Pysähdysäänteet

Pysähdysäänteet, also known as plosives or stops, are a class of consonants in phonetics that are produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract and then releasing it. This stopping is typically achieved by bringing two speech organs together to block the passage of air, such as the lips or the tongue and the roof of the mouth. The release of the blocked air creates a burst of sound.

The primary places of articulation for pysähdysäänteet are the lips (bilabial), the alveolar ridge (alveolar), and the velum (velar). Bilabial stops involve the closure and release of the lips, as in the sounds /p/ and /b/. Alveolar stops are made with the tongue tip or blade against the alveolar ridge, producing sounds like /t/ and /d/. Velar stops are formed with the back of the tongue against the velum, resulting in sounds such as /k/ and /g/.

Pysähdysäänteet can also be classified by their voicing, meaning whether the vocal cords vibrate during their production. Voiceless stops, like /p/, /t/, and /k/, are produced without vocal cord vibration. Voiced stops, such as /b/, /d/, and /g/, involve vibration of the vocal cords. In many languages, including Finnish, these voiced and voiceless pairs are phonemically distinct. The presence or absence of aspiration, a puff of air following the release of the consonant, can also distinguish different types of stops in some languages, though this is less prominent in Finnish. Pysähdysäänteet are fundamental building blocks of spoken language.