Phonation is the process of sound production by the larynx. It can refer to vocal cord vibration or any manipulation of speech by the larynx, including creaky and wheezy voice. Some languages have more vowel distinctions, and glottal consonants are produced only by the glottis.
Phonation is the process by which the larynx, or voice box, produces sound. Depending on the subfield of phonetics, phonation may refer only to the quasi-periodic vibration of the vocal cords that produces loud sounds, or it may refer to any manipulation of the speech stream by the larynx. In addition to the voice, phonetic features affected by the larynx include creaky voice and wheezy voice. The larynx is also responsible for glottal sounds, such as the glottal stop, pronounced between vowels in the English “uh-oh.”
Phoneticians who study laryngeal anatomy and speech production often consider phonation to be only the quasi-periodic vibration of the vocal folds. You can tell if a sound has this type of phonation by placing your fingers on the front of your throat and feeling the vibration as you speak. If the vocal cords vibrate during speech, an audible sound is produced. Voiced sounds include all vowels and nasal sounds in English, as well as consonants such as /b/, /v/, /d/, /z/, and /g/. The unvoiced counterparts of these consonants, /p/, /f/, /t/, /s/ and /k/ respectively, differ from the voiced versions only in the lack of vibration of the vocal folds.
Some languages have more vowel distinctions than simply voiced and unvoiced, and many linguists use phonation to refer to any manipulation of sounds by the glottis. In addition to voiced and voiceless sounds, some languages have creaky or laryngeal sounds, produced with highly stretched vocal folds, and wheezy or whispery sounds, produced with minimal tension in the vocal folds. Voiceless sounds are produced without any tension in the vocal cords. Regardless of these distinctions, some languages use the limp voice, with more tension than a hummed sound, but less than a sonorous sound, and some include stiff voice, with vocal cord tension somewhere between that required for a sound and that required for a laryngeal sound.
Some languages, including English, have glottal consonants produced only by the glottis, or the vocal cords and the space between them. English has the glottal stop, as noted above, as well as the glottal fricative /h/ as in “hat”. Glottal consonants are sometimes considered instances of pure phonation rather than true consonants, as other consonants are characterized by a place of articulation such as the lips or teeth, as well as the state of the glottis. Glottal consonants, on the other hand, have no place of articulation other than the glottis.
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