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Debate in Phonetics: Why is VOT so difficult to define in different languages?
In phonetics, "Voice Onset Time" (Voice Onset Time, referred to as VOT) is a feature that describes the production process of obstructed consonants. VOT is defined as the time interval between the cessation of consonant release and the onset of vocal fold vibration. However, the complexity of this concept and its diversity in different languages have led some scholars to conduct extensive debate and research on it.
The definition and measurement of VOT vary significantly between languages, making it an important but tricky parameter to characterize consonants.
The history of VOT dates back to the 19th century, when Adjarian studied Armenian stops and characterized them as "the relationship between the moment of air release during the obstruent burst and the moment when the throat begins to vibrate. ”.
But it was not until the 1960s that VOT became widely known. During this period, scholars conducted in-depth research on the differences between beat sounds, voiceless sounds and voiced sounds.
In English, the contrast between unvoiced and voiced sounds successfully distinguishes /b, d, ɡ/ from /p, t, k/, but not in some lexemes.
For example, in the initial position of a word, /b, d, ɡ/ in English are only partially pronounced or even almost silent in some cases. In this case, the concept of VOT becomes a key parameter in understanding consonant types.
Analysis problem
Although VOT is widely used in different languages, its definition often faces challenges. Some scholars have called for reconsideration of VOT as a parameter of speech synthesis, and whether it should replace kinematic or fluid dynamics parameters with stronger explanatory significance. Various analyzes of VOT variability will ultimately return to these basic dynamics and motion mechanisms.
Discussions about VOT often point to its convenience as an acoustic parameter, but this does not mean its universal applicability in all languages.
This has led scholars to question whether VOT should continue to be considered a major parameter in speech analysis. Perhaps in some languages, it is indeed easier to measure than parameters such as flow or pressure, but in other languages, VOT may not provide valid information.
Types of VOT
According to the characteristics of their VOT, stop consonants can be divided into three types:
Simple voiceless obstruents, often called "tenuis" obstruents, have a VOT time close to zero.
For breathy obstruents, the VOT length is greater than zero. In this case, the length of VOT can be used to measure the intensity of breath.
For a voiced obstruator with negative VOT, the vocal cords begin to vibrate before the obstruator is released.
A complete voiced obstruator has a VOT that coincides with the start of the sound at the beginning of the stop sound.
The differences between these stop sounds, especially the contrast in different languages, have triggered discussions in the linguistic community. The diversity of languages makes understanding VOT more complex and difficult.
Transcription of VOT
In transcription, the intensity of a breath is usually represented by the symbol ⟨◌ʰ , while a long (strong) breath is denoted by ⟨◌ʰʰ . The way in which sounds are indicated often relies on the choice of consonant letters. These indicators allow scholars to more clearly grasp the variability of VOT when conducting language analysis.
Even so, innovative research on VOT continues, and phonetic scholars are constantly exploring the similarities and differences between different languages. These studies not only enrich our understanding of language change, but also trigger people's profound thinking about speech.
However, is the diversity and complexity of VOT just one of the narrowest problems in linguistics?
