Re: THEORY: language and the brain [Interesting article]

Quoting Chris Bates <christopher.bates@...>:

> I later changed my mind and said there were more than I thought, but
> that I still thought it was much less important to distinguish the two
> than to pronounce T and D correctly! But I think a lot of the time the
> distinction isn't so important... I think its most important to get
> initial s, z distinction right (as in your examples). And a few
> finals... like house, to house. Can you think of any contrasting pairs
> where the contrast is in the middle of the word?
"Races" vs "raises" comes to mind.

The position I've got the most trouble getting it right in is final. Happily,
[s] and [z] appear not to be distinctive finally after a consonant - or can
anyone think of a minimal pair for that?

                                                             Andreas

> >Thomas R. Wier ekirais':
> >
> >
> >
> >>>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!
> >>>
> >>>
> >>??
> >>
> >>These "odd" pairs number in the hudreds, if not the thousands:
> >>zap/sap, sip/zip, sin/zen (in my dialect), sap/zap, sue/zoo, to
> >>name just a few.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >And bus/buzz, race/raise, zeal/seal, zinc/sink, gristle/grizzle. Even the
> >letter z itself: zed/said or zee/see.
> >
> >I'm done now.
> >
> >
> >
>

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