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16. ȟ versus ǧ

PostPosted: February 11th, 2009, 2:43 am
by Jan
The Lakota ȟ and ǧ sound somewhat similar. The only difference between them is in voicing:

ȟ is voiceless
ǧ is voiced

pairs of voiceless and voiced sounds exist in English as well.

voicelessvoiced
sz
'th' in 'think''th' in 'this'
's' in 'insure''s' in 'pleasure'



You can learn about voicing by doing the following: place the palm of your hand on the top of your head and say: "sssssssssssssssssssss." Then say: "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." While saying the latter sound you should feel vibration under your hand. It is the vocal cord that vibrates when we pronounce voiced sounds. The difference between ȟ and ǧ is the same as between s and z in that ȟ is voiceless and ǧ is voiced.

Listen to the audio track and select ȟ or ǧ for each word:



1: pants



2: mountain



3: elk



4: bread



5: ear



6: flower



7: fish



8: drum



9: badger



10: cottonwood



11: fox



12: rain



13: cloud



14: crow



15: duck



16: racoon



17: goose



18: leaf



19: star



20: pot