Tenuis consonant
In this article, we will approach Tenuis consonant from different angles, with the aim of providing a broad and detailed view on this topic. Tenuis consonant is a topic of great relevance today, since it impacts various aspects of society, the economy, politics, culture and people's daily lives. Through rigorous and in-depth analysis, we will explore the different facets of Tenuis consonant, examining its implications, challenges and opportunities. Through this article, we aim to offer the reader a comprehensive and enriching perspective that allows them to better understand the importance and scope of Tenuis consonant in the contemporary world.
 | 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 linguistics, a tenuis consonant (/ˈtɛn.juːɪs/ or /ˈtɛnuːɪs/) is an obstruent that is voiceless, unaspirated and unglottalized.
In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of 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 stops and affricates. However, a few languages have analogous series for fricatives. Mazahua, 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 click languages have tenuis click consonants alongside voiced, aspirated, and glottalized series.
Transcription
In transcription, tenuis consonants are not normally marked explicitly, and consonants written with voiceless IPA letters, such as ⟨p, t, ts, tʃ, k⟩, are typically assumed to be unaspirated and unglottalized unless otherwise indicated. However, aspiration is often left untranscribed if no contrast needs to be made, like in English, so there is an explicit diacritic for a lack of aspiration in the extensions to the IPA, a superscript equal sign: ⟨p˭, t˭, ts˭, tʃ˭, k˭⟩. It is sometimes seen in phonetic descriptions of languages. There are also languages, such as the Northern Ryukyuan languages, whose phonologically-unmarked sound is aspirated, and the tenuis consonants are marked and transcribed explicitly.
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): 'pie' vs. '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
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/.
- ^ Collins & Mees, 1984, The Sounds of English and Dutch, p. 281