Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives
Sounds · one world map for each value
WALS codes 567 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Voicing contrast in plosives alone”, covers 189 of them (33%); the least frequent, “Voicing contrast in fricatives alone”, covers 38.
That value is most frequent in Papunesia (42% of the 93 languages coded there) and least frequent in Australia (3% of 32).
All 8 Nakh-Daghestanian languages coded have “Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives”.
Oto-Manguean is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 3 of 10.
No voicing contrast182 languages · 32%
Voicing contrast in plosives alone189 languages · 33%
Voicing contrast in fricatives alone38 languages · 7%
Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives158 languages · 28%
One map per value; each dot is a language WALS codes with that value.
By macro-area
| Value | Africa | Eurasia | Papunesia | Australia | North America | South America |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No voicing contrast | 9 | 23 | 40 | 31 | 44 | 35 |
| Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 46 | 46 | 39 | 1 | 32 | 25 |
| Voicing contrast in fricatives alone | 5 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 10 | 4 |
| Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 70 | 63 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 13 |
| All values | 130 | 146 | 93 | 32 | 89 | 77 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niger-Congo | 56 | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 64% |
| Austronesian | 45 | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 42% |
| Indo-European | 31 | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 71% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 29 | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 69% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 26 | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 35% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 23 | No voicing contrast | 48% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 17 | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 53% |
| Altaic | 16 | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 69% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 16 | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 69% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 16 | No voicing contrast | 94% |
| Oto-Manguean | 10 | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 30% |
| Tai-Kadai | 9 | No voicing contrast | 44% |
| Uralic | 9 | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 33% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 9 | No voicing contrast | 67% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- No voicing contrast: Korean, Maori, Tukang Besi, Chukchi, Fijian, Mapudungun
- Voicing contrast in plosives alone: Amele, Basque, Evenki, Tagalog, Kannada, Hixkaryana
- Voicing contrast in fricatives alone: Spanish, Mandarin, Greenlandic (West), Vietnamese, Slave, Zulu
- Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives: English, French, Russian, Finnish, Turkish, Indonesian