5.4 Stop
Consonants
5.4.1 Aspiration
•Aspiration is a period of voicelessness after
the stop articulation and before
the start of the voicing for the vowel. If you put a sheet of thin paper in front of your lips while
saying “pie,” you can feel the burst of air that comes out during the period
of voicelessness after the release of the
stop.
•
•In a
narrow transcription, aspiration may be indicated by a small raised h, [H].
Accordingly, these words may be transcribed as [ pHaI, tH aI, kH aI ]. You
may not be able to feel the burst of air in “tie, kye” because these stop closures are made well
inside the oral cavity.