Greek Language Tutorial > Alphabet Index > I want... > Voicing

Voicing

Try this experiment:

Put your index and middle fingers on your throat and say just the k- sound of the word “kiss.”

Now say the just the g- sound of the word “guess.”

Feel the vibration of your vocal cords with the g-? That vibration that you felt is called voicing. We say that k is an unvoiced consonant (no vibration) and g is a voiced consonant (buzzzz).

The Greek letter is unvoiced, like the th in thick.

The Greek letter is voiced, like the th in these.

In English and in Greek, consonants come in voiced/unvoiced pairs. Here are some of those pairs; use the “fingers on throat” test to see that this table is correct.