9 Describing Consonants: Voicing

When the vocal folds are open, the flow of air coming up from the lungs passes through freely, and when the folds are held close together, they vibrate as air from the lungs forces its way through them. If you try putting your hand lightly on your throat, and then make a drawn-out [s] sound, Your vocal folds are separated to open the glottis, so you should feel no vibration. But now if you try to make a [m] sound, you will feel a vibration or buzzing feeling. This is due to the vibration of the vocal folds. This vibration is called voicing and it is also important when describing consonantal sounds. Some sounds are voiced and others are voiceless. Voiced sounds happen when the vocal cords vibrate and voiceless sounds happen when the vocal folds are wide open and they do not vibrate. When in doubt of whether a consonant is voiced or voiceless produce it while putting your hand on your throat. If you feel the vibration, then it is voiced. If you do not feel a vibration, it is voiceless. For example the [n] sounds should make your vocal folds vibrate while the [p] sound should not. That is because the [n] sound is voiced and the [p] sound is voiceless.

Adapted from:

Anderson, C., Bjorkman, B., Denis, D., Doner, J., Grant, M., Sanders, N. & Taniguchi, A. (2022). Essentials of Linguistics. Pressbooks. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/essentialsoflinguistics2/