Topic summary

Voiceless consonant

Voiceless consonant

Extracted from the Wikipedia article Voicelessness.

Lack of voicing contrast in obstruents

Thus, Polynesian stops are reported to be held for longer than Australian stops and are seldom voiced, but Australian stops are prone to having voiced variants (L&M 1996:53), and the languages are often represented as having no phonemically voiceless consonants at all.