Voicing in plurals

SpaceFlight   Sat Aug 18, 2007 10:50 pm GMT
Do you pronounce a different final consonant in the plural forms of these words?
* knife - knives * Yes
* leaf - leaves * Yes
* self - selves * Yes
* shelf - shelves * Yes
* wharf - wharves * Yes
* wife - wives * Yes
* wolf - wolves * Yes
* bath - baths * No
* mouth - mouths * Yes
* oath - oaths * No
* path - paths * No
* youth - youths * No
* house - houses * No
Milton   Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:05 pm GMT
* knife - knives YES
* leaf - leaves YES
* self - selves YES
* shelf - shelves YES
* wharf - wharves YES
* wife - wives YES
* wolf - wolves YES
* bath - baths NO
* mouth - mouths NO
* oath - oaths NO
* path - paths NO
* youth - youths NO
* house - houses /see here:

house [haus]
houses [haus@z] /
Guest   Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:54 am GMT
I'd agree with "Josh Lalonde *" on this one (US English)
Skippy   Sun Aug 19, 2007 2:11 am GMT
* knife - knives * Yes
* leaf - leaves * Yes
* self - selves * Yes
* shelf - shelves * Yes
* wharf - wharves * lol never actually said it out loud
* wife - wives * Yes
* wolf - wolves * Yes
* bath - baths * No
* mouth - mouths * Yes
* oath - oaths * No
* path - paths * No
* youth - youths * No
* house - houses * Yes
Lazar   Sun Aug 19, 2007 3:25 am GMT
* knife - knives YES
* leaf - leaves YES
* self - selves YES
* shelf - shelves YES
* wharf - wharves YES
* wife - wives YES
* wolf - wolves YES
* bath - baths YES
* mouth - mouths YES
* oath - oaths NO
* path - paths YES
* youth - youths NO
* house - houses YES

My distribution is identical to Josh's.
Travis   Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:44 am GMT
For me at least, in most of these words the salient difference is in vowel length rather than in voicing. Actually, the only word with any significant voicing difference is "house"/"houses" due to the consonant being voiced not being in the final coda (which is devoiced as a whole here, as opposed to only the final consonant being directly devoiced).

That said, I do have vowel length, vowel quality, or voicing differences in:

* knife - knives YES
* leaf - leaves YES
* self - selves YES
* shelf - shelves YES
* wharf - wharves YES
* wife - wives YES
* wolf - wolves YES
* bath - baths YES
* mouth - mouths YES
* oath - oaths NO
* path - paths YES
* youth - youths NO
* house - houses YES

I have the same distribution as Josh and Lazar.