South African English pronunciation: Voiced & Voiceless Sounds

The online language laboratory

South African English Voiced & Voiceless

Please note: the words and symbols below refer to the British English sounds. They
are only provided for comparison. Many of the South African sounds are quite different!

			bull/pull, big/pig, bin/pin, bowl/pole
			gold/cold, good/could, goat/coat, gate/Kate
			die/tie, down/town, dime/time, dim/Tim
			van/fan, vine/fine, view/few, very/ferry, oval/offal
			gin/chin, jug/chug, Jane/chain, June/tune, lunge/lunch, Jill/chill, Jew/chew, Jews' Day/Tuesday, hedge/fetch, danger/'doncha' = 'don't you'*
			these/this, as/mass, has/hassle, puzzle/pestle
			the/thing, thou/thousand (voiced: this, those, them, clothes; voiceless: think, through, thorn, cloth)
			Asia, leisure, seizure, measure, treasure, pleasure
			lagged/lacked, laughed/halved, nabbed/napped

* The sound is . Other examples of this sound:
'woncha' = "won't you", picture, miniature, feature, signature

Also: "do you" is often pronounced to sound exactly the same as "Jew"

Our warmest thanks go to ...

Speaker	Geographical origin	Date of recording	Approx age
Unnamed Unnamed	Johannesburg Natal	Feb 10, 2006 Feb 10, 2006	50 22

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