Editing Fortis and lenis (section)

{{Short description|Phonemically contrasting consonant sounds}}
{{Redirect|Lenis|the Romanian village|Leniș}}
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In [[linguistics]], '''''fortis''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɔːr|t|ᵻ|s|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fortis.wav}} {{respell|FOR|tiss}}; [[Latin]] for 'strong') and '''''lenis''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|iː|n|ᵻ|s|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-lenis.wav}}, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɛ|n|ᵻ|s}} {{respell|LEE|niss|,_|LEN|iss}};<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/lenis |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223030447/https://www.lexico.com/definition/lenis |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 23, 2021 |title=lenis |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> Latin for 'weak'), sometimes identified with [[tenseness|'tense' and 'lax']], are pronunciations of [[consonant]]s with relatively greater and lesser energy, respectively. [[English language|English]] has fortis consonants, such as the ''p'' in ''pat'', with a corresponding lenis consonant, such as the ''b'' in ''bat''. Fortis and lenis consonants may be distinguished by tenseness or other characteristics, such as [[voice (phonetics)|voicing]], [[aspirated consonant|aspiration]], [[glottalization]], [[velarization]], [[consonant length|length]], and length of nearby vowels. ''Fortis'' and ''lenis'' were coined for languages where the contrast between sounds such as 'p' and 'b' does not involve [[voice (phonetics)|voicing]] (vibration of the [[vocal folds|vocal cord]]s).<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Ladefoged|Maddieson|1996|p=95}}, pointing to {{Harvcoltxt|Halle|Hughes|Radley|1957}} as an example</ref>