Page 32 - Basic Japanese

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sides of the throat, we say the sound is VOICELESS or

UNVOICED. You can feel the vibration of the vocal cords by
placing your hand on your throat. Or put your hands over
your ears and you will notice a buzz whenever a sound is

voiced.

In most languages, some of the sounds are typically
voiced and others are typically voiceless. For instance, in
English the initial sounds of these pairs diﬀer in that the

ones on the left (k, ch, t, s, p, f, th) are voiceless, and those

on the right (g, j, d, z, b, v, th) are voiced:

Voiceless Voiced

Kay gay

cheer jeer
toe dough

seal zeal
pay bay

fan van
thin then

There are similar pairs of voiced and voiceless sounds in

Japanese:

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