Breathy voice

There is some confusion as to the nature of murmured phonation. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and authors such as Peter Ladefoged equate phonemically contrastive murmur with breathy voice in which the vocal folds are held with lower tension (and farther apart) than in modal voice, with a concomitant increase in airflow and slower vibration of the glottis. In that model, murmur is a point in a continuum of glottal aperture between modal voice and breath phonation (voicelessness). Others, such as Laver, Catford, Trask and the authors of the Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS), equate murmur with whispery voice in which the vocal folds or, at least, the anterior part of the vocal folds vibrates, as in modal voice, but the arytenoid cartilages are held apart to allow a large turbulent airflow between them. In that model, murmur is a compound phonation of approximately modal voice plus whisper. It is possible that the realization of murmur varies among individuals or languages. The IPA uses the term "breathy voice", but VoQS uses the term "whispery voice". Both accept the term "murmur", popularised by Ladefoged. ==Transcription==

A stop with breathy release or a breathy nasal is transcribed in the IPA as etc. or as etc. Breathy vowels are most often written etc. Indication of breathy voice by using subscript diaeresis was approved in or before June 1976 by members of the council of International Phonetic Association. In VoQS, the notation {{IPA|{Ṿ}}} is used for whispery voice (or murmur), and {{IPA|{V̤}}} is used for breathy voice. Some authors, such as Laver, suggest the alternative transcription (rather than IPA ) as the correct analysis of Gujarati , but it could be confused with the replacement of modal voicing in voiced segments with whispered phonation, conventionally transcribed with the diacritic . ==Methods of production==

The distinction between the latter two of these realizations, vocal folds somewhat separated along their length (breathy voice) and vocal folds together with the arytenoids making an opening (whispery voice), is phonetically relevant in White Hmong (Hmong Daw). ==Phonological property==

In some Bantu languages, historically breathy stops have been phonetically devoiced, but the four-way contrast in the system has been retained. In Portuguese, vowels after the stressed syllable can be pronounced with breathy voice. Gujarati is unusual in contrasting breathy vowels and consonants: 'twelve', 'outside', 'burden'. Tsumkwe Juǀʼhoan makes the following rare distinctions : fall, land (of a bird etc.); walk; herb species; and /n|ʱoaᵑ/ greedy person; /n|oaʱᵑ/ cat. Kurukh distinguishes /Ch, Cʰ, Cʰh/ with occasional minimal pairs like /dʱandha:/ "astonishment" and /dʱandʱa:/ "exertion". Clusters of voiced aspirates and /h/ are possible too as in /madʒʱhi:/ "middle" and /madʒʱis/ "zamindar's agent". ==See also== • Aspirated consonant • Creaky voice • Guttural • Index of phonetics articles • Slack voice • Voiced glottal fricative • Whispering ==References==