Methods of Production
There are several ways to produce breathy-voiced sounds like . One is to hold the vocal cords apart, so that they are lax as they are for, but to increase the volume of airflow so that they vibrate loosely. A second is to bring the vocal cords closer together along their entire length than in voiceless, but not as close as in modally voiced sounds such as vowels. This results in an airflow intermediate between and vowels, and is the case with English intervocalic /h/. A third is to constrict the glottis, but separate the arytenoid cartilages that control one end. This results in the vocal cords being drawn together for voicing in the back, but separated to allow the passage of large volumes of air in the front. This is the situation with Hindi.
The distinction between the latter two of these realizations, vocal cords somewhat separated along their length (breathy voice) and vocal cords together with the arytenoids making an opening (whispery voice), is phonetically relevant in White Hmong.
Read more about this topic: Breathy Voice
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