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

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?

>Thomas R. Wier ekirais':
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>>>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.
>>
>>
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>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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