Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics

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Voicing
(291 words)

Abstract

Voicing refers to an assimilative process by which a voiceless sound becomes voiced; the term can also be used in reference to the feature [voice], which involves vibration of the vocal cords.

Voicing is a process whereby a consonant changes from voiceless to voiced (the reverse is called devoicing). In Ancient Greek the change is always due to assimilation with an adjacent sound, either a vowel (a, i, u), sonorant (m, l, w), or voiced obstruent (b, d, g, v, z). Greek stop clusters always agree in voicing (Probert 2010:94), so voicing assi…

Cite this page
David Goldstein, “Voicing”, in: Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, General Editor: Georgios K. Giannakis. Consulted online on 31 March 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2214-448X_eagll_SIM_00000547>
First published online: 2013



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