[Lingtyp] Breathy vs. voiceless sonorants

[Alexander Coupe]

Dear Ian,

Breathy sonorants involve some degree of phonation in addition to pronounced egressive airflow. Voiceless sonorants prototypically have abducted vocal folds and no phonation. In TB languages you may find free variation between breathy and voiceless sonorants, or the articulation of a voiceless sonorant may involve a overlapping period of phonation - see A grammar of Mongsen Ao (available via the Academia.edu link below) for spectrographic evidence of this.

Best,
Alec


---

Alexander R. Coupe, Ph.D. | Emeritus Associate Professor | School of Humanities | Nanyang Technological University

48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639818

Tel: +61 494064620 GMT+8h | Email: arcoupe at ntu.edu.sg<mailto:arcoupe at ntu.edu.sg>

Co-editor, Mouton Grammar Library https://www.degruyterbrill.com/serial/mgl-b/html

Academia.edu: https://nanyang.academia.edu/AlexanderCoupe

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1979-2370

Webpage: https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/arcoupe/






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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of JOO Ian via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2026 5:49 PM
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Subject: [Lingtyp] Breathy vs. voiceless sonorants


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Dear typologists,



Are breathy sonorants any different from voiceless sonorants (e.g. /n̤/ vs. /n̥/?) If so, how?



From Otaru,

Ian



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朱　易安
JOO, IAN
准教授
Associate Professor
小樽商科大学
Otaru University of Commerce



🌐 ianjoo.github.io<http://ianjoo.github.io/>
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