non-voiced vowels

There are many languages that have non-voiced vowels (to a native English speaker such as myself, they just sound like whispered vowels). My question is, how does one pronounce voiceless vowels while singing? Anyone here speak a language with non-voiced vowels??? If so which ones?

Moderator’s Note: Moving to GQ.

This is a non-technical answer, but basically, non-voiced vowels are also not stressed. Even in English we don’t sing non-voiced vowels. We use a lot of monosyllabic words (“Can’t buy me love!”) which are all stressed vowels, and multisyllables tend to place a lt of emphasis on the stressed vowels/syllables (can’t think of a great example, but part of the reason people can’t always understand song lyrics is that the non-chorus parts are mumbled).

Anyway, in a language like Japanese, the unstressed/unvoiced vowels are always short, so you don’t have to sing them. Singing a word like “suki” (where the u is unvoiced) would usually be sung “s’kiiiiiii”–in other words, you really can’t sing an unvoiced vowel, so you just kind of skip it and sing a voiced one.

Mandielise, I have to ask as a former linguistics student, and noting your location: Have you taken any courses (maybe phonetics) with a Dr. Buckingham?

MEBuckner: I’m sorry, I thought I had put it in GQ. My bad!

PublicBlast: Thanks for the answer. I was wondering. Not all languages work like that though. For example, when one sings in French, vowels that are completely avoided in the spoken language are sung. However, your explanation makes perfect sense.
Bordelond: No, but I’ve met him and will probably take classes from him in the future. Right now I’m with Dr Brody. Noting your name, I wonder if you’re related to my aunt whose mother’s maiden name is Borelond? She says there’re a bunch of y’all around here, but you’re basically all related?

Having been to a friend’s wedding in France a couple of months ago, I can vouch for this. Singing along to the hymns I was quite taken aback by the way the usually silent final “e” on words such as “dire” and “père” was emphasised and drawn out when sung, making the words sound like “dee-ruuh” and “pai-ruuh”.

I think PublicBlast more or less hit the nail on the head here. The mode of phonation in breathy or whispered vowels isn’t really conducive to singing (at least in English). When singing there is typically periodic vibration of the vocal folds (excepting Waits, Armsrtong, etc.) and amplitude is partially contingent on the folds making contact along the centre line. In breathy/whispered vowels though vibration (if present) tends to be periodic, there isn’t a whole lot of amplitude. Additionally, I think the high airflow rates in these modes would make it difficult to hold a note.

Having said that, and this is just a wild guess here, breathy/whispered vowels could be incorporated into song by increased aspiration. In essence, accentuating the most salient aspect of these modes of phonation. By way of really annoying and possibly impractical example, think about singing the word ‘a-ha’ and letting a lot of air out for the for the /ha/ portion. I’m sorry if that doesn’t make sense.

As for speaking a language where breathy/whispered phonation is contrastive. Nope, but if the funding was there, I’d be all over it.

I don’t know if my 2 cents will help at all but being a singer who has studied singing in French, Italian, and Portuguese, in my experience the vowels which are not so easily heard when speaking these lyrics come into play a lot because of either the emotion on that particular word or possibly the melody of the line they are being sung in.

Also in French when you sing a word like “dire,” it’s difficult to end the word on the “r” and still have it sound nice. So adding the “e” vowel can help extend the note or transition into another note or word much easier.

Hope that makes sense!