Breathy voice

Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing, and susurration) is a special way of making sounds using the voice. It is a type of phonation where the vocal folds vibrate like they do when we talk normally, but they are adjusted to let more air escape. This creates a sighing-like sound.

We can sometimes hear a simple breathy sound in English words. For example, in the word behind, some speakers might make a breathy sound between vowels.

In some languages, like Sanskrit and Hindi, breathy sounds are very important. They are often called voiced aspirated sounds, like in the letters bh, dh, ḍh, jh, and gh. These sounds are part of the study of Indo-European languages and help us understand how ancient languages changed over time.

Classification and terminology

The way we describe a special kind of voice called murmured phonation can be confusing. Some experts, like those who use the International Phonetic Alphabet and Peter Ladefoged, say that murmured phonation is like a breathy voice. In this idea, the parts of our voice that make sound are more relaxed, letting more air flow out and making the voice sound slower.

Other experts, such as those who use the Voice Quality Symbols, think murmured phonation is more like a mix of normal voice and whispering. They believe the voice parts still move normally, but another part stays open to let in more noisy air. So, different people or languages might use this voice sound in slightly different ways. Both groups use the word “murmur,” a term made popular by Ladefoged.

Transcription

A stop with breathy release or a breathy nasal is written in the IPA as [bʱ], [dʱ], [ɡʱ], [mʱ] and so on, or as [b̤], [d̤], [ɡ̤], [m̤] and so on. Breathy vowels are often shown as [a̤], [e̤], etc. Using a small mark below the letter to show breathy voice was approved by the International Phonetic Association in or before June 1976.

In VoQS, the symbol {Ṿ} is used for whispery voice, and {V̤} is used for breathy voice. Some writers, like Laver, suggest using ⟨ḅạɾ⟩ instead of IPA ⟨b̤a̤ɾ⟩ for the correct way to write Gujarati /bɦaɾ/, but this might be mixed up with replacing normal voice with whispered sound, which is usually shown with the mark ⟨◌̣⟩.

Methods of production

There are a few ways to make breathy sounds like [ɦ]. One way is to keep the vocal folds apart and let more air flow through, making them vibrate loosely. Another way is to bring the vocal folds closer together than when making a sound like [h] but not as close as when making vowel sounds. This lets air flow in between. In some languages like Hindi, the vocal folds come together at the back but let air pass in the front. This difference in how the vocal folds are positioned is important in languages such as White Hmong.

Phonological property

Some languages use a special voice sound that lets more air escape, creating a sighing-like quality. Languages like Hindi and others in the Indo-Aryan languages group have different sounds made this way. Other languages, such as Xhosa, Zulu, and Swazi, also use these breathy sounds in their words. In Portuguese, vowels after the stressed part of a word can sometimes sound breathy too.

Gujarati is special because it can use breathy sounds in both vowels and consonants. Some languages make very small differences in sounds using breathy voice, like Tsumkwe Juǀʼhoan and Kurukh. In Punjabi, old breathy sounds changed over time, leading to different tones in words.