The consonant /s/ and its ability to become /z/ in another environment

The consonant /s/, vocalized siii, is your third or fourth name, and that of every Nigerian. When someone calls you, not by your name, but rather by vocalizing siii, you’re going to turn back or at least assume the person is calling you.

That’s because it’s a name you subconsciously bear and carry all around, wherever you go—a name your parents didn’t give you but the society chose for you.

The consonant /s/ is produced with no vibration in the vocal chords. For men, touch your Adam’s apple, and vocalize siiii to see if there is going to be a vibration. No vibration, right? Yes, great! For women, you can touch your Eve’s Orange to feel the absence of vibration.

For consonant /s/ to become /z/ in another environment, it must be preceded by voiced sounds. However, when /s/ is preceded by a voiceless consonant, it remains /s/.

The presence of vibration in the vocal chords is what makes a phoneme voiced and the absence of vibration is what makes it voiceless.

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For example:

• bags /baɡz/ because /g/ is a voiced consonant.
• reasons /ˈriːz(ə)nz/ because /n/ is a voiced consonant.
• roads /rəʊdz/ because /d/ is a voiced consonant.
• brothers /ˈbrʌðərz/ because /r/ is a voiced consonant.
• games /ɡeɪmz/ because /m/ is a voiced consonant.
• kings /kɪŋz/ because /ŋ/ is a voiced consonant.
• cars /kɑːz/ because /ɑː/ is a voiced vowel.
• pieces /pi:siz/ because /i/ is a voiced vowel.

You’ll discover that it’s then important to know the sounds that are voiced and those that are voiceless to determine whether /s/ will become /z/ or not.

I have ensured I outline the sounds that are voiced below and others that are voiceless.

By default, all vowels are voiced. All nasals /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ are all voiced. /b/, /g/, /d/ are all voiced while /p/, /k/, and /t/ are voiceless. All approximants /l/, /w/, /j/ and /r/ are voiced. /ð/, /v/, and /dʒ/ are voiced and /θ/, /f/, and /tʃ/ are voiceless.

To know whether a sound is voiced or not, simply touch your Adam’s apple or Eve’s Orange to feel whether there is a vibration or not.

That’s also why words like tutors, doctors, sandals, buttons, etc, have the consonant /s/ became /z/ in that environment where the syllabic consonants /l/, /m/, and /r/ are found.

However, there are some exceptions, though: basic, assume, consume, loose, listen, increase, muscle, and absent.

For correctness, basic, and all the words above, are pronounced without the consonant /z/. Basic is pronounced /ˈbeɪsɪk/; assume as /əˈsjuːm/; consume as /kənˈsjuːm/; loose as /luːs/ (but lose as /luːz/); listen as /ˈlɪs(ə)n/; increase as /ɪnˈkriːs/; muscle as /ˈmʌs(ə)l/; and absent as /abs(ə)nt/.