Tenuis consonant
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (June 2018) |
| Tenuis | |
|---|---|
| ◌˭ | |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ˭ |
| Unicode (hex) | U+02ED |
In
In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of [p, t, ts, tʃ, k] with a voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish p, t, ch, k or English p, t, k after s (spy, sty, sky).
For most languages, the distinction is relevant only for
, for example, has ejective, aspirated, and voiced fricatives /sʼ sʰ z/ alongside tenuis /s/, parallel to stops /ɗ tʼ tʰ d/ alongside tenuis /t/.Many
Transcription
In transcription, tenuis consonants are not normally marked explicitly, and consonants written with voiceless
In Unicode, the symbol is encoded at U+02ED ˭ MODIFIER LETTER UNASPIRATED.
An early IPA convention was to write the tenuis stops ⟨pᵇ, tᵈ, kᶢ⟩ etc. if the plain letters ⟨p, t, k⟩ were used for aspirated consonants (as they are in English): [ˈpaɪ] 'pie' vs. [ˈspᵇaɪ] 'spy'.
Etymology
The term tenuis comes from Latin translations of Ancient Greek grammar, which differentiated three series of consonants, voiced β δ γ /b d ɡ/, aspirate φ θ χ /pʰ tʰ kʰ/, and tenuis π τ κ /p˭ t˭ k˭/. Analogous series occur in many other languages. The term was widely used in 19th-century philology but became uncommon in the 20th.
See also
- Grassmann's law
- Spiritus asper
- Spiritus lenis
Sources
- Bussmann, 1996. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
- R.L. Trask, 1996. A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology.
References
- ^ "tenuis". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ The latter to better distinguish from 'tenuous'. Plural: tenues, /ˈtɛn.juːiːz/ or /ˈtɛnuːiːz/.[1]
- ^ Collins & Mees, 1984, The Sounds of English and Dutch, p. 281