Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
There is a hypothesis that the contrast between fortis and lenis consonants is related to the contrast between voiceless and voiced consonants. That relation is based on sound perception as well as on sound production, where consonant voice, tenseness and length are only different manifestations of a common sound feature.
Most commonly, the change is a result of sound assimilation with an adjacent sound of opposite voicing, but it can also occur word-finally or in contact with a specific vowel. For example, the English suffix -s is pronounced [s] when it follows a voiceless phoneme (cats), and [z] when it follows a voiced phoneme (dogs). [1]
The English alphabet has fewer consonant letters than the English language has consonant sounds, so digraphs like ch , sh , th , and ng are used to extend the alphabet, though some letters and digraphs represent more than one consonant. For example, the sound spelled th in "this" is a different consonant from the th sound in "thin".
Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds. It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
A similar historical sound change also occurred in Veinakh and Lezgic in the Caucasus, and it has been postulated by the glottalic theory for Indo-European. [2] Some Khoisan languages have voiced ejective stops and voiced ejective clicks; however, they actually contain mixed voicing, and the ejective release is voiceless.
Sonorants are sounds such as vowels and nasals that are voiced in most of the world's languages. However, in some languages sonorants may be voiceless, usually allophonically. For example, the Japanese word sukiyaki is pronounced [sɯ̥kijaki] and may sound like [skijaki] to an English speaker, but the lips can be seen to compress for the [ɯ̥].
voiceless palatal fricative [ç] voiced palatal fricative [ ʝ] voiceless velar fricative [x] voiced velar fricative [ɣ] voiceless uvular fricative [χ] voiceless pharyngeal fricative [ħ] voiceless epiglottal fricative [ʜ] voiceless palatal-velar fricative (not possible) [ɧ] Lateral fricatives. voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ɬ ...
An obstruent (/ ˈ ɒ b s t r u ə n t / OB-stroo-ənt) is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by obstructing airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. [1] All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as consonants.