Glottis

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Image:Arytenoid cartilage.png 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 Template:IPA (and in some dialects, occasionally of Template:IPA and Template:IPA); in some languages, this sound is a phoneme of its own.

Image:Glottis positions.png 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.


See also: Phonationes:Glotis fr:Glotte pt:Glote sv:Röstspringa

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