Re: /p/ versus devoiced b?

At 1/27/01 08:44 PM -0500, you wrote:
>Why is it that /p/ and devoiced /b/ sound slightly different? I recall
>reading somewhere that it has something to do with fortis and lenis
>voiceless (or I could be mistaken?)
This is what I recall from previous phonetics lectures.

Voiceless and voiced consonants differ in more than just vocal chord
vibration (voicing). One major difference is "voice onset time" (VOT).
Voiceless consonants have a longer period of voicelessness before the
voicing of the vowel begins than do the voiced consonants: this is the
aspiration. Even if a language is not described as having aspiration, some
aspiration does in fact occur: the difference is not between presence or
lack, but of degree: aspirated segments have more than non-aspiration, ie,
it is not a +/- distinction phonetically. When a voiced consonant is
devoiced (ie, the vocal chords don't vibrate), the VOT is still shorter
than a typically voiceless consonant.




Marcus Smith

"Sit down before fact as a little child,
be prepared to give up every preconceived notion,
follow humbly wherever and to whatsoever abysses Nature leads,
or you shall learn nothing."
                -- Thomas Huxley