Table of Contents
What is lenition in English?
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word lenition itself means “softening” or “weakening” (from Latin lēnis ‘weak’).
What is the purpose of lenition?
Its function is to make speaking easier and also to make sentences more precise. Séimhiú, lenition, is indicated in modern-day Irish with a letter h after the first consonant of a word.
Why does lenition occur?
The cause of lenition was generally in Early Irish the position of the consonant between two vowels, as well as within the word as over the word “limits.” If the word ended in a vowel and the next began in a consonant + vowel (which was mostly the case), this consonant was now between 2 vowels and was lenited.
How do you know when to put ah in Irish?
The letters that are placed at the start of words are known as either a séimhiú or an urú .
What is flapping in linguistics?
Flap refers to a way of pronouncing a consonant that involves the tongue lightly touching, the roof of the mouth. The best way to remember this would be to think that the tongue “flaps” up when pronouncing a flap.
What is a Postvocalic position?
In phonetics and phonology, a postvocalic consonant is a consonant that occurs after a vowel. Examples include the n in stand or the n in sun.
What is excrescence in linguistics?
Excrescence (phonology), the addition of a consonant to a word.
What is the difference between lenition and intervocalic?
The linguistic processes of lenition (“weakening”) and fortition (“strengthening”) refer to a sound becoming, respectively, either more or less vowel-like. Intervocalic means “between two vowels.”. An unvoiced consonant like f in between two vowels (which are almost always voiced) is more noticeable…
What is intervocalic fortition?
The latest XKCD comic is titled Intervocalic Fortition. The latest Explain XKCD says: The linguistic processes of lenition (“weakening”) and fortition (“strengthening”) refer to a sound becoming, respectively, either more or less vowel-like.
What is the meaning of L-vocalization?
L -vocalization is a subtype of the sonorization type of lenition. It has two possible results: a velar approximant or back vowel, or a palatal approximant or front vowel. In French, l -vocalization of the sequence /al/ resulted in the diphthong /au/, which was monophthongized, yielding the monophthong /o/ in Modern French.
What is voicing lenition?
Voicing lenition is represented by a simple letter switch in the Brythonic languages, for instance carreg, “stone” → y garreg, “the stone” in Welsh.