Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To pronounce (a normally voiced sound) without vibration of the vocal chords so as to make it wholly or partly voiceless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb phonetics, linguistics To pronounce a word with little movement of the vocal chords
  • verb Internet To remove the voice flag from a user on IRC, preventing them from sending messages to the channel.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb utter with tense vocal chords

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

de- +‎ voice

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Examples

  • As they expanded, they began, for inscrutable Frankish reasons, to devoice word-final obstruents this is the blue isogloss, thereby establishing Frankish as its own distinct, highly conservative dialect.

    The PIE and Pre-PIE pronominal system from the perspective of a wave model 2009

  • They might go devoice hoping to find a better partner, but since they think it's all others' fault, they will repeat the same error over and over.

    Women in Groups: Question Michael Turton 2009

  • Now, the question is, did they continue to devoice word-final obstruents?

    The PIE and Pre-PIE pronominal system from the perspective of a wave model 2009

  • Theoretically, the stemfinal *bʰ would devoice to *p in original *skerbʰ- once speakers of Indo-European no longer were consciously aware of the historical connection with *gʰrebʰ-, and this would especially occur after *s- came to be irregularly omitted and phonotactic "stop voicing harmony" pressures took over.

    PIE "look-alike stems" - *(s)kerp- vs. *gʰrebʰ- 2009

  • Theoretically, the stemfinal *bʰ would devoice to *p in original *skerbʰ- once speakers of Indo-European no longer were consciously aware of the historical connection with *gʰrebʰ-, and this would especially occur after *s- came to be irregularly omitted and phonotactic "stop voicing harmony" pressures took over.

    Archive 2009-04-01 2009

  • One is to devoice *dʰ entirely to *tʰ (as in Greek); another is to somehow fill in the absent voiceless aspirate *tʰ (as in Sanskrit).

    Winter's Law in Balto-Slavic, "Hybrid Theory" and phonation - Part 2 2008

  • Maybe I should add for completeness, that if Grassman's Law surfaced already during this hypothetical common "phonation shift" between Proto-Hellenic and Proto-Indo-Iranian, then forms like Greek títhēmi would have to be explained as resulting from analogical pressures that forced *d to devoice along with *dʰ in the underlying post-Grassman's-Law form, *dídʰehmi.

    Winter's Law in Balto-Slavic, "Hybrid Theory" and phonation - Part 2 2008

  • There's another possible problem with this version of the hypothesis, namely why the loss of creakiness common in IE affects no Semitic language, and most of them rather devoice the sounds again.

    Ejective or Pharyngealized Stops in Proto-Semitic? 2008

  • Some googling turn'd up a paper arguing for aspirate devoicing postdating Grassman's law, on the basis of roots where G.L. doesn't produce alternation and which do not devoice in Greek.

    Rhaetic inscriptions Schum PU 1 and Schum CE 1 2008

  • It can now sense a connected devoice with a dead battery and provide a trickle charge to enable the device to come back to life and establish a connection.

    EE Times-Asia 2008

Comments

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  • An Irish device :-/

    September 5, 2022