lenition en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ləˈnɪʃən/ (General-American)
- (Southern-England) audio
- /liˈnɪʃən/ (General-American)
- /ləˈnɪʃən/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /lɪˈnɪʃən/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /liːˈnɪʃən/ (Received-Pronunciation)
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.
Meanings
-
(countable, uncountable) A weakening of articulation causing a consonant to become lenis (soft).
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.
2001, Lisa M. Lavoie, Consonant Strength: Phonological Patterns and Phonetic Manifestations, page 7:2011, 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.
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, Robert Stockwell, Donka Minkova, English Words: History and Structure, page 104:Lenition is a phonological change from one sound into another. Prefixes or adpositions that cause lenition are marked with a +.
2026 February 4, Stefan G. Müller, “An Annotated Na’vi Dictionary”, in ’Ivong Na’vi, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2026, page 2:2008, 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.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| lenitions | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Antonyms
Coordinates
Deriveds
Translations (44)
it mutazione dolce (weakening of consonant articulation) · ca lenició (weakening of consonant articulation) · ka ლენიცია (weakening of consonant articulation) · no lenisjon (weakening of consonant articulation) · de Lenisierung (weakening of consonant articulation) · nl lenitie (weakening of consonant articulation) · hu gyengülés (weakening of consonant articulation) · gd analachadh (weakening of consonant articulation) · pt lenização (weakening of consonant articulation) · kw treylyans medhel (weakening of consonant articulation) · ga séimhiú (weakening of consonant articulation) · ko 연음화 (weakening of consonant articulation) · pl lenicja (weakening of consonant articulation) · fr mutation adoucissante (weakening of consonant articulation) · he החלשות עיצורים (weakening of consonant articulation) · scn linizziuni (weakening of consonant articulation) · ast lenición (weakening of consonant articulation) · ru лени́ция (weakening of consonant articulation) · sc lenitzione (weakening of consonant articulation) · de Lenierung (weakening of consonant articulation) · gd sèimheachadh (weakening of consonant articulation) · fi pehmeneminen (weakening of consonant articulation) · la lenitio (weakening of consonant articulation) · cy meddaliad (weakening of consonant articulation) · gl lenición (weakening of consonant articulation) · ja 子音弱化 (weakening of consonant articulation) · tr yumuşama (weakening of consonant articulation) · fr lénition (weakening of consonant articulation) · vi lơi hóa (weakening of consonant articulation) · nl verzachting (weakening of consonant articulation) · hu gyöngülés (weakening of consonant articulation) · no lenisering (weakening of consonant articulation) · it lenizione (weakening of consonant articulation) · cy meddalu (weakening of consonant articulation) · br blotadur (weakening of consonant articulation) · cmn 弱音化 (weakening of consonant articulation) · cmn 輔音弱化 /辅音弱化 (weakening of consonant articulation) · hu mássalhangzó-gyengülés (weakening of consonant articulation) · hu leníció (weakening of consonant articulation) · es lenición (weakening of consonant articulation) · gv boggaghys (weakening of consonant articulation) · pt lenição (weakening of consonant articulation) · fr adoucissement (weakening of consonant articulation) · es lenificación (weakening of consonant articulation)