Voice (phonetics) facts for kids

Voice or voicing is how we describe certain speech sounds, especially consonants. When you make a sound, your vocal folds (or vocal cords) in your throat might vibrate. If they vibrate, the sound is called voiced. If they don't vibrate, it's called voiceless or unvoiced.

Think about the sounds for the letters 's' and 'z'. If you put your fingers on your throat (where your Adam's apple is), you'll feel a buzz when you say "zzzzzz". That's your vocal cords vibrating! But when you say "ssssss", you won't feel that buzz. So, 'z' is a voiced sound, and 's' is a voiceless sound.

In many languages, like most European languages, all vowels (like 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u') are voiced. Other sounds, like 'm', 'n', 'l', and 'r', are also usually voiced.

What is Voicing?

Voicing can mean two slightly different things in the world of language study:

How We Make Sounds

First, voicing describes the actual action of your vocal cords vibrating. This is what phonetics focuses on. Phonetics is the study of how we make and hear speech sounds. When we talk about a specific sound, like the 'z' sound, we call it a "phone." The 'z' phone is voiced because your vocal cords vibrate when you say it.

How Sounds Work in a Language

Second, voicing can be a way to group sounds in a language. This is what phonology focuses on. Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in a language. Sometimes, a sound might be called "voiced" even if your vocal cords don't always vibrate when you say it. This helps us understand how sounds change words or meanings. These sound groups are called "phonemes."

For example, in English, the 'z' sound is considered a "voiced phoneme." Even if you sometimes say it without full vocal cord vibration (especially at the end of a word), your brain still understands it as the 'z' sound, different from the 's' sound.

How We Write Voicing in IPA

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a special set of symbols used to write down speech sounds. It has different letters for many pairs of voiced and voiceless consonants.

For example:

• [p] (like in "pin") is voiceless, and [b] (like in "bin") is voiced.
• [t] (like in "top") is voiceless, and [d] (like in "dog") is voiced.
• [k] (like in "cat") is voiceless, and [ɡ] (like in "go") is voiced.

The IPA also has special marks called "diacritics" that you can add to a letter to show if a sound is voiced or voiceless.

• A small circle below a letter (⟨◌̥⟩) means it's voiceless.
• A small v-shape below a letter (⟨◌̬⟩) means it's voiced.

Showing Partial Voicing

Sometimes, a sound might only be partly voiced or partly voiceless. The IPA has special ways to show this too:

Voicing in English

In English, the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds is important, but it's not always just about whether your vocal cords vibrate.

Fricative Sounds

Fricatives are sounds made by pushing air through a narrow gap, creating a hissing noise. English has four pairs of fricative sounds that are different because one is voiceless and the other is voiced. You can really feel the vibration for the voiced ones, especially when they are between vowels.

Stop Sounds

Stops are sounds where you completely block the airflow for a moment, then release it. Think about 'p' or 'b'. For English stops, the difference between "voiced" and "voiceless" is more complex than just vocal cord vibration. It also depends on when the voicing starts and if there's a puff of air (called "aspiration") after the sound.

When voiceless stops (like 'p', 't', 'k') are at the beginning of a stressed syllable (a part of a word you say with more emphasis), they often have a little puff of air. For example, say "pin" and feel the air. Their voiced partners (like 'b', 'd', 'g') might only be voiced partway through.

At the end of a syllable, the difference changes again. Voiceless sounds might not have that puff of air, and the block might not even be fully released. However, English speakers still hear the difference, partly because the vowel sound before a voiced consonant is often longer than before a voiceless one.

Other English sounds, like vowels and 'm', 'n', 'l', 'r', are usually fully voiced. But sometimes, they can lose their voicing, especially after a voiceless sound with a puff of air. For example, in "coffee" or "play," the vowel or 'l' sound might start without voicing.

Degrees of Voicing

When we say a sound is "half voiced" or "partially voiced," it can mean two things:

• The voicing is weak (not very strong).
• The voicing happens only for part of the sound (it doesn't last the whole time).

In English, when we talk about partial voicing, it usually means the voicing only happens for a short part of the sound.

Some languages, like Juǀʼhoansi, have sounds that start voiced but then become voiceless. These sounds can even have a puff of air or a "popping" sound at the end, which is very unusual!

Voice and Tenseness

Some languages have two sets of sounds that seem like voiced and voiceless pairs, but the difference isn't actually about vocal cord vibration. Instead, it's about how "tense" or "relaxed" your mouth muscles are when you make the sound. This is called a fortis and lenis contrast.

For example, in some German dialects, sounds might be called "p" and "b" but the real difference is how much tension you use, not whether your vocal cords vibrate. Scientists think that voicing, tenseness, and how long a sound lasts might all be different ways of showing a similar feature in sounds.

See also

In Spanish: Voz (fonología) para niños

• Consonant voicing and devoicing
• Manner of articulation
• Phonation
• Place of articulation
• Voice onset time
• Voicelessness