Re: Lenition

Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> Then you must have extremely strange vocal chords which are stiff at rest
> state. You just *cannot* have relaxed vocal chords which don't vibrate as soon
> as you breathe!
Hunh?  Most people breath pretty silently, and if there is sound, it
comes from a constriction in their nose, not vibrations in their
throat.  Have you ever had laryngitis?  It's a lot easier to make
voiceless sounds when you do than voiced sounds.  Even when breathing
very fast, there's no vibration unless I make it vibrate.  Air can move
out faster when the vocal cords are not vibrating than when they are,
which is why one can sustain a /z/ longer than a /s/.  You're the one
with odd vocal cords if they vibrate in their natural state.

At any rate, the original thing about what sounds are "softer" seems to
be a ridiculous argument to me.  It's a matter of individual perception,
isn't it?  It's like arguing about whether X is more delicious than Y.
To me, /T/ is *much* softer than /D/, and other voiceless sounds are
softer than their voiced counterparts as well, but not by as much.
Perhaps because "soft" in English can also mean "quiet", and voiceless
sounds are definitely quieter than their voiced equivalents.

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