Lenition

Lenition is a phonological process in which speech sounds become weaker or more vowel-like over time, typically due to regular sound change. This weakening can manifest in various ways, including voicing (making a voiceless sound voiced), spirantization (changing a stop to a fricative), weakening or loss of a consonant, or changes in vowel quality. The resulting sounds often require less articulatory effort, reflecting a tendency towards ease of production in spoken language. lenition is a common phenomenon across many language families and can significantly alter the phonetic and phonemic structure of a language over centuries. The process reflects language change and occurs naturally.

Lenition meaning with examples

• In Spanish, the intervocalic stops /p/, /t/, and /k/ often undergo lenition. Consider the word 'lápida' (tombstone). Originally pronounced with a hard /p/, it frequently undergoes lenition to become a /b/ sound, as in 'lábida.' This process demonstrates a weakening of the stop consonant and a shift towards a more voiced and sonorant sound, illustrating a typical instance of lenition. This example displays intervocalic lenition in Spanish.
• The English word 'father' demonstrates a historical example of lenition. The 'th' sound in 'father' represents a voiced fricative, which is a product of lenition of the original Proto-Germanic *þ (pronounced like a voiceless 'th' as in 'thin'). This transition from a voiceless fricative to a voiced one illustrates weakening over time and is a core example of lenition, showing the evolution of language sounds, specifically over the voiceless consonants.
• Consider the Italian word 'amico' (friend). In many dialects, the 'k' sound in 'amico' is lenited, often undergoing spirantization to become a 'ɣ' (similar to the 'gh' in Scottish 'loch'). This process displays lenition, reducing the articulatory effort required to produce the sound. The change from a hard stop to a fricative highlights weakening as a key feature, showing a clear instance of the language change.
• In many languages, the loss of a consonant is another form of lenition. For example, the final '-t' in many French words (e.g., 'petit') is often not pronounced in informal speech, representing lenition through consonant deletion. This instance reduces articulation. The dropping of the /t/ results in a more open vowel sound, a common occurrence and is easily noticeable. This is also a well-known and often observed type of lenition.