[Music]
today I'm going to talk a little bit
more about stop consonants the
definition of a stop consonant has three
parts first either the tongue or the
lips close off the airflow
entirely second this closure causes a
buildup of pressure and third there is a
release of this built up air there are
six different stop consonants
PB where the pressure is built up by the
lips being
closed t d where the pressure is built
up by the Tongue raising and closing off
the air flow and C G where the pressure
is built up by the back of the tongue
reaching up and touching the back of the
throat causing the pressure to to build
up there let's take for example the word
what which ends with a T to go over once
again this three-part definition of a
stop
consonant what so the tongue moves into
position and that is the stop the air
flow is cut off pressure builds up T and
the release to make the end T of the
sound
as I mentioned in a previous blog entry
the third part the release part of these
consonant sounds can sometimes be left
out take for example the word wait if
someone's walking out the door I might
yell
wait
wait you did not hear a t release of the
T or for example I might say
stop
stop again you did not see the but also
I wasn't simply going
sta sta I was bringing the lips into
position I was doing everything
including the buildup of air and
pressure I simply didn't release it
stop the pressure is building up and
that mouth movement at the end whether
it's the P or the T and the buildup of
pressure changes the sound enough that
even though the release doesn't happen
to a native ear it sounds enough like
the sound that we recognize it as being
the T or the
P I have noticed for myself in speech
that I tend not to do this with the K
even though the K is a stop consonant
I've noticed that if I'm finishing a
word with K like crack
there's always for me a very light
release of that k
sound this is also true when you're
linking a word that ends with an
unvoiced stop consonant to the next word
in this sentence for example put your
dishes in the sink put tongue moves into
the position stops the air pressure
builds up your dishes in the sink put
your dishes in the sink I don't release
the te before I make the P
sound I've noticed that with the p and
the K sounds I don't entirely skip the
release it's almost like I go through
the motion of the release with my mouth
but almost no air passes through it's
like a small release happens as I'm
moving in to the next consonant sound
instead of p a p sound it's
more simply the sound of my lips
releasing for example stop the car stop
the
car there is just that very subtle sound
stop the car but it's certainly not stop
the car with its own separate release
for that stop the car I love sock
monkeys sock monkeys
sock monkeys it's very quiet and subtle
sound the reason why I'm talking about
this again today is because I read
recently got an email from someone
asking if this concept is true also for
the voiced stop consonance D B and G and
I would say the easy answer is the short
answer is yes often the release is left
out but just like with the K and the P
sounds there is often a little bit more
sound than with the
T where the sound is completely stopped
this may be because it's a voiced
sound so the vocal cords are making
sound anyway but at any rate most native
speakers would not make a full release
with that sound in speech some examples
I went to the club with
her very very subtle B sound I went to
the club with her here we're going to
see the sentence in slow motion and you
will see that the lips are already
rounding for the W when they tap
together to quickly make the B sound and
the W is the sound that follows right
here rounded quickly together for the
B so it's already starting to make and
form the next sound when it Taps for
that b she did know she did know D D D
very subtle not d d d not a full release
she did know because you're already
moving into that NN consonant
sound we're having a tag sale
again a very subtle release back there
at the back of the throat definitely not
a G tag tag not a full G sound now that
I've explained that Americans will
sometimes not complete the stop
consonant sounds I'm going to address
another question I received in an email
someone asked me differentiate between
the following four sets of phrases we
install the software we installed the
software I like that I liked
that he hit me he hid
me I have a big pen I have a big
pen could you hear the difference as I
read them out loud at this point we're
getting to something very subtle it
might be the difference between
and no sound at all
or and no sound at all said very quickly
between two words if you don't hear the
difference in these sentences don't feel
bad as I said it's a very specialized
sound and I expect that only someone who
has heard a lot of English and hears it
consistently by native speakers would
start to develop an ear to hear that
difference to a native speaker of course
the difference is clear but to a a
non-native speaker it will take a lot of
very practiced listening to
differentiate between the two phrases in
these pairs unfortunately there's no
shortcut to that that's it and thanks so
much for using Rachel's English