 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2010What does this sound like? (2)
I know the answer as it is said in my textbook, but knowint it is a different matter from how it hears like. Acutally, it doesn't sound to me like the answer. it must be clear for English speaking people, I guess. How does the following strike your ears? http://www.lightstriking.com/test/13.wav This test focuses on a consonant at the tail of a word. > I know the answer as it is said in my textbook, but > knowint it is a different matter from how it hears like. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > This test focuses on a consonant at the tail of > a word. I hear "th". I am North American, and what I hear is the word "moth", spoken with a North American Accent. > I hear "th". I am North American, and what I hear is the word "moth", > spoken with a North American Accent. Right, the answer given by the textbook is "MOTH". but, TH doesn't reach my ear at all. It's a big mystery how you hear or catch "TH" so clearly in this case, while for you, we may be a mystery with our being unable to get the consonant that must be obvious to you. >> I hear "th". I am North American, and what I hear is the word >> "moth", [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > for you, we may be a mystery with our being unable to get the > consonant that must be obvious to you. I also hear the final sound as "th". I clearly hear the word "moth". The "th" is much clearer with this speaker, (more aspirated) than with the speaker of "lathe".  SignaturePat Durkin durkinpa at msn.com Wisconsin Our theory is that we focus more on vowals in our language system so that we tend to cut a certain range of consonants you use. As to this "MOTH", it's possible that I'm catching "TH" , but it might hear as another sound, although I don't know yet. We tend to take many of your consonants as vowels as experts say. So, this "TH" might be buried in the vowels amplied in my ear. Very interesting. I exprience a strange thing sometimes. That is , as I listen to a certain word like "MOTH" in this instance countlessly, or repeatedly, the consonant which have been altogether unhearable suddenly come out clear in my ear. > Our theory is that we focus more on vowals in our language system so > that we tend to cut a certain range of consonants [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > repeatedly, the consonant which have been altogether unhearable > suddenly come out clear in my ear. At my age, with loss of high frequencies, I often have trouble distinguishing consonants anyway. SignatureLong-time resident of Adelaide, South Australia, which may or may not influence my opinions. > At my age, with loss of high frequencies, I often have trouble > distinguishing consonants anyway. > > -- You mean. even english-speaking natives become harder to catch consonants at older age? Here is "TH" sound I've caught. Otherwise, I couldn't have found it. http://www.lightstriking.com/test/15.wav Masa filted: >> At my age, with loss of high frequencies, I often have trouble >> distinguishing consonants anyway. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >You mean. even english-speaking natives become harder to catch >consonants at older age? I think the loss of hearing in higher frequencies (and the resulting difficulty in catching fricatives) is language-independent...it may well be species-independent....r SignatureA pessimist sees the glass as half empty. An optometrist asks whether you see the glass more full like this?...or like this? Masa filted: >Our theory is that we focus more on vowals in our language system so >that we tend to cut a certain range of consonants [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >repeatedly, the consonant which have been altogether unhearable >suddenly come out clear in my ear. Final consonants are often hard to distinguish, even for English speakers...since Japanese doesn't use them (with the questionable exception of "-n"), it's understandable that you might miss them since your ingrained tendency is not to expect them.... Expecting words to end in vowels might also account for your sometimes hearing the final of "LATHE" as a vowel, since it's a voiced consonant...(there's even a school of thought that considers the "H" sound a "voiceless vowel", colored by whatever vowel it's adjacent to)...personally, I didn't hear the final consonant of "LATHE" at all, but I do hear the one in "MOTH"; perhaps the speaker emphasized the latter more *because* it's unvoiced and would therefore tend to be lost....r SignatureA pessimist sees the glass as half empty. An optometrist asks whether you see the glass more full like this?...or like this? >> I hear "th". I am North American, and what I hear is the word "moth", >> spoken with a North American Accent. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > for you, we may be a mystery with our being unable to get the > consonant that must be obvious to you. Sometimes it's hard to hear sounds that don't exist in your native language. I've noticed myself in my attempts to learn other languages that two sounds can seem identical to me even though a native speaker is saying them, and assures me that they are different. I found the 'th' very clear in that example, more so than in the last one. SignatureCheryl > How does the following strike your ears? > > http://www.lightstriking.com/test/13.wav > > This test focuses on a consonant at the tail of > a word. That one sounds very clearly like "moth" to me. The other one you gave us (lathe) sounded to me like "lay". I could not hear any ending consonant at all. As I'm sure you know, there are two "th" sounds and you have given us one of each. "Lathe" should have the voiced sound of "the", "this," and so on. "Moth" should have the unvoiced sound of "thick" and "thin". In your "lathe" recording, I would expect to hear the hum or buzz of the "voiced" sound. It would be at least as noticeable as the breathy tongue-teeth "th" part. I don't hear any of it. I can't get the soundfile to save separately, so to hear another pronunciation of "lathe", go to this page and click on the red speaker symbol: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lathe SignatureBest wishes -- Donna Richoux An American living in the Netherlands > I know the answer as it is said in my textbook, but > knowint it is a different matter from how it hears like. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > This test focuses on a consonant at the tail of > a word. It sounds like the name Martha without the final vowel. SignatureRegards John for mail: my initials plus a u e at tpg dot com dot au >> I know the answer as it is said in my textbook, but >> knowint it is a different matter from how it hears like. [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > It sounds like the name Martha without the final vowel. That would be the American accent. SignatureLong-time resident of Adelaide, South Australia, which may or may not influence my opinions. >>> I know the answer as it is said in my textbook, but >>> knowint it is a different matter from how it hears like. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > That would be the American accent. Probably, but with one word in isolation it is hard to tell what the accent is, and we weren't told what to expect, So that's just how it strikes my ears. SignatureRegards John for mail: my initials plus a u e at tpg dot com dot au > I know the answer as it is said in my textbook, but > knowint it is a different matter from how it hears like. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > This test focuses on a consonant at the tail of > a word. Without looking first at what others have said, it sounds like the way a BrE speaker would pronounce the Dutch name Maas, i.e. "mast" (southern England, not USA) without the t, or as some English Roman Catholics (but not usually other people) pronounce "mass". I had difficulty in deciding whether the final consonant was an s (/s/) or an unvoiced th (/T/). Signatureathel > I know the answer as it is said in my textbook, but > knowint it is a different matter from how it hears like. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > This test focuses on a consonant at the tail of > a word. On a relatively low volume setting I couldn't quiet make out the "th" and thought it was "moss". It was more obvious louder, but either way it sounded like someone with a dreadfully heavy head-cold. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.