Prevoicing, in
phonetics, is
voicing before the onset of a consonant or beginning with the onset of the consonant but ending before its release. In the
extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet
The Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for Disordered Speech, commonly abbreviated extIPA , are a set of letters and diacritics devised by the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association to augment the Internati ...
for
speech pathology
Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...
, prevoicing is transcribed with a voicing diacritic ( ̬, U+032C) placed in front of the consonant, as in .
In several
Khoisan languages of Southern Africa, such as
Taa and
!Kung, stops such as ( or ) and ( or ) are sometimes analyzed as being prevoiced and ,
[Kehrein, Wolfgang. (2002). ''Phonological representation and phonetic phasing''. Tübingen: Niemeyer.] though the cessation of voicing has also been analyzed as phonetic detail in the transition of a phonemically voiced consonant to its voiceless aspiration or ejection. (See
aspirated voiced consonant
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with th ...
and
voiced ejective
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some l ...
.)
Kelabit has a similar set of
aspirated voiced
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with th ...
consonants. Not all speakers produce the aspiration, resulting in prevoiced (or mixed voiced) (or equivalently , and neighboring
Lun Dayeh has (= .
References
Phonetics
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