Prevoicing, in
phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
, 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 for
speech pathology, prevoicing is transcribed with a voicing diacritic ( ̬, U+032C) placed in front of the consonant, as in .
In several
Khoisan languages
The Khoisan languages ( ; also Khoesan or Khoesaan) are a number of Languages of Africa, African languages once classified together, originally by Joseph Greenberg. Khoisan is defined as those languages that have click languages, click consonant ...
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 and
voiced ejective.)
Kelabit has a similar set of
aspirated voiced 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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