Re: Mutations in General

Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>>>+ Korean "tensified" stops.  If another language exists that makes use
>>>of
>>>them I haven't been able to find it...though if someone knows of one,
>>
>>Can you explain me how you pronounce the Korean "tensified" stops? (I
>>mean, how
>>you articulate them, and how they differ from normal or aspirated stops) I
>
>Yeah, they're neither normal nor aspirated; Korean has bunches of minimal
>triplets illustrating it, e.g. (from the book again):
>tal [tal] "moon", thal [t_hal] "mask", ttal [t'al] "daughter"
>pul [pi"l] "fire", phul [p_hi"l] "grass", ppul [p'i"l] "horn"
>In other words, the things are pervasive.
>
>Here's the explanation from the book (if I were there in person, I'd just
>pronounce a bunch of examples for you):
>
>"The Korean consonant system has an unusual distinction.  The lax
>consonants (p, t, s, c, k) and the reinforced consonants (pp, tt, ss, cc,
>kk) contrast by an articulatory feature not found in most other languages.
>   The lax consonants are pronounced weakly, with minimal muscular
>activity.
>   The reinforced consonants are pronounced with great muscular tension,
>both at the point of articulation and throughout the vocal tract, and the
>tensity continues into the vowel, giving it a throaty, or laryngeal,
>quality.  This difference in the tensity of articulation is what
>distinguishes the two series of consonants.  Both contrast with the third
>series, the aspirated consonants [ph, th, ch, kh], which are charactized
>by long aspiration, often heard as velar friction.
This "reinforced" vs "lax" contrast sounds alot like a fortis vs lenis
distinction, does it not?

Fortis vs lenis is apparently the significant distinction between /f/ and
/v/ for me. It's certainly not voicing, at any rate, since /v/ has little or
no voicing in most positions.

                                                   Andreas

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