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devoicing

devoicing

7.4
To make a sound without using your voice
  • noun
  • /dɪˈvɔɪsɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : desvocalización
  • * Voicing/devoicing: A voiceless target consonant is voiced, or vice versa; for example, kwarda instead of gwarda for look at.
  • postvocalic devoicing

Examples

  • All but two error patterns (pre-vocalic voicing and postvocalic devoicing) had a coefficient of at least .90.

    Academic text (2014)
  • The reliability coefficients for prevocalic voicing and postvocalic devoicing were both .85.

    Academic text (2014)
  • Furthermore, complete devoicing of fricatives is relatively common in the younger years, especially for word-final /-z/ (Smith, 1997).

    Academic text (2013)
  • There are also instances of utterance-final devoicing in Saami corresponding to the sound pattern in the Swedish Arjeplog dialect.

    Blog text (18)
  • They're part of the Coalition to Protect and Rescue Pets, an activist group that helped get the practice known as "debarking" or "devoicing" outlawed in Massachusetts two years ago.

    Blog text (21)
  • While most of these items had over 90% agreement, 10 words had total agreement that was less than 90%, and three error patterns had less than 90% agreement: velar fronting in swimming, initial voicing in pajamas, and final devoicing in balloons.

    Academic text (2014)
  • The error pattern of postvocalic devoicing occurs when a word-final voiced consonant is replaced by a voiceless consonant. It should be noted that for many adult speakers of English.

    Academic text (2015)
  • For example, because the final consonant in the word "glasses" occurs in an unstressed syllable, it would not be considered a valid opportunity for the error patterns of final consonant deletion or postvocalic devoicing.

    Academic text (2015)
  • In some languages, devoicing occurs when voiced consonants at the end of words become voiceless.

  • Children frequently exhibit postvocalic devoicing as their speech develops, particularly in final consonant positions.

Synonyms

devocalization
vsdevoicing
  • Specialized
9.5

A sound normally made with the voice that loses its voice in speech

focuses mainly on consonants rather than on vowels
voicelessness
vsdevoicing
  • Specialized
7.9

A speech sound made without the vocal cords vibrating

describes the change process leading to that voiceless condition rather than the state

Antonyms

3.9

To make sounds with your mouth and throat when speaking, singing, or acting as a character

How Voiced

voicing
3.9
devoicing
  • Specialized
7.4

Surface Forms

devoicing singular
devoicings plural

Morphology

devoicing = devoice (transparent) = devoice + ing

Formed from the verb 'devoice' plus the productive '-ing' to denote the process or result; the relation is directly inferable from the base.

Etymology

Devoicing comes from de- meaning 'remove' and voice, so it means 'removing the voice' from a sound. A helpful image is turning your voice off, which explains why devoicing makes a consonant 'voiceless' in speech.