Stiff voice

Stiff voice
Stiff voice
◌̭

Last updated May 05, 2025

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The term stiff voice describes the pronunciation of consonants or vowels with a glottal opening narrower, and the vocal folds stiffer, than occurs in modal voice. Although there is no specific IPA diacritic for stiff voice, the voicing diacritic (a subscript wedge) may be used in conjunction with the symbol for a voiced consonant.^[1]^{[ page needed ]} In Bru, for example, stiff-voiced vowels have tenseness in the glottis and pharynx without going so far as to be creaky voiced, whereas slack-voiced vowels are lax in the glottis without going so far as to be breathy voice.^[2]

One language with stiff voice is Thai:^[1]

	Bilabial			Dental
phonation	Thai	IPA	gloss	Thai	IPA	gloss
stiff voice	บ้าbâa	[b̬âː]	'crazy'	ด่าdàa	[d̪̬àː]	'curse, scold'
tenuis	ป้าbpâa	[pâː]	'aunt'	ตาdtaa	[t̪āː]	'eye'
aspirated	ผ้าpâa	[pʰâː]	'cloth'	ท่าtâa	[t̪ʰâː]	'landing place'

Javanese contrasts stiff and slack voiced bilabial, dental, retroflex, and velar stops.^[1]

	Bilabial		Dental Stop		Dental Affricate		Retroflex		Velar
phonation	IPA	gloss	IPA	gloss	IPA	gloss	IPA	gloss	IPA	gloss
stiff voice	[paku]	'nail'	[tamu]	'guest'	[tsariʔ]	'sheet (of paper)'	[ʈiʈiʔ]	'little'	[kali]	'river'
slack voice	[b̥aku]	'standard'	[d̥amu]	'blow'	[d̥z̥arit]	(type of women's clothing)	[ɖ̥isiʔ]	'first'	[ɡ̊ali]	'dig'

Mpi (Loloish) contrasts modals and stiff voice in its vowels. This is not register: for each of the six Mpi tones, a word may have either a modal or stiff-voiced vowel. For example, low tone contrasts /sì/'blood' and /sì̬/'seven'.^[1]

References

1 2 3 4 Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
↑ Gordon, Matthew; Ladefoged, Peter (2001). "Phonation types: A cross-linguistic overview" (PDF). Journal of Phonetics. 29 (4): 383–406. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.232.7720 . doi:10.1006/jpho.2001.0147.

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[SOWL96-1] 1 2 3 4 Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.

[2] Gordon, Matthew; Ladefoged, Peter (2001). "Phonation types: A cross-linguistic overview" (PDF). Journal of Phonetics. 29 (4): 383–406. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.232.7720 . doi:10.1006/jpho.2001.0147.

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