Voice-onset time

Definition
Voice-onset time (VOT) is the difference in time between the release of an obstruent and the onset of voicing. When voicing starts before the release of the consonant, the value of VOT is negative. The VOT is language-specific: e.g. for Spanish /b/ voicing starts earlier (the VOT has a greater negative value) than for English /b/.

Links

 * Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics