Prevoicing, in phonetics, is voicing before the onset of a consonant or beginning with the onset of the consonant but ending before its release. In the extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for speech pathology, prevoicing is transcribed with a voicing diacritic ( ̬, U+032C) placed in front of the consonant, as in .
In several Khoisan languages of Southern Africa, such as Taa and !Kung, stops such as /dzʰ/ ( or ) and /dzʼ/ ( or ) are sometimes analyzed as being prevoiced / ̬tsʰ/ and / ̬tsʼ/, though the cessation of voicing has also been analyzed as phonetic detail in the transition of a phonemically voiced consonant to its voiceless aspiration or ejection. (See aspirated voiced consonant and voiced ejective.)
Kelabit has a similar set of aspirated voiced consonants. Not all speakers produce the aspiration, resulting in prevoiced (or mixed voiced) (or equivalently , and neighboring Lun Dayeh has (= .
References
- Kehrein, Wolfgang. (2002). Phonological representation and phonetic phasing. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
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