Whisper

Whisper is produced by narrowing the vocal folds so that the glottis is not closed, and the folds do not vibrate; none the less the glottis is narrow enough so that when air passes through it, the airflow becomes turbulent. Whisper is used by speakers as a way to speak ‘quietly’, or ‘secretively’: this seems to be a very widespread practice among linguistic communities. It is sometimes also used to mark stance, as in (6) below. The IPA has no symbol for marking whisper.