Re: Lenition

Christophe Grandsire sikyal:

> Also, I consider energy use too, and there again voiceless sounds are
> certainly harder than voiced sounds. To make a voiced sound, you just
> let your vocal chords at rest, in a soft state. With the air stream they
> will naturally vibrate and create the voiced sound without having to put
> any special energy to it. On the other hand, to produce a voiceless
> sound you have to strengthen your vocal chords in order to prevent them
> from vibrating in the passage of air.
I think this is backwards. In your most natural state the vocal cords are
relaxed and voiceless--this is equivalent to silent breathing. When you
begin to make a speech-gesture, they constrict into the voiced state, and
voiceless sounds are performed by re-relaxing the vocal cords.

Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/

"If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are
perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in
frightful danger of seeing it for the first time."
--G.K. Chesterton

Reply