Fortis (definition)

Fortis is a term commonly used in the Celtic linguistics literature to refer to sounds in a phoneme inventory that are tense. In Gaelic, the fortis/lenis (tense/lax) distinction is part of a four way contrast in sonorants /l, n, r/. Tense consonants are indicated by capital letters (/L/), and 'slender' consonants are indicated by a following apostrophe (/l'/). See Sounds of Scottish Gaelic for a closer look at this distinction.

See Also

• Tense in Phonetics (definition)
• Lax (definition)
• Sounds of Scottish Gaelic

External Links

• http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Fortis-and-lenis

The link below takes you away from the Gaelic Wiki to Wikipedia. Since wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, they often contain inaccurate information. So be careful!

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortis_and_lenis

References

• Crystal, David (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics Sixth Edition. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
• Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. The language library. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1997.