Whispering

Whispering is an unvoiced mode of phonation in which the vocal folds (vocal cords) are adducted so that they do not vibrate; air passes between the arytenoid cartilages to create audible turbulence during speech. Supralaryngeal articulation remains the same as in normal speech.

In normal speech, the vocal folds alternate between states of voice and voicelessness. In whispering, only the voicing segments change, so that the vocal folds alternate between whisper and voicelessness (though the acoustic difference between the two states is minimal). Because of this circumstance, there is currently no known possibility to use speech recognition successfully on a whispering person, as the characteristic spectral range needed to detect syllables and words is not given through the total absence of tone.

There is no symbol in the IPA for whispered phonation, since it is not used phonemically in any language. However, a sub-dot under phonemically voiced segments is found in the Extended IPA and sometimes seen in the literature, as [ʃʊ̣ḍ] for whispered should.

Whispering (song)

"Whispering" is a popular song by lyricists John Schoenberger (1892–1983) and Richard Coburn (pseudonym of Frank Reginald DeLong; 1886–1952) and composer Vincent Rose. "Whispering" was first published in 1920 by Sherman, Clay & Co., of San Francisco. The initial 1920 copyright and first publishing attributes the lyrics to Malvin Schonberger and the music to John Schonberger.

Initial and enduring popularity

"Whispering" was most famously recorded by Paul Whiteman and his Ambassador Orchestra on August 23, 1920, for Victor. Whiteman — Denver-born, ex-army, and self-acclaimed "King of Jazz" flourished — flourished in popularity from series of hits beginning in 1920 with his release of "Whispering", an eleven-week U.S. No. 1 hit, which stayed 20 weeks in the charts and sold in excess of two million copies.

The song charted twice in the sixties. In 1963, Irish singers the Bachelors had a hit with their version which went to the Top 20 in the UK. In 1964, after recording their hit "Deep Purple", American brother and sister singers Nino Tempo and April Stevens had a new hit with "Whispers". This version went to number eleven on the Hot 100 and number four on the Easy Listening chart.

Whispering (disambiguation)

Whispering is an unvoiced mode of phonation.

Whispering may also refer to: