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Fortis and lenis
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'''Fortis''' (
Latin "strong") and '''lenis''' ("weak") are linguistics terms.
In a wide sense, they refer to the opposition of
consonants such as ''p'', ''t'' vs. ''b'', ''d''. In a narrow sense, '''fortis''' refer to consonants such as ''p'', ''t'' pronounced with
tenseness (more muscular tension) and '''lenis''' to consonants such as ''b'', ''d'' pronounced without.
History and use of the terms
These terms were already used in 19th century German Linguistics, in order to describe languages such as southern German where consonants such as ''b'', ''d'' are voiceless but nonetheless different from ''p'', ''t''. The terms are only seldom used in current linguistics.
Opposition of ''p'', ''t'' versus ''b'', ''d''
Normally, the opposition of consonants such as ''p'', ''t'' vs. ''b'', ''d'' is described in terms of
voiceless consonants vs.
voiced consonants. There are languages where this is indeed the only feature that distinguishes them (e.g.
French language French:
International phonetic alphabet IPA [p, t] vs. [b, d]). In many languages, however, the phonetic voice is only one of several features that constitutes this opposition (e.g.
English language English: IPA {{IPA|[pÊ°, tÊ°]}} vs. [b, d]). There are even languages where the phonetic voice is not a distinctive feature of these pairs at all (e.g. southern
German language German or
Mandarin: IPA {{IPA|[pʰ, tʰ]}} vs. {{IPA|[b̥, d̥]}}).
The terms ''fortis'' and ''lenis'' (in the wide sense) apply to this opposition regardless of whether it's only an opposition of voice or not. Therefore, it allows to speak in the same terms of French, English, or southern German consonants.
Consequently, they refer to a bundle of articulatory features which have different distributions in different languages. Not all of them need to be present in a particular language:
*voice (
voiceless consonant voiceless vs.
voiced consonant voiced)
*
gemination length
*
aspiration (phonetics) aspiration
*
tenseness
Tenseness
It is commonly said that
tenseness is what distinguishes ''fortis'' and ''lenis'' in the narrow sense: In the articulation of the ''fortis'', more muscular energy is supposedly used. However, this has never been demonstrated.
In
Korean language Korean, a higher fundamental frequency of vowels following certain 'tense' consonants is thought to be a result of increased muscular tension in the vocal cords, a phonation called
stiff voice. However, in
Swiss German, no possible acoustical correspondent of the assumed tenseness has been found. Consequently, it is debated whether the
Swiss German opposition is really based on different muscular tension, and not on
gemination.
A few languages have been claimed to distinguish consonants solely by tenseness or laxness: some dialects of
Adyghe language Adyghe distinguish voiceless tense stops from voiceless lax stops, and both are separate phonemes from ''voiced'' lax stops.
Regardless, articulatory strength varies from speaker to speaker and language to language. The
Ewe language, for example, which contrasts a
voiceless bilabial fricative {{IPA|/ɸ/}} and a
voiceless labiodental fricative /f/, pronounces the /f/ markedly more strongly than is the case in most languages. This helps differentiate what would otherwise be an exceedingly subtle distinction. Phonetically, a diacritic from the
Extended IPA can be used to indicate this strong articulation: {{IPA|[ɸ]}} vs. {{IPA|[f͈]}}.
External links
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fortis and lenis
Category:Phonetics
als:Fortis und Lenis
de:Fortis
ko:경�
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