Examples of languages with multiple voicing contrasts

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Overview:
Examples are given for
1. 4-way contrasts (Nepali, Hindi)
2. 5-way contrasts (Sindhi)
3. 3-way contrasts (Thai, Korean)

1. 4-way contrasts. Many Indo-Aryan languages, e.g. Nepali, Hindi


For Hindi separate sets of examples are given from Illustrations of the IPA and SoWL. Somewhat confusingly, the category referred to as "retroflex" in IPA is referred to as "postalveolar" in SoWL, while the category referred to in IPA as "postalveolar" (affricate) is referred to in SoWL as "palatoalveolar". Here we have followed the IPA designations for both sets of examples (even though the best designation for the sounds transcribed with the retroflex symbols would probably be apical postalveolar). Also, where identical words occur in both sets (the vast majority) the IPA English gloss has been used.

Both IPA and SoWL use superscript ɦ (voiced glottal fricative) to indicate the voiced aspirated category. This helps to emphasize that the aspiration phase of these sounds is generally voiced (i.e consists of breathy voice phonation), though interruption of voicing may frequently occur (refer to the sonagrams, especially the IPA examples).

Another interesting feature of Hindi is aspiration in the affricates, since aspiration following a fricative segment otherwise occurs quite rarely.

1a. Nepali

From UCLA archive (based on original Ladefoged tape demo).
Each example consists of 6 speakers (5 male, 1 female)

voiceless
 unaspirated 
voiceless
aspirated
   voiced   
voiced aspirated
("murmured", "breathy")
pal
pʰal
bal
bʱal

1b. Hindi (IPA)

(affricate)
S bal
S d̪al
S ɖal
S dʒal
S gal
S pal
S t̪al
S ʈal
S tʃal
S kal
S pʰal
S t̪ʰal
S ʈʰal
S tʃʰal
S kʰal
S bʱal
S d̪ʱaɾ
S ɖʱal
S dʒʱəl
S gʱan

1c. Hindi (SoWL)

(affricate)
S bal
S d̪al
S ɖal
S dʒal
S gal
S pal
S t̪al
S ʈal
S tʃal
S kal
S pʰal
S t̪ʰal
S ʈʰal
S tʃʰal
S kʰal
S bʱal
S d̪ʱaɾ
S ɖʱal
S dʒʱal
S gʱal

2. Five-way contrast (Sindhi)

Sindi (Indo-Aryan) also has implosive in addition to the above 4 categories (see BPM, p. 202). As for Hindi, both IPA and SoWL provide examples (though with much less overlap than for Hindi).
Both sources use the designation "post-alveolar" for the sounds transcribed with the traditional retroflex symbols. On the other hand L&M use the term retroflex, but transcribe the sounds using normal alveolar symbols with subscript dot (p.83, see also p.25). In short, there seems to be agreement that the sounds are apical postalveolar, rather than fully retroflexed.
The sounds labelled as palatal actually have similarities with the Hindi postalveolar affricate examples. In the IPA handbook these sounds are referred to as being laminal postalveolar, and having some frication (p. 133). L&M also refer to affrication, suggesting the use of the little-used alveolo-palatal fricative symbols.
The implosive in the alveolar region is placed in the postalveolar retroflex column in SoWL, while IPA uses a separate alveolar column. As there is no standard IPA symbol for retroflex implosive, we have put it in the dental column, but without the dental diacritic.
Note that Sindhi also has several contrasting breathy-voiced (voiced aspirated) nasals and liquids. A separate short demo contrasting pulmonic voiced plosives with voiced implosives is also available.