Breathy voice
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2008-07-06T17:13:28Z
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{{phonation}}
'''Breathy voice''' (also called '''murmured voice''', '''soughing''', or '''susurration''') is a [[phonation]] in which the [[vocal cords]] vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise. A breathy-voiced phonation {{IPA|[ɦ]}} (not actually a [[fricative]], as a literal reading of the IPA chart would suggest) can be heard as an [[allophone]] of English /h/ between vowels, e.g. in ''behind''. A stop with breathy-voiced release (symbolized either as {{IPA|[bʱ], [dʱ], [ɡʱ],}} ''etc.'' or as {{IPA|[b̤], [d̤], [ɡ̈],}} ''etc.'') is like [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspiration]] in that it delays the onset of full voicing. This is the phonation of the [[Hindi]] "voiced aspirated stops": ''bh, dh, ḍh, jh,'' and ''gh.''
There are several ways to generate breathy-voiced sounds like [[Voiced glottal fricative|{{IPA|[ɦ]}}]]. One is to hold the vocal cords apart, so that they are lax as they are for {{IPA|[h]}}, but to increase the volume of airflow so that they vibrate loosely. A second is to bring the vocal cords closer together along their entire length than in voiceless {{IPA|[h]}}, but not as close as in modally voiced sounds such as vowels. This results in an airflow intermediate between {{IPA|[h]}} and vowels, and is the case with English intervocalic /h/. A third is to constrict the glottis, but separate the [[arytenoid cartilage]]s that control one end. This results in the vocal cords being drawn together for voicing in the back, but separated to allow the passage of large volumes of air in the front. This is the situation with Hindi.
==Breathy voice as a phonological property==
A number of languages use breathy voicing in a phonologically contrastive way, that is, they display a three-way consonant contrast (voiced<>breathy voiced<>voiceless), or possibly a four-way consonant contrast (voiced<>breathy voiced<>voiceless (unaspirated)<>voiceless aspirated). Languages displaying four-way contrasts include [[Hindi]], and the [[Nguni languages]] in the southern [[Bantu language]]s family, including [[Phuthi language|Phuthi]], [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]], [[Zulu language|Zulu]], [[Ndebele language|Ndebele]] and [[Swati language|Swati]]. These three- or four-way contrasts are typically manifested only for stop consonants (possibly including affricates), not for fricatives.
In some of these Bantu languages, 'breathy voiced' stops have been phonetically altered to [[tenuis consonant|devoiced stop]]s <ref>Traill, Anthony, James S. M. Khumalo and Paul Fridjhon (1987). Depressing facts about Zulu. African Studies 46: 255-274.</ref>, but the four-way contrast in the system has been retained. In all five of the southeastern Bantu languages named, the breathy voiced stops (even if they are realised phonetically as devoiced) have a marked tone-lowering (or tone-depressing) effect on the following [[tautosyllabic]] vowels. For this reason, such stop consonants are frequently referred to in the local linguistic literature as 'depressor' stops.
[[Swati language|Swati]], and even more so [[Phuthi language|Phuthi]], display good evidence that breathy voicing can be used as a morphological property independent of any consonant voicing value. For example, in both languages, the standard morphological mechanism for achieving the [[morphosyntactic]] [[copula]] is to simply execute the noun prefix syllable as breathy voiced (or 'depressed').
==See also==
* [[Aspiration (phonetics)|Aspiration]]
* [[Creaky voice]]
* [[List of phonetics topics]]
* [[Slack voice]]
* [[Whispering]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Phonation]]
[[br:Mouezh sourrus]]
[[fr:murmure (phonétique)]]