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Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants).Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as unvoiced) or voiced.
Standard Tibetan, for example, has a voiceless /l̥/ in Lhasa, which sounds similar to but is less noisy than the voiceless lateral fricative /ɬ/ in Welsh; it contrasts with a modally voiced /l/. Welsh contrasts several voiceless sonorants: /m, m̥/ , /n, n̥/ , /ŋ, ŋ̊/ , and /r, r̥/ , the last represented by "rh".
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.
The voiceless bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is m̥ , a combination of the letter for the voiced bilabial nasal and a diacritic indicating voicelessness. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is m_0.
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 voiceless uvular nasal is an extremely rare type of consonantal sound, used in very few spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɴ̥ , a combination of the letter for the voiced uvular nasal and a diacritic indicating voicelessness. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N\_0.
The voiceless retroflex plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. This consonant is found as a phoneme mostly (though not exclusively) in two areas: South Asia and Australia .
The voiceless uvular trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is less common than its voiced counterpart . The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʀ̥ , a small capital version of the Latin letter r with a ring diacritic indicating voicelessness .