pronunciation of D

Hi there, everybody

I was wondering about how do native speakers REALLY pronounce their Ds. I tried unsuccessfully to find material about this on the web.

I think I hear a slight aspiration, more like a brief S if you will, after initial-Ds, as in the word "deem" or "dean", but maybe less in words like "dough". Is it really so or am I mis-hearing it? I hear it like "DsEEM" and "DsEAN", those Ss being pronounced really quick. They seem like a slighter aspiration as compared to the initial-T aspiration.

If there be here a kind native speaker soul who'd like to record an mp3 or something to help me out, I'd be very glad if they could speak the following words: deem, dean, dough, dab, deb, dob, doob, doodle, day.

By the way, just so you know my listening level, I can hear pretty much everything they say on TV, whether it's a series or documentary or news. I think the constant improvement of one's vocabulary helps much with listening, as there will be progressively fewer words which you cannot recognize.

Thanks

/d/ does have some variations, because the tongue is positioned slightly forward or slightly back depending on what the following vowel is.

It is not a difference that most speakers actively notice. If you don't replicate it you will still be understood.

It is possible that /d/ has a short aspiration for some speakers, much shorter than /t/.

English /d/ is apico-alveolar.

Word initially it is often not voiced - there is a very short voice onset time. In North American English, between vowels and word finally it can sound the same as /t/ - sometimes it is the vowel length that gives away whether it is a /d/ or /t/. Vowels proceeding /d/ are longer than vowels proceeding /t/.

I'm afraid even if I heard you pronounce different Ds I wouldn't be able to tell for sure which one was the English one! I don't have that kind of training.