Tenuis consonant
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| Voice onset time |
|---|
| + Aspirated |
| 0 Tenuis |
| − Voiced |
A tenuis consonant is a stop or affricate which is unvoiced, unaspirated, and unglottalized. That is, it has a "plain" phonation like [p, t, ts, tʃ, k], with a voice onset time close to zero, as in Spanish p, t, ch, k, or English p, t, k after s, as in spy, sty, sky.
Tenuis consonant are not normally marked explicitly, with voiceless IPA letters such as [p, t, ts, tʃ, k] assumed to be unaspirated unless indicated otherwise. However, there is an explicit diacritic for a lack of aspiration in the Extensions to the IPA, the superscript equal sign: [p⁼, t⁼, ts⁼, tʃ⁼, k⁼].
The term tenuis comes from Latin translations of Ancient Greek grammar, which differentiated three series of consonants, voiced β δ γ /b d ɡ/, aspirate φ θ χ /pʰ tʰ kʰ/, and tenuis π τ κ /p⁼ t⁼ k⁼/; these series have close parallels in other Indo-European languages.
In Ancient Greek, when an aspirate consonant came before a tenuis or aspirate consonant, it lost its aspiration and became tenuis, for example φ /pʰ/ + τ /t/ → πτ /pt/; φ /pʰ/ + φ /pʰ/ → πφ /ppʰ/.
[edit] See also
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