VOT in initial stops
Languages with two-way contrasts

  1. Catalan

    Voiceless unaspirated vs. Fully voiced (voicing lead).

    p i g a ("speck")

    t a ʎ a ("size")

    k a s a ("house")

    b i g a ("beam")

    d a ʎ a ("scythe")

    g a s a ("lint")

  2. Cantonese

    Voiceless aspirated vs. Voiceless unaspirated

    pʰ a ("to lie prone")

    tʰ a ("he/she")

    kʰ a ("truck")

    p a ("father")

    t a ("dozen")

    k a ("to add")

  3. German and English

    In initial position these languages are fairly similar to Cantonese (according to Catford with somewhat weaker aspiration for the voiceless aspirated stops, though this is not apparent here). However, as the non-aspirated stops may be slightly voiced (i.e have a short voicing lead) and are generally fairly fully voiced intervocalically, they are assigned the symbol for voiced stops.

    a. German

    pʰ a s ə ("skip")

    tʰ a s ə ("cup")

    kʰ a s ə ("cash desk")

    b a s ("bass")

    d a s ("that")

    g a s ə ("lane")

    4. b. American English

    pʰ a i ("pie")

    tʰ a i ("tie")

    kʰ a i t ("kite")

    b a i ("buy")

    d a i ("die")

    g a i ("guy")

  4. Bulgarian

    Similar to Catalan (but somewhat more aspiration of the voiceless stops).

    p i j a ("i drink")

    t o m ("volume")

    k o l ("pole")

    b i j a ("i beat")

    d o m ("home")

    g o l ("naked")

  5. French

    Clear voicing lead for the voiced stops. The voiceless stops are traditionally considered to be unaspirated or weakly aspirated (i.e overall pattern like Catalan), but for this speaker there is actually quite extensive aspiration.

    p u ("louse")

    t u ("all")

    k u ("neck")

    b u ("mud")

    d u ("sweet")

    g u ("taste")

  6. Persian

    Another example of a language with strongly aspirated voiceless stops.

    pʰ æ r ("feather")

    tʰ i r ("arrow")

    kʰ u r ("blind")

    b æ r ("fruit")

    d i r ("late")

    g u r ("grave")