| Voiced Consonant |
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A voiced sound is one in which the Vocal Cords vibrate, and a voiceless sound is one in which they do not. Voicing is the difference between pairs of sounds such as and in English. If you place your fingers on your voice box (ie the location of the Adam's Apple in the upper throat), you can feel a Vibration when you pronounce ''zzzz'', but not when you pronounce ''ssss''. (For a more detailed, technical explanation, see Phonation .) Vowel s are usually voiced. Consonant s may be voiced or unvoiced. Voiceless and voiced consonants Consonants which commonly come in voiced and voiceless pairs like these are called ' Obstruent s'. Voiceless consonants are usually articulated more strongly than their voiced counterparts, because in voiced consonants, the airflow energy used in pronunciation is split between the laryngeal vibration and the oral articulation. Voiceless vowels The IPA diacritic for voicelessness is the under-ring, . This is used where no separate symbol is available, for example for voiceless vowels. Vowels may be voiceless, usually Allophonically . For example, the Japanese word ''sukiyaki'' is pronounced . This may sound like to an English speaker, but the lips can be seen compressing for the . Something very similar happens in English with words like ''peculiar'' and ''p'''ar'''ticular''. Voicing in English Beside the pairs of voiceless and voiced 'obstruent' consonants given above, other voiced sounds in English are the ie (the latter spelled "y"), and the Vowel s. These sounds are called ' Sonorant s'. Distinctive voiceless sonorants do occur, but are relatively rare. In most languages, the difference between and is that are voiced, while are not. However, in English , the main distinction is not that are voiced, but rather that are Aspirated . That is, they differ in When Voicing Starts . In most English dialects, are partially voiceless in some environments, such as word initially. In fact, after an , the contrast between and is lost; when a child learning English has acquired voicing distinctions, but not yet acquired the Clusters , the child's pronunciation of ''spy, sty, sky'' sounds to an adult like ''buy, die, guy''. Degrees of voicing There are two variables to degrees of voicing: ''intensity'' (discussed under Phonation ), and ''duration'' (discussed under Voice Onset Time ). When a sound is described as "half voiced" or "partially voiced", it is not always clear whether that means that the voicing is weak (low intensity), or if the voicing only occurs during part of the sound (short duration). In the case of English, it is the latter. See also |