Abstract

Since Lisker and Abramson's cross‐language study [Lisker and Abramson, “A cross‐language study of voicing in initial stops . . .,” Word 20, 384–422 0964)] VOT has been used to describe voicing contrasts across languages. However, VOT is insufficient to distinguish all stop categories in four‐category languages like Hindi and Marathi. Acoustic analysis of word initial stops of 3 four‐category languages, Hindi, Punjabi, and Bengali, shows that the feature interrupted voicing differentiates the so‐called “voiced aspirates” from the other three categories. These stops are characterized by a pattern of prevoicing followed by approximately 100 ms of silence and then resumed phonation. The other stop categories of these languages are characterized by lead, coincident, and lag VOT.

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