aspirated consonant; aspirate
Linguistics term for a consonant pronounced with a strong burst of breath, such as the English 'p' in 'pin'. In Japanese phonology, voiceless stops like /p, t, k/ are lightly aspirated in certain positions.
English has aspirated consonants pronounced with a strong puff of air.
In Chinese, aspirated and unaspirated consonants distinguish meaning.
A Japanese linguistic term formed from 有気, “having an audible breath,” and 音, “sound,” corresponding to an aspirated sound.