how to pronounce 'sp', 'st' and 'sk' in the middle of the word?

Question

0'p' is pronounced /b/ in 'expect', but /p/ in 'expose', are there any rules for the letter p after /s/ sound in the middle of the word? and the same question for st and sk. Thanks.0-

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

0I don't pronounce 01i00p02i00 as /01b00b02b00/ in01i00 expect02i00. I can't even do it if I try.0-

Marvin A. · Answer

0 I don't know where you heard that.  Maybe they were talking about aspiration or something like that?  I believe I pronounce both of those / p / 's as [ p ] . 0-

Kooyeen · Answer

0 Hi, this is interesting, it reminds me of something I read in a book for improving pronunciation (the famous "American Accent Training"). The title of the paragraph is "Spoon or Sboon?" 02br
02br
00She (the author) say: "Say spoon. Now say sboon. Hear how they sound the same?" 01font01i00This is similar to your p/b problem. Anyway, I disagree, spoon and sboon sound similar to me, but not the same, and people say spoon, not sboon.02i02font00 She go on saying: "Hear how they sound the same? This is why I'd like you to always convert the preposition 01b00to02b00 to 01b00duh02b00 when you are speaking, no matter what comes before it (voiced or unvoiced sound)." 01font01i00I have to disagree again. I don't think 01b00to02b00 becomes 01b00duh02b00 after unvoiced consonants. Examples: "Way duh go!" (ok, vowel sound), "I need duh know that" (ok, voiced consonant), "To be or nod duh be" (I don't think so, I think it's simply "To be or not to be"). In the book, however, she explicitly write in the phonetic transcription "T'bee r nah d'bee".02i00 02font02br
02br
00In the end, that paragraph was one the ones I didn't pay too much attention to. But maybe she's right, and I'm just a bad sutdent not willing to listen to teachers 050010id4

Anonymous · Answer

0 English only has voiceless stops after /s/ at the beginning of a syllable.02br
02br
00/st/, /sk/ and /sp/ might sound like /sd/, /sg/ or /sb/ sometimes. After /s/, the voiceless stops /t/, /k/, and /p/ are unaspirated and are phonetically very similar to the voiced stops /d/ /g/ and /b/. But they are definitely the phonemes /t/, /k/ and /p/, however they are actually pronounced.02br
02br
00As a native speaker, I'm not even sure how to say "exbect" and make it sound any different than "expect". 02br
02br
00Hope that makes sense.0-

Anonymous · Answer

0 English only has voiceless stops after /s/ at the beginning of a syllable.02br
02br
00We say that the voiceless-voiced distinction is neutralized after /s/ - there is no contrast between /st/ and /sd/, /sk/ and /sg/, /sp/ and /sb/.02br
02br
00 /st/, /sk/ and /sp/ might sound like /sd/, /sg/ or /sb/ sometimes. After /s/, the voiceless stops /t/, /k/, and /p/ are unaspirated and are phonetically very similar to the voiced stops /d/ /g/ and /b/. But they are definitely the phonemes /t/, /k/ and /p/, however they are actually pronounced.02br
02br
00 As a native speaker, I'm not even sure how to say "exbect" and make it sound any different than "expect". 02br
02br
02br
00 Hope that makes sense. 0-

CalifJim · Answer

0 The 'rules' are the same for medial sp, st, and sk as for initial sp, st, and sk.02br
02br
00 For more discussion on this, see 05002br
02br
00 CJ040pid196503

how to pronounce 'sp', 'st' and 'sk' in the middle of the word?

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