Noun
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lenition (countable and uncountable, plural lenitions)
- (phonetics, phonology) A weakening of articulation causing a consonant to become lenis (soft).
- Antonym: fortition
- Coordinate term: assimilation
2001, Robert Stockwell, Donka Minkova, English Words: History and Structure, page 104:One of these processes, the process of T-Lenition, is extremely common, even though it takes place only when the input consonant is adjacent to a small number of affixes. In this change, a stopped consonant, [p t k b d g], becomes a fricative, [s, z, š, ž]. This process is called lenition, or weakening.
2001, Lisa M. Lavoie, Consonant Strength: Phonological Patterns and Phonetic Manifestations, page 7:Environments are an essential part of any discussion of lenition. Textbooks often describe lenition as occurring in the weak intervocalic or word-final environments. The canonical examples of lenition given earlier in (1) through (3) all occur either between vowels or between sonorants.
- 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.
Translations
weakening of consonant articulation
- Asturian: lenición f
- Breton: blotadur m
- Catalan: lenició f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 輔音弱化/辅音弱化 (yǔyīn ruòhuà), 弱音化 (ruòyīnhuà)
- Cornish: treylyans medhel m
- Dutch: lenitie f, verzachting (nl) f
- Finnish: liudentuminen (fi)
- French: lénition (fr) f, adoucissement (fr) m, mutation adoucissante f
- Galician: lenición (gl) f
- Georgian: ლენიცია (lenicia)
- German: Lenierung f, Lenisierung (de) f
- Hebrew: החלשות עיצורים f (hekhalshút itsurím)
- Hungarian: gyengülés (hu), gyöngülés, mássalhangzó-gyengülés, leníció (hu)
- Irish: séimhiú m
- Italian: lenizione (it) f, mutazione dolce f
- Japanese: 子音弱化 (しいんじゃっか, shiin jakka)
- Korean: 연음화(軟音化) (yeoneumhwa)
- Latin: lenitio f
- Manx: boggaghys m
- Norwegian: lenisering, lenisjon
- Polish: lenicja f
- Portuguese: lenização f, lenição (pt) f
- Russian: лени́ция (ru) f (lenícija)
- Sardinian: lenitzione f
- Scottish Gaelic: analachadh m, sèimheachadh m
- Sicilian: linizziuni f
- Spanish: lenición (es) f, lenificación f
- Turkish: yumuşama (tr)
- Vietnamese: lơi hóa
- Welsh: meddaliad m, meddalu (cy) m
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