lenition

See also: lénition

English

Etymology

Analyzable as lenis +‎ -ition,[1] or as if from Latin lēnīt(us) + -ion,[2] 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"[2]). Modelled on German Lenierung.[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lɪˈnɪʃən/, /liːˈnɪʃən/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ləˈnɪʃən/, /liˈnɪʃən/

Noun

Examples
Latin patrem > Italian padre Latin lupa > Spanish loba

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.

Derived terms

lenite

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 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, gyöngülés, mássalhangzó-gyengülés, leníció
Irish: séimhiú m
Italian: lenizione f, mutazione dolce f
Japanese: 子音弱化 (しいんじゃっか, shiin jakka)
Korean: 연음화(軟音化) (yeoneumhwa)
Norwegian: lenisering, lenisjon
Latin: lenitio f
Manx: boggaghys m
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
Turkish: yumuşama (tr)
Welsh: meddaliad m, meddalu (cy) m

References

“lenition”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
“lenition”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.