Abstract:
In the initial position, voiced plosives (b, d, g) are fully voiced in languages
in which a voiced consonant is opposed to an unaspirated voiceless consonant,
these are – French, Spanish, Russian, Danish, Hungarian, etc. On the other
hand, in such systems of plosives which contain a voiceless aspirated plosive,
the phase of occlusion of an initial voiced consonant is voiceless or rarely
partially voiced.
As a result of acoustic analysis of the Georgian voiced plosives (b-ბ, d-დ,
g-გ) in initial position it becomes obvious that the phase of occlusion may be
partially voiceless or voicing of the vocal cords may begin after the plosion.
Voiced occlusion is more typical for the labial consonant, which is a natural
phenomenon due to the mechanism of work of vocal cords.
In an intervocalic position, Georgian voiced consonants retain voicing of
all phases.
In the process of pronunciation of Georgian final voiced consonants, the
occlusion phase may be fully voiced, partially or fully voiceless. In this case the
difference with respect to an aspirated consonants (ph, th, kh) is manifested in
the short duration of occlusion phase and noise.
This peculiarity confirms the viewpoint of Giorgi Akhvlediani (1999: 357)
concerning “voiceless mediae”.
As a general conclusion it should be noted that during articulation of
voiced plosives the work of vocal cords is determined not only by articulatoryphysiological
characteristics, but by paradigmatic peculiarities of the plosive
consonants’ system as well.
