Testing for Aspiration
Aspiration [h] is a puff of air that accompanies a consonant. To quote Wikipedia:
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of his or her mouth, and say tore ([tʰɔɹ]) and then store ([stɔɹ]). One should either feel a puff of air or see a flicker of the candle flame with tore that one does not get with store. In most dialects of English, the t is aspirated in tore and unaspirated in store.
Using that same idea about the flicker in the candle, my field methods class decided to test for aspiration with our consultant. We gave him a thin strip of paper to hold in front of his lips while we articulated certain words. It worked wonderfully.
To demonstrate aspiration in your own (English) speech, hold a sheet of paper in front of your mouth and say some of the following words: pot, spot, tore, store, come, scum. The effects will be less noticeable as you work backwards through you mouth (p > t > k), since the air has more distance to travel.
