Editing Breathy voice (section)

==Phonological property==
{{cnspan|A number of languages use breathy voicing in a phonologically contrastive way. Many [[Indo-Aryan languages]], such as [[Hindi]], typically have a four-way contrast among plosives and affricates (voiced, breathy, [[tenuis consonant|tenuis]], aspirated) and a two-way contrast among nasals (voiced, breathy). The [[Nguni languages]] within the southern branch of the [[Bantu languages]], including [[Phuthi language|Phuthi]], [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]], [[Zulu language|Zulu]], [[Southern Ndebele language|Southern Ndebele]] and [[Swazi language|Swazi]], also have contrastive breathy voice. In the case of Xhosa, there is a four-way contrast analogous to Indic in oral [[click consonant|clicks]], and similarly a two-way contrast among nasal clicks, but a three-way contrast among plosives and affricates (breathy, aspirated, and [[ejective consonant|ejective]]), and two-way contrasts among fricatives (voiceless and breathy) and nasals (voiced and breathy).|date=March 2025}}

In some Bantu languages, historically breathy stops have been phonetically devoiced,<ref>Traill, Anthony, James S. M. Khumalo and Paul Fridjhon (1987). Depressing facts about Zulu. African Studies 46: 255–274.</ref> but the four-way contrast in the system has been retained. {{cn span|In all five of the southeastern Bantu languages named, the breathy stops (even if they are realised phonetically as devoiced aspirates) have a marked tone-lowering (or tone-depressing) effect on the following [[tautosyllabic]] vowels. For this reason, such stop consonants are frequently referred to in the local linguistic literature as "depressor" stops.|date=March 2025}}

{{cnspan|Swazi, and to a greater extent Phuthi, display good evidence that breathy voicing can be used as a morphological property independent of any consonant voicing value. For example, in both languages, the standard morphological mechanism for achieving the [[Morphology (linguistics)#Paradigms and morphosyntax|morphosyntactic]] [[copula (linguistics)|copula]] is to simply execute the noun prefix syllable as breathy (or "depressed").|date=March 2025}}

In [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], vowels after the [[stress (linguistics)#Word stress|stressed syllable]] can be pronounced with breathy voice.<ref name="Callou">{{cite book |last1=Callou |first1=Dinah |last2=Leite |first2=Yonne |editor1-last=Zahar |editor1-first=Jorge |title=Iniciação à Fonética e à Fonologia |date=2001 |page=20}}</ref>

[[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] is unusual in [[Gujarati phonology#Murmur|contrasting breathy vowels and consonants]]: {{wt|gu|બાર}} {{IPA|/baɾ/}} 'twelve', {{wt|gu|બહાર}} {{IPA|/ba̤ɾ/}} 'outside', {{wt|gu|ભાર}} {{IPA|/bʱaɾ/}} 'burden'.<ref>{{SOWL}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2018}}

[[Juǀʼhoan dialect|Tsumkwe Juǀʼhoan]] makes the following rare distinctions : {{IPA|/nǂʱao/}} fall, land (of a bird etc.); {{IPA|/nǂʱao̤/}} walk; {{IPA|/nǂʱaˤo/}} herb species; and /n|ʱoaᵑ/ greedy person; /n|oaʱᵑ/ cat.<ref>Dickens, Patick (1994) English&ndash;Juǀʼhoan Juǀʼhoan&ndash;English dictionary {{ISBN|3927620556}}, 9783927620551</ref>

{{cnspan|Breathy stops in [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] lost their phonation, merging with voiceless and voiced stops in various positions, and a system of high and low [[tone (linguistics)|tones]] developed in syllables that formerly had these sounds. Breathy voice can also be observed in place of [[debuccalization|debuccalized]] coda {{IPA|/s/}} in [[Spanish dialects and varieties|some dialects of colloquial Spanish]], e.g. {{IPA|[ˈtoðoɦ lo ˈθiɦneh som ˈblaŋkoh]}} for ''{{wt|es|todos}} {{wt|es|los}} {{wt|es|cisnes}} {{wt|es|son}} {{wt|es|blancos}}''.|date=March 2025}}