aspirated consonant

In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), aspirated consonants are written using the symbols for voiceless consonants followed by the aspiration modifier letter {{angbr IPA|◌ʰ}}, a superscript form of the symbol for the voiceless glottal fricative {{angbr IPA|h}}. For instance, {{angbr IPA|p}} represents the voiceless bilabial stop, and {{angbr IPA|pʰ}} represents the aspirated bilabial stop.

Voiced consonants are seldom actually aspirated. Symbols for voiced consonants followed by {{angbr IPA|◌ʰ}}, such as {{angbr IPA|bʰ}}, typically represent consonants with murmured voiced release (see below). In the grammatical tradition of Sanskrit, aspirated consonants are called voiceless aspirated, and breathy-voiced consonants are called voiced aspirated.

There are no dedicated IPA symbols for degrees of aspiration and typically only two degrees are marked: unaspirated {{angbr IPA|k}} and aspirated {{angbr IPA|kʰ}}. An old symbol for light aspiration was {{angbr IPA|ʻ}}, but this is now obsolete. The aspiration modifier letter may be doubled to indicate especially strong or long aspiration. Hence, the two degrees of aspiration in Korean stops are sometimes transcribed {{angbr IPA|kʰ kʰʰ}} or {{angbr IPA|kʻ}} and {{angbr IPA|kʰ}}, but they are usually transcribed {{IPA|[k]}} and {{IPA|[kʰ]}},{{cite web |editor1-last=Ladefoged |editor1-first=Peter |editor1-link=Peter Ladefoged |editor2=Barbara Blankenship

|editor3=Russell G. Schuh |title=Korean |url=http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/KOR/kor.html |website= UCLA Phonetics Archive |date=21 April 2009 |access-date=20 February 2015 }} word lists from [http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/KOR/kor_word-list_1977_01.html 1977], [http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/KOR/kor_word-list_1966_01.html 1966], [http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/Language/KOR/kor_word-list_1975_01.html 1975]. with the details of voice onset time given numerically.

Preaspirated consonants are marked by placing the aspiration modifier letter before the consonant symbol: {{angbr IPA|ʰp}} represents the preaspirated bilabial stop.

Unaspirated or tenuis consonants are occasionally marked with the modifier letter for unaspiration {{angbr IPA|◌˭}}, a superscript equals sign: {{angbr IPA|t˭}}. Usually, however, unaspirated consonants are left unmarked: {{angbr IPA|t}}.

{{listen

| type = speech

| header = Aspiration of final stops and affricates in Eastern Armenian

| filename = Hy-EA-տաք-տակ.ogg

| title = Final aspirated and voiceless velar stops

| description = {{wikt-lang|hy|տաք}}, {{wikt-lang|hy|տակ}} "hot, under"
{{transliteration|hy|ISO|tak’ tak}} {{IPA|hy|tɑkʰ tɑk|}}

| filename2 = Hy-ea-այծ-այց.ogg

| title2 = Final voiceless and aspirated alveolar affricates

| description2 = {{wikt-lang|hy|այծ}}, {{wikt-lang|hy|այց}} "goat, visit"
{{transliteration|hy|ISO|ayc ayc’}} {{IPA|hy|ɑjt͡s ɑjt͡sʰ|}}

| filename3 = Hy-EA-գնացք.ogg

| title3 = Final aspirated affricate–stop cluster

| description3 = {{wikt-lang|hy|գնացք}} "train"
{{transliteration|hy|ISO|gnac’k’}} {{IPA|hy|ɡəˈnɑt͡sʰkʰ|}}

| filename4 = Hy-EA-աղոթք.ogg

| title4 = Final aspirated stop–stop cluster

| description4 = {{wikt-lang|hy|աղոթք}} "prayer"
{{transliteration|hy|ISO|aġot’k’}} {{IPA|hy|ɑˈʁɔtʰkʰ|}}

}}

Voiceless consonants are produced with the vocal folds open (spread) and not vibrating, and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed and vibrating (modal voice). Voiceless aspiration occurs when the vocal folds remain open after a consonant is released. An easy way to measure this is by noting the consonant's voice onset time, as the voicing of a following vowel cannot begin until the vocal folds close.

In some languages, such as Navajo, aspiration of stops tends to be phonetically realised as voiceless velar airflow; aspiration of affricates is realised as an extended length of the frication.

Aspirated consonants are not always followed by vowels or other voiced sounds. For example, in Eastern Armenian, aspiration is contrastive even word-finally, and aspirated consonants occur in consonant clusters. In Wahgi, consonants are aspirated only when they are in final position.

The degree of aspiration varies: the voice onset time of aspirated stops is longer or shorter depending on the language or the place of articulation.

Armenian and Cantonese have aspiration that lasts about as long as English aspirated stops, in addition to unaspirated stops. Korean has lightly aspirated stops that fall between the Armenian and Cantonese unaspirated and aspirated stops as well as strongly-aspirated stops whose aspiration lasts longer than that of Armenian or Cantonese. (See voice onset time.)

Aspiration varies with place of articulation. The Spanish voiceless stops {{IPA|/p t k/}} have voice onset times (VOTs) of about 5, 10, and 30 milliseconds, and English aspirated {{IPA|/p t k/}} have VOTs of about 60, 70, and 80 ms. Voice onset time in Korean has been measured at 20, 25, and 50 ms for {{IPA|/p t k/}} and 90, 95, and 125 for {{IPA|/pʰ tʰ kʰ/}}.{{cite journal|last1=Lisker and Abramson|title=A cross-language Study of Voicing in Initial Stops|journal=Word|date=1964|volume=20|pages=384–422|doi=10.1080/00437956.1964.11659830|doi-access=}}

{{listen

| type = speech

| help = no

| header = Gemination of aspirated consonants in Eastern Armenian

| filename = Hy-EA-Մեքքա.ogg

| title = Double aspirated k’k’

| description = {{wikt-lang|hy|Մեքքա}} {{transliteration|hy|ISO|Mek’k’a}} "Mecca":
{{IPA|/ˈmekʰkʰa/}} {{IPA|hy|ˈmekːʰa|}}

| filename2 = Hy-EA-կեցցե.ogg

| title2 = Double aspirated c’c’

| description2 ={{wikt-lang|hy|կեցցե}} {{transliteration|hy|ISO|kets’ts’e}} "long live!":
{{IPA|/kʲetsʰˈtsʰe/}} {{IPA|hy|kʲeˈtːsʰe|}}}}

When aspirated consonants are doubled or geminated, the stop is held longer and then has an aspirated release. An aspirated affricate consists of a stop, fricative, and aspirated release. A doubled aspirated affricate has a longer hold in the stop portion and then has a release consisting of the fricative and aspiration.

Icelandic and Faroese have consonants with preaspiration {{IPA|[ʰp ʰt ʰk]}}, and some scholars{{who|date=April 2017}} interpret them as consonant clusters as well. In Icelandic, preaspirated stops contrast with double stops and single stops:

Preaspiration is also a feature of Scottish Gaelic:

Preaspirated stops also occur in most Sami languages. For example, in Northern Sami, the unvoiced stop and affricate phonemes {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/ts/}}, {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, {{IPA|/k/}} are pronounced preaspirated ({{IPA|[ʰp]}}, {{IPA|[ʰt]}} {{IPA|[ʰts]}}, {{IPA|[ʰtʃ]}}, {{IPA|[ʰk]}}) in medial or final position.

Although most aspirated obstruents in the world's languages are stops and affricates, aspirated fricatives such as {{IPA|[sʰ]}}, {{IPA|[ɸʷʰ]}} and {{IPA|[ɕʰ]}} have been documented in Korean and Xuanzhou Wu, and {{IPA|[xʰ]}} has been described for Spanish,Schwegler, Kempff & Ameal-Guerra (2010) Fonética y fonología españolas. John Wiley, 4th ed. though these are allophones of other phonemes. Similarly, aspirated fricatives and even aspirated nasals, approximants, and trills occur in a few Tibeto-Burman languages, some Oto-Manguean languages, the Hmongic language Hmu, the Siouan language Ofo, and the Chumashan languages Barbareño and Ventureño. Some languages, such as Choni Tibetan, have as many as four contrastive aspirated fricatives {{IPA|[sʰ]}} {{IPA|[ɕʰ]}}, {{IPA|[ʂʰ]}} and {{IPA|[xʰ]}}.Guillaume Jacques 2011. A panchronic study of aspirated fricatives, with new evidence from Pumi, Lingua 121.9:1518–1538 [https://www.academia.edu/968778/A_panchronic_study_of_aspirated_fricatives_with_new_evidence_from_Pumi]

True aspirated voiced consonants, as opposed to murmured (breathy-voice) consonants such as the {{IPA|[bʱ], [dʱ], [ɡʱ]}} that are common among the languages of India, are extremely rare. They have been documented in Kelabit.Robert Blust, 2006, "The Origin of the Kelabit Voiced Aspirates: A Historical Hypothesis Revisited", Oceanic Linguistics 45:311

Aspiration has varying significance in different languages. It is either allophonic or phonemic, and may be analyzed as an underlying consonant cluster.

{{listen

| type = speech

| header = Aspiration and voicing of stops in American English

| filename = En-us-pin spin bin nip nib.ogg

| title = Labial stops

| description = pin with aspirated p,
spin with unaspirated p,
bin with partially voiced b,
nip with unaspirated p,
nib with partially voiced b:
{{IPA|[pʰɪˑn spɪˑn bɪˑn nɪp nɪˑb]}}

| filename2 = En-us-distend distaste.ogg

| title2 = Aspiration alternation in single-stem and compound word

| description2 = distend with unaspirated t,
distaste (dis-taste) with aspirated t:
{{IPA|[dɨˈstɛnd dɨsˈtʰeɪst]}} }}

In some languages, stops are distinguished primarily by voicing,{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} and voiceless stops are sometimes aspirated, while voiced stops are usually unaspirated.

English voiceless stops are aspirated for most native speakers when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable. Pronouncing them as unaspirated in these positions, as is done by many Indian English speakers, may make them get confused with the corresponding voiced stop by other English-speakers.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} Conversely, this confusion does not happen with the native speakers of languages which have aspirated and unaspirated but not voiced stops, such as Mandarin Chinese.

S+consonant clusters can vary between aspirated and unaspirated forms depending on whether the cluster crosses a morpheme boundary. For example, distend features an unaspirated [t] because it is not analyzed as comprising two morphemes. In contrast, distaste includes an aspirated middle [tʰ] since it is analyzed as dis- + taste, and the word taste begins with an aspirated [t].

Word-final voiceless stops are sometimes aspirated.

Voiceless stops in Pashto are slightly aspirated prevocalically in a stressed syllable.

In many languages, such as Hindi, tenuis and aspirated consonants are phonemic. Unaspirated consonants like {{IPA|[p˭ s˭]}} and aspirated consonants like {{IPA|[pʰ ʰp sʰ]}} are separate phonemes, and words are distinguished by whether they have one or the other.

Alemannic German dialects have unaspirated {{IPA|[p˭ t˭ k˭]}} as well as aspirated {{IPA|[pʰ tʰ kʰ]}}; the latter series are usually viewed as consonant clusters.

French,{{cite book|last=Tranel|first=Bernard|url=https://archive.org/details/soundsoffrenchin0000tran|title=The sounds of French: an introduction|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1987|isbn=0-521-31510-7|edition=3rd|location=Cambridge, New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/soundsoffrenchin0000tran/page/129 129]–130|url-access=registration}}

Standard Dutch,Frans Hinskens, Johan Taeldeman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=t8jmBQAAQBAJ&dq=frisian%20substrate%20dutch&pg=PA66 Language and space: Dutch], Walter de Gruyter 2014. 3110261332, 9783110261332, p.66 Afrikaans, Tamil, Finnish, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Latvian and Modern Greek are languages that do not have phonetic aspirated consonants.

{{Listen

| type = speech

| header = Aspirated stops and affricates in Mandarin Chinese

| filename = Zh-dan4.ogg

| title = Unaspirated t

| description = {{transliteration|zh|ISO|dàn}} {{IPA|cmn|tân|}}

| filename2 = Zh-tan4.ogg

| title2 = Aspirated t

| description2 = {{transliteration|zh|ISO|tàn}} {{IPA|cmn|tʰân|}}

| filename3 = Zh-zao3.ogg

| title3 = Unaspirated ts

| description3 = {{transliteration|zh|ISO|zǎo}} {{IPA|cmn|tsɑʊ̀|}}

| filename4 = Zh-cǎo.ogg

| title4 = Aspirated ts

| description4 = {{transliteration|zh|ISO|cǎo}} {{IPA|cmn|tsʰɑʊ̀|}}

}}

Standard Chinese (Mandarin) has stops and affricates distinguished by aspiration: for instance, {{IPA|/t tʰ/}}, {{IPA|/t͡s t͡sʰ/}}. In pinyin, tenuis stops are written with letters that represent voiced consonants in English, and aspirated stops with letters that represent voiceless consonants. Thus d represents {{IPA|/t/}}, and t represents {{IPA|/tʰ/}}.

Wu Chinese and Southern Min has a three-way distinction in stops and affricates: {{IPA|/p pʰ b/}}. In addition to aspirated and unaspirated consonants, there is a series of muddy consonants, like {{IPA|/b/}}. These are pronounced with slack or breathy voice: that is, they are weakly voiced. Muddy consonants as initial cause a syllable to be pronounced with low pitch or light (陽 yáng) tone.

{{Listen

| type = speech

| filename = Hi-टाल ठाल डाल ढाल.ogg

| title = Retroflex stops in Hindi

| description = {{lang|hi|टाल}}, {{wikt-lang|hi|ठाल}}, {{lang|hi|डाल}}, {{wikt-lang|hi|ढाल}} ṭāl ṭhāl ḍāl ḍhāl "postpone, wood shop, branch, shield" {{IPA|hi|ʈal ʈʰal ɖal ɖʱal|}}

}}

{{main|Indo-Aryan languages#Charts|Dravidian languages#Phonology}}

Many Indo-Aryan languages have aspirated stops. Sanskrit, Hindustani, Bengali, Marathi, and Gujarati have a four-way distinction in stops: voiceless, aspirated, voiced, and voiced aspirated, such as {{IPA|/p pʰ b bʱ/}}. Punjabi has lost voiced aspirated consonants, which resulted in a tone system, and therefore has a distinction between voiceless, aspirated, and voiced: {{IPA|/p pʰ b/}}.

Other languages such as Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada, have a distinction between voiced and voiceless, aspirated and unaspirated. However, in all of these languages, aspirated consonant occur (mostly) in borrowed words, and commonly substituted with their unaspirated counterparts.

{{listen

| type = speech

| header = Voicing and aspiration in Eastern Armenian stops and affricates

| help = no

| filename = Hy-EA-դուր-տուր-թուր.ogg

| title = Dental stops

| description = {{wikt-lang|hy|դուր}}, {{wikt-lang|hy|տուր}}, {{wikt-lang|hy|թուր}}
"chisel, give!, sword"
{{transliteration|hy|ISO|dur, tur, t’ur}}
{{IPA|[duɾ tuɾ tʰuɾ]}}

| filename2 = Hy-EA-թագ-թակ-թաք.ogg

| title2 = Final voiced, voiceless, and aspirated velar stops

| description2 = {{wikt-lang|hy|թագ}}, {{wikt-lang|hy|թակ}}, {{wikt-lang|hy|թաք}}
"crown, mallet, only"
{{transliteration|hy|ISO|t’ag t’ak t’ak’}}:
{{IPA|hy|tʰɑg tʰɑk tʰɑkʰ|}}

| filename3 = Hy-EA-ձախ-ծախ-ցախ.ogg

| title3 = Dental affricates

| description3 = {{wikt-lang|hy|ձախ}}, {{wikt-lang|hy|ծախ}}, {{wikt-lang|hy|ցախ}}
"left-hand, sale, brushwood"
{{transliteration|hy|ISO|jax çax c’ax}}:
{{IPA|hy|dzɑχ tsɑχ tsʰɑχ|}}

}}

Most dialects of Armenian have aspirated stops, and some have breathy-voiced stops.

Classical and Eastern Armenian have a three-way distinction between voiceless, aspirated, and voiced, such as {{IPA|/t tʰ d/}}.

Western Armenian has a two-way distinction between aspirated and voiced: {{IPA|/tʰ d/}}. Western Armenian aspirated {{IPA|/tʰ/}} corresponds to Eastern Armenian aspirated {{IPA|/tʰ/}} and voiced {{IPA|/d/}}, and Western voiced {{IPA|/d/}} corresponds to Eastern voiceless {{IPA|/t/}}.

{{main|Ancient Greek phonology}}

Ancient Greek, including the Classical Attic and Koine Greek dialects, had a three-way distinction in stops like Eastern Armenian: {{IPA|/t tʰ d/}}. These series were called {{wikt-lang|grc|ψιλός|ψιλά}}, {{wikt-lang|grc|δασύς|δασέα}}, {{wikt-lang|grc|μέσος|μέσα}} (psilá, daséa, mésa) "smooth, rough, intermediate", respectively, by Koine Greek grammarians.

There were aspirated stops at three places of articulation: labial, coronal, and velar {{IPA|/pʰ tʰ kʰ/}}. Earlier Greek, represented by Mycenaean Greek, likely had a labialized velar aspirated stop {{IPA|/kʷʰ/}}, which later became labial, coronal, or velar depending on dialect and phonetic environment.

The other Ancient Greek dialects, Ionic, Doric, Aeolic, and Arcadocypriot, likely had the same three-way distinction at one point, but Doric seems to have had a fricative in place of {{IPA|/tʰ/}} in the Classical period.

Later, during the Koine and Medieval Greek periods, the aspirated and voiced stops {{IPA|/tʰ d/}} of Attic Greek lenited to voiceless and voiced fricatives, yielding {{IPA|/θ ð/}} in Medieval and Modern Greek. Cypriot Greek is notable for aspirating its inherited (and developed across word-boundaries) voiceless geminate stops, yielding the series /pʰː tʰː cʰː kʰː/.{{Cite journal|last=Loukina|first=Anastassia|date=2005|title=Phonetics and Phonology of Cypriot Geminates in Spontaneous Speech|url=http://www.aloukina.com/papers/LoukinaCamling.pdf|journal=CamLing|pages=263–270}}

The term aspiration sometimes refers to the sound change of debuccalization, in which a consonant is lenited (weakened) to become a glottal stop or fricative {{IPA|[ʔ h ɦ]}}.

{{main|Breathy voice}}

So-called voiced aspirated consonants are nearly always pronounced instead with breathy voice, a type of phonation or vibration of the vocal folds. The modifier letter {{angbr IPA|◌ʰ}} after a voiced consonant actually represents a breathy-voiced or murmured consonant, as with the "voiced aspirated" bilabial stop {{angbr IPA|bʰ}} in the Indo-Aryan languages. This consonant is therefore more accurately transcribed as {{angbr IPA|b̤}}, with the diacritic for breathy voice, or with the modifier letter {{angbr IPA|bʱ}}, a superscript form of the symbol for the voiced glottal fricative {{angbr IPA|ɦ}}.

Some linguists restrict the double-dot subscript {{angbr IPA|◌̤}} to murmured sonorants, such as vowels and nasals, which are murmured throughout their duration, and use the superscript hook-aitch {{angbr IPA|◌ʱ}} for the breathy-voiced release of obstruents.

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Aspirated h
• Breathy voice
• Implosive consonant
• List of phonetic topics
• Phonation
• Preaspiration
• Rough breathing
• Smooth breathing
• Tenuis consonant (Unaspirated consonant)
• Voice onset time

{{Div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

• Cho, T., & Ladefoged, P., "Variations and universals in VOT". In Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages V: UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics vol. 95. 1997.

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Category:Phonetics

Category:Consonants by airstream