Voicing
Voicing refers to whether or not your vocal cords are vibrating when making a sound.
For example, say the sound “sssssss”, as if you are hissing like a snake. While saying “sssssss”, put your fingers against your voice box. You might notice your voice box tense slightly, but it won’t be vibrating. This is because the sound “s” is voiceless; it does not involve vibrating your vocal cords. Now, try saying the sound “zzzzzzz” and repeat the above test. This time you will notice that your vocal cords are vibrating; this means that “z” is a voiced sound.
See if you can go back and forth repeatedly between “sssssss” and “zzzzzz” to get used to the difference between voiceless and voiced sounds. You can also try the experiment with an f and a v, or a sh (as in “shhh”) and a zh (the sound in beige), or a voiceless th (as in thick) and a voiced th (as in there). All of these pairs are long and continuous sounds where the first sound is voiceless and the second sound is voiced, so they are a great way to practice the distinction between voiceless and voiced sounds.
There are also short, non-continuous sounds that differ only by voicing. For example, the letters k and g differ only in that k is voiceless whereas g is voiced. Other voiceless/voiced pairs of non-continuous sounds include ch vs. j, t vs. d, and p vs. b.
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