Re: CHAT: cultural interpretation [was Re: THEORY: language and the brain]

Quoting "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>:

> Quoting Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>:
>
> > Quoting Chris Bates <christopher.bates@...>:
> >
> > > I would not worry about devoicing z in English! We don't contrast s
> > > and
> > > z too much I think since they used to be allophones in English, and
> > > while it is more usual to hear z and it might give you a bit of an
> > > accent saying s instead, most of the time it wouldn't cause you to be
> > > misunderstood or give you too much of an accent! (Except in the
> > > occasional odd pair that only contrast s and z, like house and to
> > > house)
> > > I think pronouncing T, D correctly is far more important than
> > > differentiating between s and z...
> >
> > No-one's actually ever complained about my English* pronunciation on this
> > point - it's just an oddity in my English I've noted. No-one seems to care
> > about not voicing /Z/ and /dZ/ either.
> >
> > * I've got complaints for the same error in German, tho!
>
> That might have more to do with the cultural background of
> the people you were talking with.  I find that many Americans
> are very risk-averse when it comes to overt interpersonal
> conflict with people they don't know well.  It can be
> considered rude to correct people too frequently, depending
> on the circumstance.
More to do with cultural background than with than with degree of interference
with understaning, you mean?

Also, it seems to me that Englishers tend to hear [dZ_0] as /dZ/ rather
than /tS/. Nativers?

                                                        Andreas

Replies