lenition

== English == === Etymology === Analyzable as lenis +‎ -ition, or as if from Latin lēnīt(us) + -ion, or Latin lēnītiō (“softening”) from lēniō (“soften”) +‎ -tiō (action noun suffix) (attested since at least the 1500s, the same timeframe lenition is first attested in English with the sense "assuaging"). Modelled on German Lenierung. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /lɪˈnɪʃən/, /ləˈnɪʃən/, /liːˈnɪʃən/ (General American) IPA(key): /ləˈnɪʃən/, /liˈnɪʃən/ === Noun === lenition (countable and uncountable, plural lenitions) (phonetics, phonology) A weakening of articulation causing a consonant to become lenis (soft). Antonym: fortition Coordinate term: assimilation 2008, Krzysztof Jaskula, Celtic, Joaquim Brandão de Carvalho, Tobias Scheer, Philippe Ségéral (editors), Lenition and Fortition, Studies in Generative Grammar: 99, page 347, As for Goidelic languages, the situation is clearer because Lenition III in this subfamily consisted in losing the same property as the first two lenitions, namely stopness. 2011, Naomi Gurevich, 66: Lenition, Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth V. Hume, Keren Rice (editors), The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Volume III: Phonological Processes, page 1573, Five general patterns of lenitions – all based to some extent on empirical data – are identified. ==== Derived terms ==== delenition lenite ==== Translations ==== === References ===