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Glottis




The space between the Vocal Cords is called the glottis. As the vocal cords vibrate, the resulting vibration produces a "buzzing" quality to the speech, called '''voice''' or '''voicing'''.

Sounds production involving only the glottis is called ''glottal''. English has a Voiceless Glottal Fricative spelt "h". In many accents of English the Glottal Stop (made by pressing the folds together) is used as a variant Allophone of the phoneme (and in some dialects, occasionally of and ); in some languages, this sound is a Phoneme of its own.

Skilled players of the Australian Didgeridoo restrict their glottal opening in order to produce the full range of timbres available on the instrument.
(See "Acoustics: The vocal tract and the sound of a didgeridoo", by Tarnopolsky et al. in Nature 436, 39 ( 7 July 2005 )).

The vibration produced is an essential component of ''voiced'' Consonants as well as Vowels . If the vocal folds are drawn apart, air flows between them causing no vibration, as in the production of voiceless consonants.

  • Voiced consonants include

  • Voiceless consonants include



SEE ALSO

Phonation