Breathiness

Breathiness is a voice quality characterized by audible air escape through a partially open glottis during phonation. It results from incomplete glottal closure, allowing a continuous flow of air to pass between the vocal folds and adding aperiodic, turbulent noise to the voiced sound. The effect is often described as airy or whistle-like and can occur alone or with other voice qualities such as modal voicing or creaky voice.

Production involves the vocal folds being separated enough to permit air escape while still vibrating. The glottal opening may vary within the glottal cycle, and the degree of breathiness can be modulated by laryngeal tension and subglottal pressure. Breathiness can be a deliberate phonation type or a natural byproduct of relaxed speech, and it may be used for affect, emphasis, or stylistic purposes.

Acoustic and perceptual correlates include increased aperiodic energy and noise, especially at higher frequencies, along with a lower harmonic-to-noise ratio and often a reduced cepstral peak prominence compared with modal voice. Listeners perceive breathiness as airy and softer in overall quality, with breathy segments sometimes sounding more open or less "tense" than modal segments.

Linguistic and clinical aspects: In some languages, breathy voice contrasts with modal voice to distinguish meaning, as in certain vowels and phonation systems. Breathiness also occurs in clinical contexts, such as voice disorders involving incomplete glottal closure or laryngeal pathology. Assessment and therapy may focus on adjusting glottal closure and laryngeal tension to engineer the desired level of breathiness.