In
linguistics, a
tenuis consonant is an
obstruent that is
unvoiced, unaspirated, unpalatalized, and
unglottalized. That is, it has the "plain"
phonation of with a
voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish
p, t, ch, k or as English
p, t, k after
s (
spy, sty, sky).