How to pronounce 'st' , 'sp' and 'sk'?
For example,
stay, stair, stab, stable
speak, space, experience, split
skate, sky, skin, score
It seems to me in the above words, 'st' sounds like 'sd', 'sp' sounds like 'sb', 'sk' sound like 'sg', although dictionary still uses the symbol st,sp and sk
Can I say that if /t/,/p/,/k/ follows a /s/ sound, then they shall be pronounced as /d/,/b/,/g/, respectively? Is my understanding correct?
No - they shall be pronounced as /t/, /p/, /k/, but unaspirated. Like the second 'p' in 'paper'. Unvoiced, but unaspirated.
@ff
Thanks for your help. But what does "unaspirated" mean? How to do it?
Can you elaborate on how "st" sounds like "sd"? I'm not sure if your "sounds like 'd' " is the same as that of the normal English speaker.
It is possible for /s/ to be followed by a voiced consonant? Thinking of words with "sb", there's "hasbeen", but there there's a syllable break between them (and is usually two words). There are no words in English with "sb". There are words such as Sbarro, but that's not exactly an English word. I pronounce it "su-barro". /sd/, /sb/, and /sg/ strike as very unnatural consonant clusters.
"aspirated" means that the consonant is followed by a slight /h/ sound. A puff of air, if you will (like the first 'p' in "paper"). Unaspirated means that there is no puff of air after it (like a 'p' in the Spanish language, or like the second 'p' in "paper").
Here is an audio file (mp3):
http://www.easy-share.com/1909985838/aspiration.mp3
This is what you will hear in it:
[tʰa] \
[kʰa] } unvoiced + aspirated (as in "Tense", "aCCording", "Key")
[pʰa] /
[ta] \
[ka] } unvoiced + unaspirated (as in "sTay", "sKate", "sPeak", "paPer")
[pa] /
[da] \
[ga] } voiced (as in "Bay", "Go", "aBandon")
[ba] /
@ff
You are so kind to share the audio. But the problem is that I really can't tell the difference between the unvoiced + unaspirated and the voiced even in your audio clip. They sound almost the same to me. Is my ear not sensitive enough? Or maybe I pronounce the d/g/b in the unvoiced + unaspirated way? I am so confused.
@Another Guest
<<Can you elaborate on how "st" sounds like "sd"? I'm not sure if your "sounds like 'd' " is the same as that of the normal English speaker. >>
You asked a good question, I doubt that I pronounce the 'd' into an unvoiced + unaspirated of 't'. There are also d/g/b in Chinese, I may be influenced by my mother tongue and pronounce the unvoiced d/g/b into unvoiced + unaspirated t/k/p? If that is the case, my problem is not with the st,sp,sk, but how to correctly pronounce the voiced d/g/b.
Sorry there is a typo
I mean
...I pronounce the VOICED d/g/b into UNVOICED + unaspirated t/k/p...
Ah, your native language is Chinese - that explains it. The Pinyin letters 'd' 'g' and 'b' are used for unaspirated [t], [k] and [p]. Mandarin Chinese (the only Chinese language I'm familiar with) doesn't have [d], [g] and [b].
[d] is essentially the same as [t] except that your vocal chords vibrate while you're pronouncing it. Ditto for [g]-[k] and [b]-[p]. If you listen closely to the recording, you'll notice that you can hear my vocal chords start to vibrate even before I actually pronounce them.
It's the same contrast as /s/ vs. /z/, or /f/ vs. /v/. It's the same consonant, but your vocal chords vibrate during the voiced one.
So according to your own Pinyin definition or 'b', 'd' and 'g', yes, "skate" is pronounced with a 'g'.
typo: your own Pinyin definition **OF** 'b', 'd' and 'g'
You're lucky you're not learning a Romance language: the difference between their "B" and "P", "D" and "T", "G" and "K" is purely in voicing. They don't have aspiration.