Voiced consonants in final positions in Polish

Foriegners make fequent errors with polish words where a voiced consonant is in the word's final position. One way to avoid that is do a little test, based on an example from another post: raz (once)

The word is prononced ras but spelled raz. If unsure about spelling, try to remember one of the Case forms or a plural, for instance, dwa razy (two times), drugim razem (the second time). If the inflection, or plurality requires a voiced consonant then, in speling, you must use it for the base form too.

for those unsure about the difference between voiced and voiceless:
place the tips of your fingers around your Adam's apple area. Pronounce a sound, for instance k. If you feel no vibrations then k is voicless. Now do the same with g and feel the difference.

A note based on experience: you need to produce those sounds of speech. Reading and listening won't be enough. Lock yourself in a room, far from prying ears and just keep practicing. Being alone helps, as noone will have a reason to tease you, or be concerned about you loosing your mind. I did the same when I had to learn the sounds of English.

Same in other languages too. For example, some people speaking bad German say unt instead of und when speaking.

There is always more than meets the eye.
There is always more than meets the ear.
The ear and the eye must meet with the voice.

A certain amount of impressionist skills are required.
You need to be able to do voices.

Irritatingly, my flatmate deliberately voices these consonants at the ends of words I'm forcing him to teach me.
Anyone know a good Polish teacher? Oh yes...

Actually, this is not bad German at all.
If you remember lectures on High German consonant shift that was complete around 6 to 7th century AD. You will also remember that many of the consonant changes had to do with voiceless shifts in High German (Hoch Deutsch). Of course, you will also know that Hoch Deutsch is is what influenced modern German to a degree higher than other German dialects. If you happen to have forgotten all those then a decent refresher course can be found on the friendly Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_German_consonant_shift

For instance:

Hunde /hunde/ but Hund /hunt/ (dog, in German it can also be Spelled Hunt)
rauben /rauben/ but Raub /raup/ (rob, robbery)
Könige /køːniɡə/ but König /køːniç/ (king)

Particularly the last example is striking (that's gotta be the sexiest sound in all of the German language). You can hardly get any more voiceless than that, although in some dialects (such as some areas of Berlin) and depending on the preceding vowel (tag vs. Pfennig) often sounds different, but in most cases still voicelss.

It is indeed, very bad German.

Michal, apparently German is not your forte.


Check German pronunciation here: utils.ex.ac.uk/german/pronounce