Lenition and why that is your mother's fault

Ease of articulation. Don't worry if you never heard of this, all will be revealed. It's a contentious concept in linguistic circles, but for our purposes it's rather helpful.

And feel free just to jump the explanation - it's a bit long - and go straight to the bit where we tell you how lenition works.

Ever noticed how things get slurred in fast speech? Suddenly whole sounds drop out, change into something else ... sometimes that becomes so established that even orthography will reflect that. The word in-pede had become impede long before it even reached Norman French. And be honest - when was the last time you pronounced in BHS as such rather than im BHS? This is where ease of articulation comes in - you are anticipating the next sound you know is to come and your mouth starts getting into position for that sound long before the preceding one has finished. So sounds next to each other become more alike or drop out, if it just gets too tricky for your mouth.

Funnily enough, this also applies to vowels and consonants. Consonants are (in articulatory terms) tricky bastards with a lot of things having to get shifted around (anything from your lips to your pharynx) and held in place, whereas vowels are relatively simple things - just move your tongue a bit this way or that way and you have it.

So when you speed up your speech and have a consonant between vowels, it tries to become more like a vowel. The first thing it loses is the closure that many consonants have (try saying a p - notice how your lips close up for a moment?), becoming a fricative (an [f] in this case - still a consonant but "easier" to say). There may be many intermediate stages, but eventually the consonant either becomes a vowel or disappears altogether. Prove it? Easy. Look at the word for mother in the Indo-European languages and how it developed from ancient Indo-European to our ancestor languages to the modern day ones - watch out for the t:

mātēr (Indoeuropean)
Celtic	Germanic	Romance	Slavonic	Indic	Other
(C. Celtic)	mōder (C. Germanic)	(Italic)	(C. Slavonic)
māthir (Old Irish)	muoter (Old German)	mātēr (Latin)	mati (Old Slavonic)	mātār (Old Indic)	mētēr (Ancient Greek)
					macer (Tocharian)
	mōdor (Old English)	medre (Old French)
	móðir (Old Norse)
màthair (Gaelic)	Mutter (German)	matri (Sicialian)	matir (Ukrainian)	mātā (Bengali)	metéra (Greek)
máthair (Irish)	muter (Yiddish)	madre (Italian)	mat(ka) (Czech)	mātri (Hindi)	mãte (Latvian)
	moder (Danish)	madre (Castilian)	mati (Croatian)	mātu (Pali)	mótė (Lithuanian)
	muada (Bavarian)	mádre (Sardinian)	matj (Russian)	mādar (Farsi)
	mother (English)	matre (Corsican)	mać (Sorbian)
	móðir (Icelandic)		mat (Russian)
mayragh (Manx)	mor (Norwegian)	mare (Catalan)	mazi (Belorussian)	mor (Pashtu)	mayr (Armenian)
	moer (Frisian)	maire (Occitan)
		mère (French)
		mãe (Portuguese)

So what? Well, if you look closely, there is some kind of consonant degradation going on - you start with a very strong consonant [t] which gradually is reduced to [d] then [ð] then [h] and then nothing at all (the words underlaid in red)!! So you see, it's a very common thing - even more so when you look at the Tocharian example. Tocharian is the most eastern Indo-European language, sadly extinct, but spoken in East Turkestan up until about 700 AD - but it had already changed the [t] to a [ʧ]!!!

The mad thing about Celtic languages though is that this does not only happen within a word like màthair but also across word boundaries! In Celtic languages, a consonant between vowels got lenited fullstop. Well, as a rule of thumb. But pardon me, where is the consonant between two vowels in Irish an bhean? (Gaelic used to spell it that way too, it's just a better example) And what about an fear? Same thing, isn't it? Unfortunately, not.

There is something very old going on here - there used to be an extra vowel. But for that we have to go back to Indo-European and Old Irish. The modern definite article an used to look very different then, it was sind-os, the -os being an ending for the nominative case of masculine nouns and sind-a for feminine nouns. You know where we're going now? Let's have the overview:

Indo-European & Old Irish	Translation	What's going on
sind-os fer-os	the man	Two consonants, so nothing happens but the s- is lost at some point in history
ind-os fer-os	the man	Now we lose the endings
ind fer	the man	Look familiar? Lose the -d
in fer	the man	Change the spelling and the sounds a bit
an fear	the man	And now Gaelic assimilates the an to am
am fear	the man	... a 4000 year journey in 6 lines

So what about lenition? "Patience young Skywalker!" ... let's look at a feminine noun

Indo-European & Old Irish	Translation	What's going on
sind-a ben-a	the woman	Oops - consonant-vowel-consonant - we have to lenite! and also lose the s-
ind-a bhen-a	the woman	Aha. Now what? As before, we lose the endings ...
ind bhen	the woman	Look vaguely familiar? Now we lose thed-
in bhen	the woman	change the spelling and the sounds a bit
an bhean	the woman	Irish! Gaelic now loses the -n (and changes the meaning slightly)
a' bhean	the wife	Bingo!

And that is why it's all your mothers fault!!! Hopefully it makes just a bit more sense now.

Enough etymology now - let's have a look at the real stuff.

How to lenite sounds A note to begin with - some people refer to lenition as "aspiration" - try not to do so yourself, as "aspiration" is something entirely different and should not be confused with leniton. In a nutshell, aspiration refers to a puff of air following a consonant, for example in English <pat> where the

is followed by a puff of air. Lenition on the other hand means that a sound is changed into something else, such as pòg (with a [p] sound) becoming mo phòg (with an f sound). 1.1 "Normal" Lenition Not all Gaelic consonats can be lenited, but a lot of them can and some of these lenitions are not as "straightforward" as you might think. That is because there are two different kinds of lenition - "normal" and with the article. Let's look at the normal lenition first (for guidelines on how to produce these sounds, see the pages under Phonetics): Original Sound Lenited IPA Example Example in IPA b (broad) bh v bàta > mo bhàta mə vaːʰtə b (slender) bh v vj beul > mo bheul mə viaɫ̪ c (broad) ch x cù > mo chù mə xuː c (slender) ch ç cìs > mo chìs mə çiːʃ d (broad) dh ɣ doras > mo dhoras mə ɣɔɾəs d (slender) dh ʝ dìth > mo dhìth mə ʝiː f (br. & sl.) fh - fuil > m' fhuil mul g (broad) gh ɣ gob > mo ghob mə ɣop g (slender) gh ʝ gille > mo ghille mə ʝiʎe m (broad) mh v mac > mo mhac mə vaʰk m (slender) mh v vj meas > mo mheas mə vɛs p (broad) ph f pòg > mo phòg mə fɔːg̊ p (slender) ph f fj piuthar > mo phiuthar mə fju.əɾ s (broad) sh h solas > mo sholas mə hɔɫ̻əs s (slender) sh h seanag > mo sheanag mə hɛnak t (broad) th h tobar > mo thobar mə hɔb̊əɾ t (slender) th h teanga > mo theanga mə hɛŋə Consonant Clusters: One helpful thing to watch out for is that since there is only one broad L left, it is always [ɫ̪]. (Those of you who want to know how on of this and the system below make sense, click here but be warned!) Original IPA Lenited IPA Example Example in IPA bl (broad) b̊ɫ̻ bhl vɫ̻ mo bhlàr mə vɫ̻aːɾ bl (slender) b̊l bhl vl bho bhliadhna vɔ vliənə br (broad) b̊ɾ bhr vɾ bho bhràigh vɔ vɾaːj br (slender) b̊ɾʲ bhr vɾʲ bhris vɾʲiʃ cn (broad) kɾ ̃ chn xɾ ̃ a chnoc ə xɾɔ̃ʰk cn (slender) kɾʲ ̃ chn çɾʲ ̃ chniadaich çɾʲĩə̃d̻̊ɪç cr (broad) kɾ chr xɾ ro chruaidh rɔ xɾuaj cr (slender) kɾʲ chr çɾʲ mo chridhe mə çɾʲiː.ɪ dl (broad) d̪̊ɫ̪ dhl ɣɫ̪ ro dhlùth rɔ ɣɫ̪uː dl (slender) d̪̊l dhl ʝl ro dhlitheach rɔ ʝliː.əx dr (broad) d̪̊ɾ dhr ɣɾ mo dhroma mə ɣɾɔmə dr (slender) d̪̊ɾʲ dhr ʝɾʲ bho dhris vɔ ʝɾʲiʃ fl (broad) fɫ̪ fhl ɫ̪ mo fhlathanas mə ɫ̪ahənəs fl (slender) fl fhl l ro fhliuch rɔ lux fr (broad) fɾ fhr ɾ mo fhraoch mə ɾɯːx fr (slender) fɾʲ fhr ɾʲ mo fhreiceadan mə ɾʲeʰkʲəd̻̊an gl (broad) g̊ɫ̪ ghl ɣɫ̪ ro ghlan rɔ ɣɫ̪an gl (slender) g̊l ghl ʝl ro ghlic rɔ ʝliʰkʲ gn (broad) g̊ɾ ̃ ghn ɣɾ ̃ mo ghnùis mə ɣɾũːʃ gn (slender) g̊ɾʲ ̃ ghn ʝɾʲ ̃ mo ghnìomh mə ʝɾʲĩəv gr (broad) g̊ɾ ghr ɣɾ mo ghràdh mə ɣɾaː gr (slender) g̊ɾʲ ghr ʝɾʲ ro ghreannach mə ʝɾʲɛn̴̻əx mn (broad) mɾ ̃ mhn vɾ ̃ mo mhnathan mə vɾã.ən mn (slender) - - - - - pl (broad) pɫ̪ phl fɫ̪ mo phlaosg mə fɫ̪ɯːsg̊ pl (slender) pl phl fl ro phliutach mə fliuʰt̻əx pr (broad) pɾ phr fɾ mo phrais mə fɾaʃ pr (slender) pɾʲ phr fɾʲ mo phreas mə fɾʲes sl (broad) sɫ̪ shl ɫ̪ mo sluagh mə ɫ̪uəɣ sl (slender) ʃl shl l mo shlighe mə li.ɪ sn (broad) sn shn n mo shnaim mə naim sn (slender) ʃn shn n shnìomh niəv sr (broad) sɾ shr ɾ mo shràid mə ɾaːd̊ʲ sr (slender) sɾʲ shr ɾʲ mo shreath mə ɾʲɛ tl (broad) t̻ɫ̪ thl ɫ̪ ro thlachdmhor rɔ ɫ̪axkvəɾ tl (slender) - - - - - tn (broad) t̪ɾ ̃ thn ɾ ̃ mo thnùth mə ɾũ tn (slender) - - - - - tr (broad) t̪ɾ thr ɾ mo thrachdas mə ɾaxkəs tr (slender) t̪ɾʲ thr ɾʲ bho thrì vɔ ɾʲiː Against popular misbelief, L, N and R can be lenited in Gaelic, even though the orthography does not reflect that. For the lenition of these sounds, check the section on Liquids.