stemmefrie

Stemmefrie is a term used in linguistics, particularly in Norwegian and other Nordic languages, to describe sounds produced without vibration of the vocal folds. The term comes from stemme (voice) og fri (free), and is used to distinguish these sounds from stemmebærende (voiced) sounds, where the vocal cords vibrate during articulation. In phonetic transcription, voiceless sounds are typically marked with the feature [−voice] or simply lack voicing.

The most common stemmefrie sounds are voiceless consonants, such as plosives p, t, k, and fricatives f, s, h, as well as many others found across languages. Vowels are usually voiced, though some languages can exhibit voiceless vowels in specific contexts, which are comparatively rare. The defining property is the absence of vocal fold vibration during production, irrespective of the air flow.

In phonology, the stemmefrie vs. stemmebærende distinction creates a voicing contrast that helps determine minimal pairs and phonotactic patterns. The realization of stemmefrie consonants can be aspirated or unaspirated, depending on language and phonetic context. Voicing may be affected by surrounding sounds, position in a word, and speech rate.

Stemmefrie articulation is a subject of experimental phonetics, with attention to acoustic correlates such as the lack of periodic glottal vibration and specific spectral characteristics. Understanding stemmefrie sounds contributes to descriptions of speech systems and cross-language comparisons.