11
votes
Accepted
Whispering in languages heavily dependent on pitch or phonation distinctions
Whispering excludes voicing from the linguistic inventory. Quite naturally, the decrease of the ability to comprehend a whispered speech depends on the language's original set of phonetic tools. Marc ...
- 8,599
10
votes
Accepted
What is it called when a person pronounces the letter t in the word "metal" as something more similar to a d sound?
The phenomenon is known as "flapping", and the result, transcribed as [ɾ], is a "flap". It also applies to /d/, but people notice it most when applied to /t/ since the result is more different ...
- 81.9k
8
votes
Accepted
Anglicisation of the voiceless velar fricative [x]
Neither [h] nor [k] is "accurate" as a replacement for [x]: but there are some linguistic issues related to how [x] in a source language word appears in English, when the word is borrowed. The velar ...
- 81.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Does assimilation of voice produce different phonemes, or just allophones?
There is no clear answer to the title question in general; it may depend on the sounds, or the language. (Well, unless you define "assimilation" in such a way as to explicitly refer to a ...
- 17.8k
7
votes
Accepted
IPA Pronunciation of Unvoiced Consonants Seems Like Voiced
Typically, when a person cannot hear a difference between a voiceless stop and a voiced stop, as pronounced according to IPA principles, that is because the voiceless stop is unaspirated, and the ...
- 81.9k
6
votes
Accepted
The soft Spanish "t" (other languages are available)
I think you're just hearing the lack of aspiration; English and German "t" is generally aspirated at the start of a syllable, while Spanish and Italian generally lack aspiration on voiceless plosives (...
- 17.8k
6
votes
Difference between voiced and lenis consonants in English
The terms reflect personal terminological preferences regarding certain consonants in English. "Voiced" usually refers to a physical property, that the vocal folds are vibrating during the ...
- 81.9k
5
votes
Accepted
Limitations of the parrot speech?
I don't think issue has been explored in a systematic way, and it's not clear how it could be. Theoretically, one might record human language contrasts like tal, thal, ttal uttered by a parrot (how do ...
- 81.9k
5
votes
Accepted
If we can say the following sounds when whispering
As for the voiced plosives you mentioned, that is b, g, d, and also affricates, such as j (as in jar, the unvoiced counterpart is ch in char)these are distinguished from their unvoiced counterparts by ...
- 4,440
5
votes
Accepted
What does "fine-grained voicing distinctions" for consonants mean according to IPA?
It means that the phonetics of voicing, as observed in human languages, goes beyond just a two-way distinction between "vocal folds vibrating" vs. "vocal folds not vibrating". ...
- 81.9k
4
votes
Languages with a three-way distinction between voiced, aspirated, and unaspirated stops
Just to give you some more data, by analyzing the UPSID, I have come up with the following list of languages that specifically have this three way contrast in stops, and no other phonation ...
- 309
4
votes
Accepted
If any phonologies / languages make a distinction between voiced/voiceless nasals, approximants, vowels, trills, or flaps
Certainly!
Ancient Greek /r/ had an unvoiced allophone [r̥], which was written as rh in Latin transcriptions (see "rhino", "diarrhea").
Old Norse had phonemic /l̥ r̥ n̥/, which contrasted with /l r ...
- 63.8k
4
votes
Accepted
In what circumstances is d devoiced in English?
One factor is the individual: some individuals devoice more than others. Then you have to look at context, but additionally you have to be more specific about what you are measuring (and I should add ...
- 81.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Lengthened voiced stops and the airstream through the nose
It is possible that you do lower the velum when you do this, and velum lowering is one of the methods that is used to alleviate the pressure buildup of voiced stops, but it is also possible that your ...
- 81.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Mechanism of glottal stop - effect on tension in vocal cords
I think the answer is, no, we cannot tell you. One reason is that there isn't just one thing "glottal stop". There is a dissertation Production and perception of glottal stops which covers the ...
- 81.9k
4
votes
Does assimilation of voice produce different phonemes, or just allophones?
They are called allomorphs. It refers to phonological variations of a same morpheme. See the In English suffixes section of the given wikipedia article. It gives an example of the past tense morpheme -...
- 357
4
votes
Why does /zd-/ require more effort even though both the consonants have the same voicing?
This is just a subjective feeling that really depends on your native language or the languages you are used to speaking. Other languages are fine with this particular combination.
For example, in my ...
- 1,218
4
votes
Correlation Between Voicing and Place of Articulation?
A better way to put it is that it's more difficult to maintain voicing in stops at the back of the mouth. Voicing requires a drop in pressure across the glottis, and stops close off the oral cavity. ...
- 81.9k
4
votes
Does Lakhota contrast voicing in stops?
In his dissertation, Carter says that Teton Dakota has voiced stops [b, g]. WALS is simply wrong, you would have to ask the author why. There is a [p pʰ b] contrast so we can't even blame misanalysis ...
- 81.9k
3
votes
non-aspirated voiceless stops versus their voiced counterparts before a vowel
Phonetically, the main theory I've heard is that voiced/voiceless/aspirated consonants are distinguished by voice onset time. VOT is the time delta between when the consonant stops and when the vocal ...
- 63.8k
3
votes
Lengthened voiced stops and the airstream through the nose
If you're producing nasals then you must be allowing your velum to drop. No fair. You have to find some way to enlarge the closed air cavity above your larynx. There are several ways to do this. ...
- 12.4k
3
votes
If any phonologies / languages make a distinction between voiced/voiceless nasals, approximants, vowels, trills, or flaps
but I'm wondering if there are the same sort of voiced/voiceless distinctions for nasals / approximants / trills / flaps / affricates / vowels / etc.
These exist, but they are rare because they're ...
- 4,440
3
votes
Does Mandarin Chinese have phonetically voiced plosives, fricatives, or affricates (besides "r" = [ʐ] / [ɻ])?
There's no rule that says Mandarin unaspirated stops CAN'T be voiced. The point is that there are no minimal pairs between voiced and unvoiced unaspirated stops. The actual phonetic realization- in ...
- 627
3
votes
What is it called when a person pronounces the letter t in the word "metal" as something more similar to a d sound?
Flapping applies to intervocalic syllable offset alveolar stops. This formulation assumes some things that are less than obvious. For one thing, it assumes that syllabic and glide r count as vowels, ...
- 12.4k
3
votes
Is /v/ cross-linguistically semi-voiced and powerless in devoicing preceding consonants in case of regressive assimilation? How to explain it?
I don't have an explanation from a synchronic phonetic perspective.
From a diachronic and phonological perspective, /v/ in many languages, including Danish and Russian, developed from earlier /w/. ...
- 17.8k
2
votes
Voiced obstruents (and sonority in general)
There are three linguistic terms which have a common Latin origin, sonor: "sonorant", "sonority" and "sonorous". A sonorant is a sound produced with a vocal tract cavity configuration where ...
- 81.9k
2
votes
Can a stop be both voiced and aspirated?
they're opposites in terms of voice onset, which would make them mutually exclusive.
As far as I know, that is true.
A sound that can be produced is a murmured plosive (they are sometimes called ...
2
votes
Anglicisation of the voiceless velar fricative [x]
[I don't have sufficient reputation to comment; however, since this question is subjective, I'll dare to "answer" it instead.]
I prefer to use x (since it looks exactly like the Russian equivalent), ...
- 41
2
votes
Anglicisation of the voiceless velar fricative [x]
For one, I would pronounce most instances of /x/ as /k/, unless I'm really thinking about how to pronounce it, in which case I might say /x/. Most people I have heard do this, though some pronounce ...
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