aspirated

Aspirated describes a consonant produced with a noticeable burst of breath following its release. This breathy release contrasts with unaspirated consonants, where the release occurs without a strong following expulsion of air. Aspiration is a feature of the timing and acoustics of the consonant rather than its basic place of articulation.

Phonetically, aspiration is often analyzed through voice onset time (VOT), the interval between the release of the consonant and the onset of vocal fold vibration. Aspirated stops, such as pʰ, tʰ, and kʰ, have longer VOTs than their unaspirated counterparts p, t, and k. In many languages, aspiration is phonemic: the difference between aspirated and unaspirated stops can change word meaning. The presence or absence of aspiration also affects perception of voicing.

Aspirated stops occur in many language families. English commonly features aspirated voiceless stops at the beginning of stressed syllables. In languages such as Hindi, Marathi, and Thai, pʰ, tʰ, kʰ (and other series) are distinct phonemes from their unaspirated equivalents. Some languages also have phonemic voiced aspirated stops, such as bʱ, dʱ, ɡʱ, found in various South Asian languages.

Notation in the International Phonetic Alphabet marks aspiration with a superscript small h after the consonant symbol, as in pʰ, tʰ, kʰ. Unaspirated stops are written without the diacritic, p, t, k. Aspiration is separate from other laryngeal or voice qualities, such as voicing and breathy versus creaky voice.