1. the weakening or softening of a consonant sound in pronunciation, often occurring in certain phonetic environments
Usage: linguistics; phonetics

Examples

• Lenition is a common process in Celtic languages where consonants become softer in certain positions.
• The linguist studied lenition patterns in Irish Gaelic pronunciation.
• Spanish exhibits lenition when the ‘d’ sound weakens between vowels.
• Lenition can cause a ‘p’ sound to become more like a ‘b’ sound.
• The researcher documented lenition processes across different language families.
• In some dialects, lenition affects consonants at the beginning of words.
• Historical lenition explains why certain words changed their pronunciation over time.