Prevoicing, inphonetics, isvoicing before the onset of a consonant or beginning with the onset of the consonant but ending before its release. In theextensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet forspeech pathology, prevoicing is transcribed with a voicing diacritic ( ̬, U+032C) placed in front of the consonant, as in[̬d].
In severalKhoisan languages of Southern Africa, such asTaa and!Kung, stops such as/dzʰ/ ([dsʰ] or[dtsʰ]) and/dzʼ/ ([dsʼ] or[dtsʼ]) are sometimes analyzed as being prevoiced/̬tsʰ/ and/̬tsʼ/,[1] though the cessation of voicing has also been analyzed as phonetic detail in the transition of a phonemically voiced consonant to its voiceless aspiration or ejection. (Seeaspirated voiced consonant andvoiced ejective.)
Kelabit has a similar set ofaspirated voiced consonants. Not all speakers produce the aspiration, resulting in prevoiced (or mixed voiced)[b͡p,d͡t,ɡ͡k] (or equivalently[ ̬p, ̬t, ̬k], and neighboringLun Dayeh has[b͡p,d͡tʃ,ɡ͡k] (=[ ̬p, ̬tʃ, ̬k].
