The lenition (or softening ^{Diversity of the phenomenon of lenition: some illustrations}

The lenition occurs in varying ways, depending on the hierarchy (from the highest level to lowest): consonant unvoiced> voiced, consonant geminate (double)> simple occlusive> affricate> Constrictive> sonorant> semi-vowel.

It comes in various positions:

(A) between vowels (intervocalic position)

This is the most frequent case, illustrated by the examples given above (other examples, cf. Article consonant mutation ).

(B) in absolute initial front vowel

Softening occlusive tense in some dialects Bavarian : Pech> Bech 'bad luck', Tag> Dag "day," Knecht> Gnecht "servant."

The Corsican presents an intermediate case between (a) and (b) and opposes the lenition of initial consonants after vowels sluggish, the opposite phenomenon (hardening) after tonic vowels:

• Stadium ultimate lenition: drop the consonant

  Diachronic, the lenition is often a step leading to the outright disappearance of the consonant. This explains the final-ed,-ed French past participles:

  • Latin portata> Old French door (D) e (d present in many modern Romance languages)> Modern French range.

  See also the realization of the common Russian word above: References

  1. George Mounin, Dictionary of Linguistics, Paris, PUF (coll. Quadriga), 1993, [repr.]), sv
  2. J.-Ph. Dalberra & M-J-Dalberra Stefanaggi, " Great corpus dialectal phonology or indiscreet , "online magazine Corpus.
  3. P. Fouche, Morphology of modern French history, Paris, Klincksieck (coll. "Tradition of Humanism", IV), 1981 (2nd ed.), Chap. IV.

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