Vocalization

Vocalization, or vocalisation (see spelling differences), may refer to:

• Speech production
• Vocal music
• A type of animal communication involving their vocal cords
• L-vocalization, a process by which an /l/ sound (a lateral consonant) is replaced by a vowel or semivowel sound
• Use of diacritics to denote vowels:

• Harakat, in the Arabic alphabet
• Niqqud, in the Hebrew alphabet

Vocalization (also called vowelisation or diacritisation) serves an important role in Arabic and Hebrew to show the correct pronunciation, as normally the Arabic and the Hebrew alphabets don't supply enough information for readers. Similarly, Chinese and Japanese languages use pinyin or zhuyin (Chinese) and furigana (small hiragana symbols) (Japanese) for the same purpose - a phonetic guide.

• Tiberian vocalization, an oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew