Editing Lenition (section)

{{short description|Consonant sound change}}
{{Sound change}}
{{IPA notice}}

In [[linguistics]], '''lenition''' is a [[sound change]] that alters [[consonant]]s, making them "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|lēnis}} 'weak'). Lenition can happen both [[synchronic analysis|synchronically]] (within a language at a particular point in time) and [[historical linguistics|diachronically]] (as a [[evolutionary linguistics|language changes over time]]). Lenition can involve such changes as [[Voice (phonetics)|voicing]] a voiceless consonant, causing a consonant to relax [[Occlusive|occlusion]], to lose its [[place of articulation]] (a phenomenon called ''[[debuccalization]]'', which turns a consonant into a [[glottal consonant]] like {{IPAblink|h}} or {{IPAblink|ʔ}}), or even causing a consonant to disappear entirely.

An example of synchronic lenition is found in most varieties of [[American English]], in the form of [[flapping|tapping]]: the {{IPAslink|t}} of a word like ''wait'' {{IPA|[weɪt]}} is pronounced as the more sonorous {{IPAblink|ɾ}} in the related form ''waiting'' {{IPA|[ˈweɪɾɪŋ]}}. Some varieties of [[Spanish language|Spanish]] show [[debuccalization]] of {{IPAslink|s}} to {{IPAblink|h}} at the end of a [[syllable]], so that a word like {{lang|es|estamos}} "we are" is pronounced {{IPA|[ehˈtamoh]}}. An example of diachronic lenition can be found in the [[Romance languages]], where the {{IPAslink|t}} of Latin {{lang|la|patrem}} ("father", [[accusative]]) has become {{IPAslink|d}} in [[Italian language|Italian]] (an irregular change; compare {{lang|la|saeta}} "silk" > {{lang|it|seta}}) and Spanish {{lang|mul|padre}} (the latter weakened synchronically {{IPAslink|d}} → {{IPAblink|ð̞}}), while in Catalan {{lang|ca|pare}}, French {{lang|fr|père}} and Portuguese {{lang|pt|pai}} historical {{IPAslink|t}} has disappeared completely.

In some languages, lenition has been grammaticalized into a [[consonant mutation]], which means it is no longer triggered by its [[phonological]] environment but is now governed by its [[syntactic]] or [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] environment. For example, in [[Welsh language|Welsh]], the word {{lang|cy|cath}} "cat" begins with the sound {{IPAslink|k}}, but after the [[definite article]] {{lang|cy|y}}, the {{IPAslink|k}} changes to {{IPAblink|ɡ}}: "the cat" in Welsh is {{lang|cy|y gath}}. This was historically due to intervocalic lenition, but in the plural, lenition does not happen, so "the cats" is {{lang|cy|y cathod}}, not *{{lang|cy|y gathod}}. The change of {{IPAslink|k}} to {{IPAblink|ɡ}} in {{lang|cy|y gath}} is thus caused by the syntax of the phrase, not by the modern phonological position of the consonant {{IPAslink|k}}.

The opposite of lenition, [[fortition]], a sound change that makes a consonant "stronger", is less common, but Breton and Cornish have "hard mutation" forms which represent fortition.