Phonation, Part 2

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Phonation, Part 2

• LIN 3201

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Some confusion

• Some of you are getting confused between
• PHONATION
• And
• Voiced Sounds
• These 2 concepts ARE NOT the same!

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Clarification

• Phonation means that a given sound has the
  ability to be made voiced or voiceless
• BECAUSE
• The airstream is somehow passes through the vocal
  folds during production of the sound

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So

• If we can refer to
• what the vocal folds are doing
• While the airstream
• ingressively or egressively
• flows through them
• We have PHONATION

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2 Major Types of Phonation (in LIN 3201)

• Voiced (vibrating vocal folds)
• Voiceless (wide open vocal folds)

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Examining Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

• Although 2 languages may both contain voiced or
  voiceless sounds, these sounds may not be
  identical

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Voicing Onset Time (VOT)

• Has to do with time change between phonation
  changes (going from voiced to voiceless or vice
  versa)
• VOT is the delay between the release of the oral
  closure (generally of a stop) and the beginning
  of voicing of the following sound

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• Sounds can have positive or negative VOT
• POSITIVE VOT voicing lags release of oral
  closure
• i.e. voiceless aspirated stops ph
• NEGATIVE VOT voicing precedes release of oral
  closure

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Voicing Onset Time (VOT), cont.

• There are technically 4 basic voicing (phonation)
  patterns OR 4 different time relations
• In other words, there 4 different patterns for
  when voicing begins and ends between two segments

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4 Patterns

• Unaspirated Voiceless Vocal folds begin
  vibrating exactly as closure releases
• i.e. voiceless stops in English following s ---
  pa
• Aspirated Voiceless lag in voicelessness after
  release of stop results in puff of air after
  closure releases
• i.e. initial stops in English - ph --- pha

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• Slightly Voiced Vocal folds begin vibrating
  just before closure releases period of initial
  voiclessness
• English initial voiced stops b --- ba
• Fully Voiced Vocal folds begin vibrating as
  soon as the oral closure is made
• French voiced stops b

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Sample Initial Inventories

• English
• Partially voiced d
• Voiceless aspirated th
• French
• Fully voiced d
• Voiceless unaspirated t

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A note of caution

• As an English speaker, you will have a difficult
  time with initial unaspirated voiceless stops
• Your mind will perceive them as voiced
• You will have to work to consciously observe and
  produce these sounds