Slack voice

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Phonation
Glottal states (from open to closed)
voiceless (full airstream)
breathy voice (murmur)
whisper
slack voice
modal voice (maximum vibration)
stiff voice
creaky voice (restricted airstream)
glottalized (blocked airstream)
Supra-glottal phonation
faucalized voice ("hollow")
harsh voice ("pressed")
strident (harsh trilled)
Vocal registers
whistle
falsetto
modal
vocal fry

The term slack voice (or lax voice) describes the pronunciation of consonants with a glottal opening slightly wider than that occurring in modal voice. Such sounds are often referred to informally as lenis or half-voiced. In some Chinese languages, such as Wu, and in many Austronesian languages, the 'intermediate' phonation of slack stops confuses Western listeners, so that different transcription systems may use /p/ or /b/ for the same consonant. Although the IPA has no dedicated diacritic for slack voice, the voiceless diacritic (the under-ring) may be used with a voiced consonant letter.

Javanese contrasts slack and stiff voiced bilabial, dental, retroflex, and velar stops:

Javanese	form	translation
stiff voice	[d̬amu]	guest
slack voice	[d̥amu]	blow

The Shanghainese "muddy" consonants are also slack voice, the primary effect of which is a slightly breathy quality of the following vowel:

Shanghainese	form	translation
slack voice	[d̥ǐ]	earth
tenuis	[tíʔ]	(a grammatical particle)
aspirated	[tʰí]	heaven