The word you're looking for is "aspirated": you're noticing the difference between aspirated and unaspirated /k/. In English, the two sounds are recognized as different realizations of the same phoneme (allophonic).
On Sun, Mar 19, 2023 at 8:34 AM Bob Bridges <robhbrid...@gmail.com> wrote: > If you'll allow me just a bit of linguistic geekery, it's because the > nature of the following 'k' sound is different. When we say "kin", the 'k' > sound has a very slight expiration of breath after it, not so much that you > would think I was actually pronounced an 'h' but it's there. When we say > "skin", that slight expiration is missing. So when I hear "wih-SKAHN-sin" > and compare it to "wiss-KAHN-sin", I'm pretty sure that the difference is > actually in the 'k' sound, although my brain interprets it as the placement > of the 's'. Same with "rack-EFF" and "ra-KEFF". > > Phoneticists have a word for this (but I'm not a phoneticist, just a > dabbler, so I couldn't tell you off-hand what the word is); it happens with > the other plosives, too, in for example "pat" and "spat", and "tamp" and > "stamp". -- Jay Maynard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
