Phonation exercises

Develop your perception, production and understanding of the various states of the glottis by practicing all the phonation types in initial, medial and final positions:
 



Initial



Medial
Final
1. Glottal stop  

ʔɑ





ɑʔɑ


ɑʔ

2. Creaky voice

ɑ̰̰ɑ




ɑɑ̰̰ɑ


ɑɑ̰̰

3. Breathy voice
ɦɑ



ɑɦɑ


ɑɦ

4. Whisper/voicelessness

hɑ





ɑhɑ

ɑh

Some real words to practise (note that the acute accent indicates high pitch):
 

Shona (western)
 

  

Shona (eastern)  









láha
to throw away
  
mɦépó
wind
kúɦa
to come

femɦá
to smell
ɦála
to be full

femá
to breathe
hoko
monkey

mɦuká
animal





muká
to get up





nɦáŋga
pumpkin





naŋgá
peace

Audio examples:
 

1. Glottal stop  
Arabic ‘asked’  saʔala  

 




Hebrew ‘light’  ʔor














2. Creaky voice
Mazatec ‘buttocks’   ndǽ̰
vs. plain voiced ‘seed’
 tʰǽ
3. Breathy voice
Mazatec ‘horse’  ndǽ̤






Dutch hoed ‘hat’  ɦut






Hindi ‘brow’

 bɦɑl


vs. plain voiced ‘hair’
 bɑl


Hindi ‘knife edge’  ɦɑɾ
vs. ‘lentil’

 ɑl



Hindi ‘bundle’  gɦɑn
vs. ‘cheek’
 gɑl










4. Whisper/voicelessness
Japanese くっ付けました
kuttsukemashita

‘pressed-attached’

 kɯ̥tːsɯ̥̥kemaʃta




The Mazatec examples were downloaded from the UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. The other examples are from a database of audio examples relating to the IPA Handbook.