An acoustic correlate of the force of articulation

Abstract: Although the force of articulation is a familiar concept in phonetics, the phenomenon is not easily described. As a result, it was questioned as such a few years ago. It is generally accepted that the duration of the preconsonantal vowel determines the distinction between fortis and lenis. For obvious reasons, this is quite irrelevant for initial consonants. A significant number of measurements concerning stops and fricatives in nonsense words as recorded by W. A. Smalley, for example, and samples from Korean, French and Dutch have demonstrated that the rise time of the postconsonantal vowel and the decay time of the preconsonantal vowel are inversely proportionate to the force of articulation. It follows that this relation can be considered an acoustic correlate of the force of articulation. Since it determines both prevocalic and postvocalic consonants, this correlate may be regarded as more economical than the one that was previously established.