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Glite Dictionary
🔊 Vowel-like quality 🗣️ Willingness to speak 🎤 Voice quality
vocality

vocality

7.7
How much a speech sound is made with the voice, like vowels
  • noun
  • /voʊˈkælɪti/
  • Specialized
translation icon : vocalidad
  • In linguistics, vocality refers to the quality of sounds that are produced with vocal fold vibration.

Examples

  • Postmodern communication is based on the premise that multiple vocalities and interpretations reflect the inherent right of individuals to express their individualities.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Among other things, postprocessualism brought debates over self-reflexivity, multi-vocality, social context of archaeology, ethics, and multiple interpretations to the minds of archaeologists globally, particularly those educated or practicing in North America, Europe, and other Western contexts.

    Academic text (2005)

  • The singer's vocality was evident as she effortlessly hit the high notes during the concert.

  • Teachers encourage students to develop their vocality by participating in class discussions and presentations.

Synonyms

voicedness
vsvocality
  • Specialized
9.1

Your vocal cords vibrate when you make speech sounds like b or d

also covers vowel like character as well as vibration
voicing
vsvocality
3.9

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

is the property of sounds showing vibration or vowel like character, not the act

How Voiced

voicing
3.9
vocality
  • Specialized
7.7
breathiness
  • Specialized
7.0
voicelessness
  • Specialized
7.9

Surface Forms

vocality singular
vocalities plural

Morphology

vocality = vocal (semi-transparent) = vocal + ity

The noun is formed regularly from 'vocal' + '-ity', but the phonetic/technical sense is specialized and may not be obvious to lower-level learners.

Etymology

Vocality comes from the old Latin root voc- meaning 'voice' or 'call', the same root in words like vocal and voice. So in the study of speech sounds it means how much a sound is made with the voice or how 'vowel-like' it is.