Voice Onset Time Flashcards, test questions and answers

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What is Voice Onset Time?

Voice Onset Time (VOT) is a feature of speech production that refers to the interval between when the vocal folds start vibrating and when airflow is released through the mouth. It is used to differentiate stops, such as /p/ and /b/, which have widely varying VOTs. VOTs are typically measured in milliseconds (ms). In general, voiced sounds have positive VOTs while voiceless sounds have negative or zero VOTs. For example, an English /p/ has a negative or zero VOT whereas an English /b/ has a positive one. This indicates that voiced stops tend to take longer for their voicing to begin than voiceless ones. VOT is important for distinguishing one sound from another in many languages around the world. For example, in German, there are three distinct kinds of voiceless stops based on their corresponding VOT values: short (negative), medium (zero), and long (positive). Each type of stop can be distinguished clearly from the others if its specific VOT value is known. Furthermore, differences in language-specific phonetic environments can also cause changes in one’s perception of a particular sound’s duration as well as its corresponding VOT value. In Spanish for instance, certain consonants become devoiced after certain vowels; this changes their associated VOT values and makes them difficult to distinguish without careful analysis. The same applies to other dialectical variations within languages too words may be pronounced differently depending on where they originate from and this can affect the associated voice onset times too. Overall, Voice Onset Time provides an important tool for analyzing speech production and differentiating between various kinds of sounds across languages worldwide. By taking into account both language-specific phonetic environments as well as individual dialectical variations within them, it helps us better understand how speech is produced by humans both generally speaking and more specifically.