Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

All the sounds produced in the English are either voiced or voiceless. Speech sounds which are produced with the vocal cords vibrating are called ’voiced’. Such vibration can be felt when touching the neck in the region of the LARYNX. On the other hand when a speech sound which is normally voiced is pronuonced without vibration or only slight vibration , this is called voiceless sound. 

All vowels in English are voiced. Some of the consonant sounds are voiced and some are voiceless. Some of the consonant sounds produced in English are very similar. Many times the difference between them is because one is voiced and the other is voiceless. Two examples are 'z', which is voiced and 's', which is voiceless. The chart below is a list of the voiced and voiceless consonants.   

          Voiced consonants            Voiceless consonant

          Sounds                                  Sounds

             b                                               p

             d                                               t

             g                                               k

             v                                               f

             z                                               s

             th                                             th 

             sz                                             sh

             j                                                ch

             l                                                 h

             m

             n 

             ng

             r

             w

             y