Evidence reviewed in this article indicates that the lenis-fortis feature of consonants is primarily a synesthetic interpretation of magnitudes of intrabuccal air pressure and is conveyed variously in different contexts by the durations of the consonant closure and of the preceding vowel. Variations in magnitude as a function of idiolect, syllabic rate, phonetic context, etc., are also described, and new data from normal speech are presented.
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André Malécot (1970) studied this question.