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Fortis-lenis vs voiced-voiceless plosives in Welsh

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Asmus S., Jaworski S., Baran M.

Linguistics Beyond and Within

2020

vol. 6

5-16

This paper questions the voiceless-voiced distinction of Welsh consonants and claims that the fortis-lenis distinction is more appropriate for the description of the language. In light of research results of theoretical as well as experimental investigations into Welsh, e.g. the vowel-coda length dependence discovered by Asmus and Grawunder (2017), advocated further research into that matter, seeing also that the fortis-lenis distinction establishes a firm link to focal properties of Welsh, such as morpheme-initial consonant mutations (mICM). It was, therefore, decided to look at potential phonetic features that would contribute to the postulated distinction. These features are aspiration, voicing, hold phase duration and the centre of gravity (abbreviated to CoG) in the articulation of Welsh plosives. Preliminary results of the study discussed in this paper were summarised in “Fortis-lenis or Voiced-voiceless – features of Welsh consonants” (Asmus et al. 2019). However, expanding our research has yielded more comprehensive findings. As a result, it appears that the two series of plosives under review are different in terms of all features studied, but it is aspiration that is of major importance (thus confirming classifications of Welsh as an aspiration language).

Fortis-lenis distinction of fricatives and plosives in Welsh – Phonetically distinctive factors

88%

Baran M.

Linguistics Beyond and Within

2020

vol. 6

47-59

This paper continues a research project aimed at proving that the fortis-lenis distinction is more appropriate for studying the Welsh language than the voiced-voiceless divide. Previous analyses of articulatory timing revealed potentially distinctive features characteristic for Welsh plosives and fricatives. Even though the phonological features such as [spread glottis] or [voice] may be used both for distinguishing between the series of plosives and fricatives, the phonetic features responsible for the distinction are likely to differ due to the different phonetic nature of the manner of articulation and the position of fricatives and plosives (Honeybone 2005: 333–334). The aim of this paper is, therefore, to draw general conclusions from analysing the two sets of factors and find some universal features or characteristics of fortis and lenis obstruents in Welsh. Based on the previous studies, the importance of aspiration and voicing length are analysed in Welsh plosives. For fricatives, friction and voicing length are studied as potentially contrastive. The main hypotheses are that (i) phonetic voicing is not decisive in distinguishing between the two series of sounds in all places of articulation and (ii) other aspects of articulatory timing such as friction, aspiration length and hold phase duration appear to be more important in the fortis-lenis distinction and form a general pattern where the fortis sounds are generally longer than their lenis counterparts.

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2 Linguistics Beyond and Within

2 Baran M.

1 Asmus S.

1 Jaworski S.

2 2020

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Fortis-lenis vs voiced-voiceless plosives in Welsh

Fortis-lenis distinction of fricatives and plosives in Welsh – Phonetically distinctive factors