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Which consonants are fortis and which are lenis?

Question #99300. Asked by synlar.
Last updated Aug 29 2016.

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pu2-ke-qi-ri
Answer has 6 votes
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pu2-ke-qi-ri
20 year member
51 replies avatar

Answer has 6 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
"Fortis" and "lenis" are not terms which are currently not accepted in standard modern phonetics and phonology (e.g., they do not appear in the index or glossary of "A Course in Phonetics" by Peter Ladefoged, the standard reference handbook of phonetics). Googling "fortis lenis consonants" brings up:

(1) a Wikipedia entry which says the terms "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." The part "tenseness (more muscular tension)" is complete nonsense-- the difference between p and b, and t and d, is the presence or absence of vocal fold vibration. The article becomes more inaccurate from here, but I won't go into detail.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortis_and_lenis


(2) A page from a book about English phonology which cites the same examples and is basically using them to refer to a voiced/unvoiced distinction. (link http://books.google.com/books?id=gGCZgBo4qSAC&pg=PA77&lpg=PA77&dq=fortis+lenis+consonant&source=web&ots=FjNVtwUdQK&sig=u2wXNDX4g24MEU3_TuAsRyhuUjg&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result)

(3) A course website which uses the above, plus an example of Icelandic where the terms "fortis" and "lenis" are used to described a voiced/aspirated contrast in Icelandic.

link https://notendur.hi.is/peturk/KENNSLA/02/TOP/fortlen.html

(4) Some articles about Zapotec which invoke "fortis" and "lenis" to describe two sets of consonants at the same point of articulation which only differ by a small set of features.

link http://www.liquisearch.com/list_of_zapotec_languages/phonetics_and_phonology/fortis__lenis


In short, which features make a consonant "fortis" or "lenis" depends on how those terms are understood to be defined for the given language in question. Hard to proceed further if you don't say which language you're interested in.

Response last updated by postcards2go on Aug 29 2016.
Sep 09 2008, 3:09 PM
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