Voice Quality Symbols
Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS) are a set of phonetic symbols used to transcribe disordered speech for what in speech pathology is known as "voice quality". This phrase only means what it does in phonetics (that is, phonation) in a few cases. In others it means secondary articulation.
VoQS symbols are normally combined with curly braces that span a section of speech, just as with prosody notation in the extended IPA. The symbols may be modified with a digit to convey relative degree of the quality. For example, ⟨V!⟩ is used for harsh voice, and {3V! ... 3V!} indicates that the intervening speech is very harsh. ⟨L̞⟩ indicates a lowered larynx. Thus, {L̞1V! ... 1V!L̞} indicates that the intervening speech is less harsh with a lowered larynx.
VoQS use mostly IPA or extended IPA diacritics on capital letters for the element being modified: V for 'voice'/articulation, L for 'larynx', and J for 'jaw'. Degree is marked 1 for slight, 2 for moderate, and 3 for extreme.
Symbols[]
The following combinations of letters and diacritics are used.[1] They indicate an airstream mechanism, phonation or secondary articulation across a stretch of speech. For example, 'palatalized voice' indicates palatalization of all segments of speech spanned by the braces.
Several of these symbols may be profitably used as part of single speech sounds, in addition to indicating voice qualities across spans of speech. For example, [ↀ͡r̪͆ː] is blowing a raspberry, while [{ↀ ... ↀ}] indictes a string of speech with a Donald Duck quality. [ɬ↓ʔ] is the l* sound in Damin while [{↓ ... ↓}] is a string of ingressive speech.
Airstream mechanisms[]
The airstream mechanism is the process for generating the flow of air required for speech.
- {ↀ} buccal speech (symbol is iconic for the pockets of air in the cheeks)
- {Œ} œsophageal speech (symbol derives from the letter œ of œsophagus)
- {Ю} tracheo-œsophageal speech (symbol attempts to capture iconically the dual nature of the airstream)
- {↓} pulmonic ingressive speech
Phonation types[]
The four primary phonation types, other than voiceless, each receive a distinct letter:
- {V} modal voice
- {F} falsetto
- {W} whisper (Typically only the normally modally voiced segments are whispery, while the voiceless segments remain voiceless. Note that this "whisper" is distinct from the "whispery voice" below.)
- {C} creak
Modifications are made with diacritics. The terms "whispery voice" and "breathy voice" follow Catford (1977) and differ from the vocabulary of the IPA, with VoQS "whispery voice" being equivalent to IPA "breathy voice" / "murmur". The notations {Ṿ} and {V̤} are therefore often confused, and {V̤} should perhaps be used for VoQS "whispery voice" with e.g. {Vʱ} for VoQS "breathy voice".[2]
- {Ṿ} whispery voice (murmur; the breathy voice of the IPA)
- {V̰} creaky voice
- {V̤} breathy voice
- {C̣} whispery creak
- {V͉} slack/lax voice
- {V!} harsh voice (without ventricular vibration; this may differ from the use of the word "harsh" cross-linguistically, which may be the same as "ventricular", next)
- {V‼} ventricular phonation
- {V̬‼} diplophonia (simultaneous ventricular and glottal vibration; see also vocal-fold cyst)
- {Ṿ‼} whispery ventricular phonation
- {V