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.
Sound production involving only the glottis is called glottal. English has a voiceless glottal fricative spelled "h". In many accents of English the glottal stop (made by pressing the folds together) is used as a variant allophone of the phoneme /t/ (and in some dialects, occasionally of /k/ and /p/); 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. [1]
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 /w/, /v/, /z/, /ʒ/, /ʤ/, /ð/, /b/, /d/, and /g/.
- Voiceless consonants include /h/, /ʍ/, /f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /ʧ/, /θ/, /p/, /t/, and /k/.
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Additional images
 The entrance to the larynx, viewed from behind. |
See also
Notes
Categories
Phonetics | Head and neck | Human voice | Respiratory system