Does the difference between S and Z, B and V, etc have a name?

Question

J and Ch, THe and THumb, Vee and Bee, Zee and See, She and viSION. Do you see what i'm getting at?

I think it's called nasalized or vicalized. Is that it? The interesting thing is that it's hard for foreigners to learn this stuff, unless they are young. My dad can't pronounce the letter Z

Answer 1

The study of the sounds languages use is called phonetics, and phonetics uses certain terms to describe the sounds. For example, the letter "t" might be described as a "unvoiced dental plosive" as it is articulated by placing the tongue against the teeth and making and making a small "explosion", without engaging the vocal chords, whilst "d" is a "voiced dental plosive" - the tongue is in the same position, and you still make the "explosion" but this time, you have to make a "buzz" with the voice to produce the sound. In otherwords, a "d" without the help of the vocal chords becomes a "t". Other voiced/unvoiced pairs are:
p - b
f - v
s - z
c/k - g
j - ch
th (as in the,that) - th as in thick, thought, etc.

"Nasals" are n and m. There are a number of other terms used to describe the sounds as phonetics is a whole field of study on its own.

Answer 2

Using home-made English type phonetic symbols:

/s/ when VOICED is 'z'
/ch/ when VOICED is /j/
Same for 'thumb' and 'the'
Same for 'sh' and the sound in 'vision'

V and B is not the same - both are voiced consonants - /v/ is a voiced labio-dental fracative (as pronounced in English) and /b/ is a voiced bilabial plosive.

Answer 3

Voiced vs. Unvoiced.

Z, B, V are voiced, S, P, F are unvoiced.