Source
r/linguistics•
PTSTS

A weird phenomenon in spoken English

I call it the "psssss" phenomenon. Some English speakers would add a /p/ before a word starting with /s/, usually, this occurs when said word comes after a pause or at the beginning of a sentence. Here are some examples from YouTube videos (and listen to the specified words):

https://youtu.be/VLfRxtFDxLw?t=106 "spicy"

https://youtu.be/TZ6V3Wf4d0A?t=22 "state"

https://youtu.be/28fogngOMXE?t=420 "similarities"

Does anyone know what this phenomenon is called or where can I perhaps look for more resources?

To clarify, from my observation this is most commonly occurring in some American accents (although it might exist elsewhere), the /p/ only comes before s-words, I never heard it being added anywhere else. I have heard this phenomenon consistently from many people (although it still rarely occurs for each speaker, I would say less than 1 / 100 sentences).

It is a fascinating phenomenon and I want to find out why people do this. Finding evidence has been tough and this question is easily dismissed. Do you also have an idea which might be a more suitable subreddit to ask this question?

Posted Jul 8, 2022, 5:48 PM UTC

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slpete•

So 2 of those examples (“spicy” and “similarities”) come right after a word ending in /m/. In those examples, I would assume it’s an effect of coarticulation. Just like “hamster” can often have a short [p] sound before the /s/ or how there is a small [t] sound between the /n/ and /s/ in “prince”. This has to do with the timing of the closure of the velopharyngeal port between the preceding nasal and the /s/ sound.

The /s/ usually said with retracted lips, so you may also hear someone do this if they start the airflow for the /s/ before the lips are completely apart.

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so_im_all_like•

Wait...am I missing something in those videos?

In the "spicy" video, he says "...bread crumbs to make it [p]spicy...", so there's no immediately preceding [m]. In the "similarities" video, he says "...the shock, as there's [p]similarities..." - again, no [m].

It's not like this is a consistent voicing transition either, as "spicy" comes right after "it", in which it sounds like that /t/ is really [ʔ]. As for "there'/z/ [p]similarities", you could try to say this a voicing change, though /z/ may appear as [s] via assimilation to the following consonant, which is what it sounds like to me. Also, he says "similarities" 6:57 with no epenthetic [p] sound when that words follows a vowel, so this isn't a consistent feature of his speech.

I think this is a stylistic effect of recording for clarity. People speak differently when they're performing or being scrutinized. It's possible that trying to speak clearly causes them to separate their words slightly more, meaning more complete mouth closures between words. That in turn would make extraneous labial sounds more likely to appear at word boundaries.

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slpete•

I heard it as “bread crumbs to make ‘em spicy” and “there’s some similarities between nations”.

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pabechan•

Or maybe he was about to go "hmm"/"umm" and it just ended up being super-short.

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Bihomaya•

The first one says, “to make a spicy andouille breadcrumb..” The second one says “there’s [pause] similarities...”

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Harsimaja•

Yeah and if it were just due to the mouth reopening, why not in other contexts, say, before a vowel?

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so_im_all_like•

Well, I'm not saying it's a rule. I'm speculating a simple explanation for its inconsistent occurrence in a sample of two observations.

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SkamGnal•

https://youtu.be/28fogngOMXE?t=417

In the "similarities" example, he says the /s/ normally just a few seconds earlier

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Uncleted626•

That's what I heard, more akin to a stutter.

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LeeTheGoat•

i think its just them closing their mouths for a split second before talking again

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LongLiveTheDiego•

It'd make sense and that's what I assumed before watching the clips, but it's not true. We have "as there's similarities" and "make a spicy", no preceding /m/ at all. I have no explanation other than that the speakers randomly put their lips together before pronouncing /s/, I think you can see that in the "spicy" video (don't have a computer, can't check frame by frame, but he seems to be closing his mouth too fast)

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Bland_Uninteresting•

Yeah it seems like epenthentic due to the difficulty of shifting from a nasal to a fricative.

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wormnyc•

Huh, this comment made me realize I actually say "hampster" and not "hamster" for the first time in my life. Do you recommend any resources for learning basic parts of speech like this? I don't know what words like coarticulation mean completely in this context (though I do now) and I'm not sure where to start studying-wise. I'm obviously capable of looking things up on my own, but since there's a whole lot more words out there, I think I'm better off reading a book first so I'm not constantly needing to google every unknown concept I come across

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BrainChicane•

These instances have always sounded to me like a slight stumbling in speech. Like a very minor misstep as opposed to a linguistic phenomenon that these speakers would identify as normal for them. Maybe it’s worth trying to ask someone who’s produced the phenomenon whether they think they misspoke or it was normal? In fact, I believe I have done this before and felt like I stumbled slightly mid-sentence. Regardless, interesting, and maybe I’m in the small minority!

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silasfelinus•

I agree with your assessment. When I listened to the youtube videos, it sounded to me like they were going to say a different word, then quickly changed.

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PTSTSOP•

Maybe. But I've heard this from higly edited videos, meaning that even if it's a stumbling in speech they couldn't realize it when editing the videos! And I've only noticed /p/ like this, not any other sounds. As a listener if you don't pay attention sometimes you won't hear them either. I think it is actually a liguistic phenomenon, just not an important one.

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tomatoswoop•

meaning that even if it's a stumbling in speech they couldn't realize it when editing the videos

I mean not really, most of these videos, while edited, are voiced over with a pretty natural "off the cuff" cadence, even if it is pre-planned. Leaving minor stumbles/disjoints/pauses in there is perfectly normal and part of the style. There's a big difference between "don't realise it's there" and "don't think it negatively impacts the video enough to re-do"

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schoschja•

I agree that it doesn't sound like a linguistic phenomenon necessarily but what these examples sound like to me is a release when a speaker moves their lips from a closed position to produce the /s/ being analyzed as a [p].

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Pathawi•

My initial reaction was: What on Earth is this person talking about? Then I watched the videos. I had never noticed this. That's really interesting.

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Harsimaja•

This reminds me of a post on here a year or two ago that showed videos with Americans releasing their initial ‘p’ sounds with something like a velar/uvulae fricative (I think?). Made no sense to me and then I heard it. Both of these are sound changes that would seem odd to me if they were described about any language, let alone my own (if another variety of it).

Speaking of which, what happens if these two sound changes compound? Maybe one day Americans will be talking about pkhspices and pkhsimilarities and mutual intelligibility with other English speakers will be a thing of the past. /pkhs

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Esosorum•

This is fascinating, I’ve never noticed this before now! It almost sounds like the “p” is being added to the end of the word before.

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Snoo-77745•

This reminds me of the phenomenon by which we get yep/nope/ope from yeah/no/oh; that is, when the mouth closes abruptly, as voicing ceases, it gives the impression of a bilabial stop. Perhaps something similar is happening, but at the beginning instead of end?

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PTSTSOP•

Yeah maybe, but in my case the bilabial stop seems to be unintentional (also not expressed in spelling) so much so that the speakers themselves won't realize it. I wonder if this phenomenon will gradually be more widespread and effect the spelling too.

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JerryUSA•

To me it’s not a pronunciation phenomenon, because, for example, the first person says “spreads” without it.

What I have always considered these things as is that all these people are trying to narrate fluidly, and are trying to think ahead.

While thinking ahead and trying to speak rapidly at the same time, their internal monologue causes them to slip up and almost pronounce words that are following the S word.

In all three videos the S words are followed by P or B sounds shortly after. They are most likely tripping up because they are not super skilled at talking fast. This phenomenon happens all the time in speech and I hear it all the time, so maybe you are finally noticing it in a certain pattern and are drawing the wrong conclusion.

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Chiacchierare•

Yeah this is what think too. It’s like they’re all just hesitating a bit/tripping up on the words, which happens to people all the time!

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Noleng•

I know nothing about it, but it is so cool. Is it like the lips are closed when the speaker begins the utterance? My train of thoughts went like this:

  • it could occur at any time because lips being closed is a natural position when not speaking
  • But it won't generate [p] before a plosive phoneme obviously (because the air is blocked before the lips)
  • If it occurs before a vowel, it is considered as mispronunciation (/pæpl/ for "apple") and won't be counted as the pssss phenomenon
  • Since English doesn't allow /ps/ at the beginning of a word, [ps] at the beginning may be interpreted as just /s/ and counted as the pssss phenomenon

What do you think? If this serves as an explanation then it has to be a common phenomenon in a lot of other languages, but I (personally) have never heard of anything similar

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PTSTSOP•

It is a good explanation, but as for why people do this in those cases (I feel like there is a pattern), it's still not clear. I've also never heard of it before /ʃ/ or /z/. I also have the feeling that before an emphasized word in a sentence people would put more stress on their lips, making it a plosive.

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Harsimaja•

If it’s rare enough, initial sh (no IPA on phone) and /z/ might just be less common and not appear in a small sample?

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ijazat•

This reminds me of how a lot of English speakers (including myself) pronounce “hamster” as “hampster”.

I think one of the other comments mentions the “ps” happening after an “m”, so maybe it’s related.

Interesting post, OP!

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Pantsie•

I kind of wonder if this is a continuation of the phenomenon I've seen all over Youtube in recent years, where people add a lot of unnatural glottal stops [ʔ] to the beginnings of words in what seems like an attempt to sound more like "news speak." Adding that glottal stop to an initial /s/ doesn't work well since the /s/ isn't voiced, but the /p/ provides that same stop in a more audible way.

Pure conjecture, but it tracks with the fact that I've never heard this in real life and all of these narrators are using more initial glottal stops than I'd expect in regular conversation (albeit not to the point of being unnatural).

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Dirty_Water86•

I've never heard of this phenomenon. I'm a speech language pathologist and it sounds like a typical disarticulation to me.

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szpaceSZ•

Nice, never encountered these, but your examples are quite fascinating!

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HydeVDL•

english isn't my native language so hearing all sorts of accents is normal to me. i watch 2 out of the 3 youtubers you linked and I never noticed this phenomenon. i guess i just don't pay attention to that sort of things unless it's something really pronounced.

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PTSTSOP•

Neither native nor non-native speakers can really notice this! It took me a long time before I started to notice, even though I'm sure I've heard it so many times.

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HydeVDL•

yeah this is quite subtle

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flute37•

I’m assuming it’s an accidental sound being made when opening the mouth in order to make the /s/, but yeah it is weird and I haven’t noticed it before. I’ve noticed sometimes people say /sθɪ͡.ijə/ for “seeya” so I wonder if this is a similar thing

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beach_birds•

Mind blown. I’ve never noticed this before. I almost think it’s more of a pause between words, like “um” or “ah.” Have you noticed this with just s-sounds? I’ll have to pay attention now and see if this happens before other sounds too. So interesting.

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