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I hear is pronounced as in these examples:

  1. J in "jailed" of the sentenence the Judge jailed Jokesters in jucy jails (from this video on youtube)
  2. J in job (from Oxford Dictionary)
  3. J in judge (from Oxford Dictionary & Collins Dictionary)

Do you hear that or it's just my problem with /dʒ/ ?

1 Answer 1

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The normal pronunciation, and usage in the video is /dʒ/. However, voicing is the only difference between /dʒ/ and /tʃ/. The articulation is identical, so /dʒ/ may sound like /tʃ/any time voicing is 'weak'. Voiced phonemes in English tend to 'lose' some of their voicing when they follow a voiceless phoneme. In this situation, the voice 'switches on' slightly later than when the phoneme follows another voiced phoneme, but not quite as late as a true /tʃ/. This slight change normally goes unnoticed to native speakers, because it does not usually change the meaning of the word. However, there are circumstances when the meaning does change, which could easily confuse native speakers as the difference in voice-onset timing is very slight—maybe a couple of milliseconds. Try asking a native speaker to say these word pairs.

  • Big jug (should sound like /dʒ/)
  • Thick jug (should sound like /tʃ/)
  • Big chug (listen and find out how it compares)
  • Thick chug (nonsensical, but includes the right sounds. Listen and compare)

The best mental strategy to produce /dʒ/ correctly might depend on your native language. For example, in Italian, a voiced phoneme following a voiceless one may not change at all. Instead, the voiceless phoneme 'borrows' voicing from the following sound—precisely the opposite of English. Your question about /dʒ/ and /tʃ/ suggests that your native language has a different voicing pattern than English for these sounds, or that minor differences between them are more meaningful in your native language, or perhaps your language does not include one or both of these sounds and you simply need more time for them to register 'automatically'.

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