The other day, I walked past a construction site for a community centre. On one of the sound-proof boards surrounding the site, I saw this English phrase listed as one of the project’s “core values”:
“Sharing our cultural trades”* (❌)
The expression should actually have been “cultural traits” -- not “cultural trades.”
“Trait” is a noun meaning “feature” or “characteristic,” so “cultural traits” is a fixed collocation referring to the features or characteristics that people of a particular culture share. “Trade,” on the other hand, means “commerce” -- but you probably know this already.
The point I want to write about here, however, is not grammar or sentence structure, but English pronunciation -- because, if the person who wrote this had had a better understanding of the English sound system, and of how it differs from that of Cantonese, he or she would not have written “trades” instead of “traits.”
Let’s step back and look at this briefly.
The English word “trait” is pronounced /treɪt/, whereas “trade” is pronounced /treɪd/. In other words, the two words have exactly the same sequence of phonemes except for the final consonant, which is /t/ in one case and /d/ in the other.
Phonemes -- represented one-to-one by the International Phonetic Alphabet -- are the basic sounds, including consonants and vowels, that make up the sound system of a language. Different languages can overlap in some parts of their sound systems and differ in others.
For the purposes of this email, the English phonemes /t/ and /d/ are a pair produced in the same place in the mouth and in the same general way. However, they are still distinct phonemes -- clearly different in sound to native speakers -- because /t/ is what we call “unvoiced,” pronounced without the vocal cords pre-vibrating before the sound comes out, whereas /d/ is its “voiced” counterpart, pronounced with that pre-vibration.
Cantonese does not have the same type of voiced consonant phoneme as the English /d/. As a result, one common pronunciation mistake Cantonese speakers make in English is that they do not adequately voice English voiced consonants like /d/, and often replace them with their unvoiced counterparts.
This failure to voice English consonants like /d/ properly does not create major communicative problems when they occur at the beginnings of words, because Cantonese speakers can still rely on another characteristic -- aspiration, or an added puff of air -- to distinguish the unvoiced /t/ from /d/ in that position.
So, for example, Cantonese speakers can usually still distinguish between words like “Dan” and “tan” through the extra puff of air in “tan,” even if the /d/ in “Dan” is not voiced properly enough.
However, this becomes a real communicative problem when pairs like /d/ and /t/ occur at the ends of English words, because, in that position, even the English /t/ no longer has the added puff of air that Cantonese speakers rely on at the beginnings of words.
At the ends of English words, /d/ and /t/ can only be distinguished by voicing -- and by a related characteristic usually referred to as vowel clipping.
“Vowel clipping” refers to the shortening of a vowel before an unvoiced consonant like /t/. Because /t/ does not involve voicing, it is quicker to pronounce, and so the vowel before it is cut shorter. By contrast, before a voiced consonant like /d/, the vowel is more drawn out, because proper voicing mechanically takes more time.
Cantonese speakers, however, would not naturally make this distinction, and so they often merge final English /t/ and /d/ as the unvoiced /t/.
This creates problems like merging the pronunciations of “traits” (ending in /ts/) and “trades” (ending in /dz/) into the pronunciation of “traits” -- even though the two words are completely distinct to native English speakers.
Going back to the mistake I saw at the construction site:
If the writer of “cultural trades” had understood the pronunciation difference between “traits” and “trades,” he or she would not have mistaken one for the other, because they are distinct words with distinct pronunciations.
He or she would not have swapped “traits” for “trades,” because “trades” ends with a voiced consonant and therefore has a more drawn-out vowel and ending than “traits,” whose vowel is more clipped.
This kind of mistake is exactly what happens when learners do not have a clear enough understanding of the English sound system and of the specific ways in which it differs from that of Cantonese.
If you want to understand those differences much more clearly -- and avoid the natural pronunciation mistakes that Cantonese speakers tend to make in English -- check out our course “The Sounds of English.”
We are also currently running a one-week flash sale on the course.
You can get 30% off until next Wednesday with the code “VOICING30.”
前幾天，我經過一個社區中心的建築工地。在工地外圍的一塊隔音板上，我看到以下這個英文 expression 被列為這個項目的其中一個「core value」：
Sharing our cultural trades*（❌）
這裡想說的 expression 其實應該是 「cultural traits」——不是 「cultural trades」。
「Trait」是一個名詞，意思是「特徵」或「特性」，所以 「cultural traits」是一個固定搭配，意思是某個文化中的人所共同擁有的特徵或特性。至於 「trade」，則是「貿易」的意思——不過這一點你大概本來就已經知道。
不過，我在這裡想寫的重點，不是文法或句子結構，而是英文發音——因為，如果寫下這個錯的expression 的人對英文語音系統、以及它和廣東話語音系統之間的差異有更好的理解，他／她就不會把 「traits」寫成 「trades」。
我們先退後一步，簡單看一下這裡涉及的是甚麼。
英文單字 「trait」的發音是 /treɪt/，而 「trade」的發音是 /treɪd/。換句話說，這兩個字的音素完全一樣，只有最後一個子音不同，分別是 /t/ 和 /d/。
所謂音素 phonemes，是一個語言語音系統中的基本聲音單位，包括子音和母音；它們可以用國際音標 International Phonetic Alphabet 以一對一的方式表示出來。不同語言的音素系統有些部分會重疊，有些部分則會不同。
就這封 email 而言，英文音素 /t/ 和 /d/ 是一對在口腔中同一位置、以相同方式發出的音。不過，它們仍然是兩個不同的音素——對英文母語者來說，聽起來是完全不同的——因為 /t/ 是所謂的「清音」：發音時，聲帶不會在聲音出來之前預先振動；而 /d/ 則是它的「濁音」對應音：發音時，聲帶會有這種預先振動。
廣東話裡並沒有和英文 /d/ 同類型的濁子音音素。因此，廣東話母語者在說英文時一個常見的發音問題，就是他們沒有充分地把英文這些濁子音（例如 /d/）發濁，並且常常會用對應的清音去代替它們。
不過，當這些像 /d/ 一樣的英文濁子音出現在單字開頭時，這種沒有正確發濁的問題通常不會造成很大的溝通困難，因為廣東話母語者仍然可以依靠另一個特徵——送氣 aspiration，也就是額外的「噴氣」特徵——去區分該位置上的清音 /t/ 和濁音 /d/。
所以，例如，廣東話母語者通常仍然可以分辨像 「Dan」和「tan」這樣的一對字，因為 「tan」裡有那股額外的送氣；即使他們在 「Dan」裡的 /d/ 並沒有發得足夠濁。
然而，當像 /d/ 和 /t/ 這樣的一對音出現在英文單字結尾時，這就會變成真正的溝通問題了。因為在這個位置上，連英文的 /t/ 也不再有廣東話母語者在字首位置所依賴的那外噴氣特徵。
在英文單字結尾的位置，/d/ 和 /t/ 只能靠「清濁」特徵來區分——以及另一個通常被稱為 vowel clipping 的相關特徵。
所謂 vowel clipping，是指一個母音在清子音（例如 /t/）前面會被「斬短」。因為 /t/ 不涉及聲帶預振，所以發音比較快，因此前面的母音也會被截得比較短。相反，在濁子音（例如 /d/）前面，母音則會被拉得比較長，因為正確地發出預振，在機械上本來就需要更多時間。
然而，廣東話母語者並不會自然地作出這個區分，所以他們常常會把英文字尾的 /t/ 和 /d/ 一律合併成清音 /t/。
這就會造成像 「traits」（結尾是 /ts/）和 「trades」（結尾是 /dz/）這樣的一對字，在發音上都被併成 「traits」的情況——儘管對英文母語者來說，這兩個字是完全不同的。
回到我在工地看到的那個錯誤：
如果寫下 「cultural trades*」的人明白 「traits」和 「trades」在發音上的差別，他／她就不會把其中一個誤認成另一個，因為它們是兩個發音不同、意思也不同的字。
他／她也不會把 「traits」換成 「trades」，因為 「trades」的結尾是濁子音，所以它的母音和結尾都會比 「traits」更拉長，及有預振；而 「traits」前面的母音則會比較短、比較 clipped。
這一類錯誤，正正就是當學習者對英文語音系統、以及它和廣東話之間具體有哪些差異，沒有足夠清楚的理解時，會出現的情況。
如果你想更清楚地理解這些差異——並且避免廣東話母語者在英文裡自然會犯的那些發音錯誤——可以看看我們的課程 「The Sounds of English」。
我們目前也正在為這個課程進行一個為期一星期的 flash sale。
到下星期三之前，你都可以用優惠碼 「VOICING30」獲得 30% off。