> But then you get Hindi with a four-way distinction, both voiced/unvoiced and aspirated/unaspirated in all possible combinations. They're spelled that way; I

> But then you get Hindi with a four-way distinction, both voiced/unvoiced and aspirated/unaspirated in all possible combinations. They're spelled that way; I don't think they're supposed to be pronounced that way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant#Voiced_consonants_with_voiceless_aspiration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant#Voiced_con... >> True aspirated voiced consonants, as opposed to murmured (breathy-voice) consonants such as the [bʱ], [dʱ], [ɡʱ] that are common among the languages of India, are extremely rare. > Languages usually have either the voiced/unvoiced distinction as phonemic, or the aspirated/unaspirated distinction. My understanding is that all of these options are fairly common: - two-way contrast between aspirated and unaspirated - two-way contrast between voiced and voiceless - three-way contrast between voiceless aspirated, voiceless, and voiced - three-way contrast for labial and alveolar stops; two-way contrast for velar stops