On Thursday 20 February 2003 07:53 am, Peter Bleackley wrote:
> As a small child, I used to mispronounce [T] and [D] as [f] and [v]
> respectively. This pronunciation is common in some dialects of
English,
> notably Cockney. However, speakers of languages where the dental
fricatives
> are absent tend to render them as [s] and [z] when attempting to
pronounce
> English words. People who lisp and Spaniards make the opposite change.
Why
> the difference? To my ears, dental fricatives sound more like [f] and
[v]
> than they do [s] and [z].
>
> Pete Bleackley
>
>
I think it depends on exactly where you pronounce /D/ and /T/, and what
other sounds are in your toolkit. When I pronounce /T/, my lips are
really close to where I pronounce /s/ and not much like where they are
when I pronounce /f/. So /T/ may sound 'f'-ish, but it feels 's'-ish.
There are also cases where /D and /T/ simply lose the fricative if they
don't exist in the speakers native phonological system.
My French-Canadian Grandfather pronounced /D/ as /d/ in 'brother', etc.
/T/ went to /t/ as well. I think the initial forms may have been
slightly aspirated, (/d_h/ and /t_h/?) but after 25 years it's hard to
remember.
--
Elyse Grasso