# Is there a voiced-unvoiced pair for R or L in any language? Tags: pronunciation, consonants, voice-biometrics - Score: 10 - Views: 5085 - Answers: 6 - Answered: yes - Asked by: DrZ214 (203 rep) - Asked: 2017-06-26 - Edited: 2017-06-26 - Site: linguistics ## Question Voiced and unvoiced consonant pairs exist for /z/ and /s/, /g/ and /k/, /b/ and /p/, and many others. But I've never heard it for /ɹ/ or /l/. I think it's totally possible to use the vocal cords for those consonants, as well as not using the vocal cords for them. After all, we can easily whisper words with /l/ or /ɹ/ in them. Edit: I'm talking about the untrilled r in normal American English. I can't do trilled r's so I can't experiment to see if it's unvoiceable, but I suspect it's whisperable like every other sound I can think of. So does such a distinction happen in any language? ## Answers ### Answer by brass tacks (score: 14 [ACCEPTED]) As leoboiko mentioned, there are languages with voiceless liquids, like Icelandic. In the IPA, they are simply transcribed with a voicelessness ring diacritic: [r̥] and [l̥]. In Icelandic, these sounds can be analyzed as allophonic realizations of /r/ and /l/ in some