Voice onset time

Voice onset time

In phonetics, voice onset time, commonly abbreviated VOT, is the length of time that passes between when a consonant is released and when voicing, the vibration of the vocal folds begins.

The three major phonation types of stops can be analyzed in terms of their voice onset time.

*Simple unaspirated voiceless plosives, sometimes called tenuis plosives, have a voice onset time at or near zero, meaning that the voicing of a following sonorant (such as a vowel) begins at or near to when the stop is released. (An offset of 15 ms or less on [t] and 30 ms or less on [k] is inaudible, and counts as tenuis.)

*Aspirated plosives followed by a sonorant have a voice onset time greater than this amount, called a positive VOT. The length of the VOT in such cases is a practical measure of aspiration: The longer the VOT, the stronger the aspiration. In Navajo, for example, which is strongly aspirated, the aspiration (and therefore the VOT) lasts twice as long as it does in English: 160ms vs. 80ms for IPA| [kʰ] , and 45ms for IPA| [k] . Some languages have weaker aspiration than English. For velar stops, tenuis [k] typically has a VOT of 20-30 ms, weakly aspirated [k] of some 50-60 ms, moderately aspirated IPA| [kʰ] averages 80-90 ms, and anything much over 100 ms would be considered strong aspiration. (Another phonation, breathy voice, is commonly called "voiced aspiration"; in order for the VOT measure to apply to it, VOT needs to be understood as the onset of modal voicing. Of course, an aspirated consonant will not always be followed by a voiced sound, in which case VOT cannot be used to measure it.)

*Voiced plosives have a voice onset time noticeably less than zero, a negative VOT, meaning the vocal cords start vibrating before the stop is released. With a fully voiced stop, the VOT coincides with the onset of the stop; with a partially voiced stop, such as English [b, d, g] in initial position, voicing begins sometime during the closure (occlusion) of the consonant.

Because neither aspiration nor voicing is absolute, with intermediate degrees of both, the relative terms fortis and lenis are often used to describe a binary opposition between a series of consonants with higher (more positive) VOT, defined as "fortis", and a second series with lower (more negative) VOT, defined as "lenis". Of course, being relative, what fortis and lenis mean in one language will not in general correspond to what they mean in another.

Voicing contrast applies to all types of consonants, but aspiration is generally only a feature of stops and affricates.



References

*Taehong Cho and Peter Ladefoged, "Variations and universals in VOT". In "Fieldwork Studies of Targeted Languages V: UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics" vol. 95. 1997.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Voice (phonetics) — Voiced redirects here. For the organization, see VOICED. Voiced ◌̬ view · …   Wikipedia

  • Voice stress analysis — (VSA) technology is said to record psychophysiological stress responses that are present in human voice, when a person suffers psychological stress in response to a stimulus (question) and where the consequences may be dire for the subject being… …   Wikipedia

  • Voice type — A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types.… …   Wikipedia

  • Minor Wheel of Time characters — This article contains information on minor characters in Robert Jordan s extensive The Wheel of Time fantasy fiction series who do not have their own article or appear on other pages. For example, members of a particular group, such as the Green… …   Wikipedia

  • VOT — voice onset time …   Medical dictionary

  • VOT — • voice onset time …   Dictionary of medical acronyms & abbreviations

  • VOT — Voice Onset Time (Community » Media) ** Votic (Regional » Language Codes (3 Letters)) * VHF Omnidirectional range Test (Governmental » Transportation) * Very Off Topic (Internet » Chat) * Voluntary Overtime (Governmental » FBI Files) * Village Of …   Abbreviations dictionary

  • N100 — In neuroscience, the N100 or N1 is a large, negative going evoked potential measured by electroencephalography (its equivalent in magnetoencephalography is the M100); it peaks in adults between 80 and 120 milliseconds after the onset of a… …   Wikipedia

  • Stop consonant — A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms. Plosives are stops with a pulmonic egressive… …   Wikipedia

  • Navajo phonology — is the study of how speech sounds pattern and interact with each other in that language. The phonology of Navajo is intimately connected to its morphology. For example, the entire range of contrastive consonants is found only at the beginning of… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”