with [f] or [v] instead.

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