#90: The j sound, spelled j, dge, ge, and g(i)
#90: The j sound , spelled j , dge, ge , and g(i)
The j sound is an affricate and is a voiced ch sound .
Don't let the various spellings for this sound confuse you! Listen now!
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Transcript
Hi everyone, and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English Pronunciation Podcast. My name is Mandy, and this is our 90th podcast.
Two weeks ago I talked about the ch sound ( ch sound ).
Today I'm going to explain a related sound, the j sound ( j sound ) as in the words jump , strange and giant . The ch sound and j sound are both affricates.
An affricate is a type of sound created when we stop all the air from leaving the vocal tract, and then, when we release the air, we do it with friction, or a little extra sound. English has only two affricate sounds, the ch sound and j sound . The only difference between the ch sound and j sound is voicing. The ch sound is unvoiced, and the j sound is voiced.
You can feel the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds by placing a finger or two against the front of your neck.
You will feel the vibration of a voiced sound, but not the unvoiced sounds. That vibration is created by your vocal cords. Feel both of these sounds:
( ch sound , j sound , ch sound , j sound )
Be careful.
If you add a vowel sound to the ch sound , and say it like cha , you will be adding a voiced sound to the ch sound , and you'll feel the vibration of that sound, which may confuse you. The ch sound is pronounced as ( ch sound ) and the j sound as ( j sound ). The sounds aren't cha and ja , but simply ( ch sound ) and ( j sound ). I hope you remember form two weeks ago that the ch sound began with the tongue in the same position as a t sound .
Since the j sound is a voiced ch sound , it should not be a surprise that the j sound begins by stopping the air with the tongue in the same position as the d sound ( j sound ).
With the j sound , just like with the ch sound , the stop is released with friction.
That friction, if I were to hold it, would sound like ( zh sound ). If I combine ( d sound ) and ( zh sound ), I get ( j sound ), the j sound .
There is also a spelling concept that is the same between the ch sound and j sound .
The ch sound can be spelled tch , as in the words watch and catch . There is no additional t sound in those words. It is only a ch sound . The j sound has a similar concept in the dge spelling, as in the words judge and bridge . Although we see the letter d there, we do not add an extra d sound to the word. The dge spelling is pronounced as just the j sound .
There is obviously no letter j in the words strange or giant , yet they are pronounced with a j sound .
The letter g , when followed by the letters e or i , are generally pronounced as the j sound . So the words strange and giant are both pronounced with the j sound .
We're going to do two sets of practice today, one is just the j sound with it's various spellings, then we'll practice a few minimal sets between the j sound and ch sound . Repeat the following words after me.
j sound spelled j :
jump job junior
j sound spelled dge :
bridge edge budget
j sound spelled ge or gi :
gentle magic charge
Here is the minimal set practice between the ch sound and j sound .
I'll say the word with the ch sound first: choke, joke chunk, junk rich, ridge
As a quick review, here are the key points to remember about the j sound :
a j sound is a voiced ch sound there is no additional d sound when the j sound is spelled dge ge and gi are also common j sound spellings
That's all for today everyone. Don't forget you can find transcripts for this, and all of our shows, at www.pronunicna.com/podcast, and you can follow us on Twitter, username pronuncian, to get all the updates on new Pronuncian content as well as other interesting English bits. This has been a Seattle Learning Academy digital publication.
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Bye-bye.
