Re: Chinese Dialect Question

John Cowan palsalge
>Isidora Zamora scripsit:
>> How is [t_0_h] more fortis than it should be?  As far as I have been able
>> to observe, Danish voiceless stops are supposed to be quite heavily
>> aspiriated.  (It's also quite possible that I don't properly understand
>> the meaning of the term "fortis.")
>I don't think *anybody* really understands it, or at least nobody can
>give a really intelligible explanation of it.   :-)
>Maybe I misunderstood BP's notation.  [t] is already unvoiced, so
>what is [t_0]?
A sort of tense/lax distinction for consonants is the best I can come up
with from jumbled memories of previous discussions. (Everyone jump up to
correct me at once.) [t_0] would be fortis [t]. For me, lenis blends into
voice for stops. I hear a lenis [t] as if it were [d].

~wright