Slack voice
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The term slack voice (or lax voice) describes the pronunciation of consonants with a glottal opening slightly wider than that occurring in "normal" (modal) voice. Such sounds are often referred to informally as lenis or half-voiced. In some Chinese languages ("dialects") and in many Austronesian languages, the 'intermediate' phonation of slack stops confuses Western listeners, so that different transcription systems may use /p/ or /b/ for the same consonant. Although the IPA has no dedicated diacritic for slack voice, the voiceless diacritic (the under-ring) may be used.
Javanese contrasts slack and stiff voiced bilabial, dental, retroflex, and velar stops:
| Javanese | translation | |
| stiff voice | guest | |
| slack voice | blow |
The Shanghainese "muddy" consonants are also slack voice, the primary effect of which is a slightly breathy quality of the following vowel:
| Shanghainese | translation | |
| slack voice | earth | |
| tenuis | (a grammatical particle) | |
| aspirated | heaven |
See also
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