Voice and Unvoiced Word Game

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

And here he is, looking like a million dollars, but a little less in his pocket.

It’s our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

What can I do with only a quarter of a million in my pocket? That’s nuts. I mean, you can’t even buy an apartment in New York.

Not in New York, at least. That’s so true.

This is today’s quiz. I call it D for T. Now, D and T, as you know, are both stop consonants made with the same mouth position. D is, of course, a voiced sound made by vibrating the vocal cords, and T is unvoiced.

This does not stop me from confusing the two, either unintentionally or intentionally, for comedic effect. Hopefully.

I’ll give you a clue to a famous name that has an unvoiced T sound in it, but also a clue to the name if you voice the T into a D. For example, he wrote, raindrops keep falling on my nest, and what the worms need now is love. That would be a clue for Bert and Bird.

What kind of Bacharach? Bird. Bird. That’s right. Bird Bacharach. Bird Bacharach instead of Bert Bacharach. If you say it quick enough, I might not even think you’ve got it correct.

So on radio, these T’s and D’s are hard to hear, but maybe we’ll spell them. We’re going to overdo it, I’m pretty sure, as we always overdo everything.

Okay. Here we go. Let’s build a D. This brother was not only the first pilot on the first plane, he was the first passenger. Was it Wilbur or Orville? But their last name is Ride, whoever it is.

Ride, that’s right. It’s Orville Ride. Orville Ride. That’s correct. Instead of right. Very good.

Now, if I were an Olympian who was known as the fastest man alive, I, too, would be confident and courageous. Usain Bolt. Usain Bolt, yes, for Usain Bolt.

Jimmy Kimmel loves having Ben Affleck on his show. Maybe that’s why this actor is so angry about their pretend feud. Mad Damon. Mad Damon, yes.

She once sang, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene. Oh, please excuse me. I thought you were someone else. Ha, Dolly Pardin. Dolly Pardin. Sorry. Sorry.

The first saint of country music. That’s right. Very nice. Dolly Pardin for Dolly Pardin.

I think it’s appropriate that this home entertaining cooking and lifestyle guru manages the domestic concerns of her own household. Martha stewards her belongings in her life. That’s right. Martha steward.

Wait, I was going to say Ina Gardin. Yeah, that’s not bad. She gardens, yeah. Those hedgerows were a match. Garden, gardens, garden, gardens.

I’m sure hosting Reading Rainbow and being a Star Trek legend were heavy loads to bear. LeVar’s Burden. LeVar Burden. LeVar Burton, yes.

A key figure in Western and ancient Greek philosophy, and also great for keeping the kids busy, making arts and crafts projects. Plato. Plato, that’s right. The great philosopher Plato.

Also in the good but terrible column. Big green checkmark. That column is getting longer and longer. It is.

So we’re just going to end that column right here. We’re going to end the whole thing right here. You guys were fantastic.

We are not going to mention today Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Or musician Peter Tork. So we’re just going to end it right there.

Thank you, guys. That was fantastic. Oh, thank you so much, John. That’s great. We appreciate all the hard work you put into these, John, and we’re looking forward to next week.

Thank you. You can call our listener line 24-7 in the United States and Canada, toll-free 877-929-9673, or email us wherever you are in the world, words@waywordradio.org.