Email this article 
Hide
Show all
The Concept of Lenition as the Phonemic Linguistic Phenomena
Abstract
The term 'lenition’ has numerous definitions offered in the Phonology of English language, some of which will be discussed in this study. Moreover, “Spirantization”, “approximantization”, “debuccalization” and “voicing” are changes that are counted as lenition. There are also different types of lenition, and different views regarding what lenitions have in common. Some phonologists perceive lenition as the loss of segmental material, while it is perceived by others as an increase in sonority (Honeybone 2012). With regards to lenition in the English Language, English does not have such widespread lenitions. There are other phenomena that can be regarded as lenition in the English Language, and this will be casted light on it further in the current paper.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Anderson, J. and Ewen, C. (1987).Principles of Dependency Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ashby, M. and Maidment, J. (2005).Introducing Phonetic Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, L. (1998).Historical Linguistics: an Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Carr, Philip, and Honeybone, P. (2007). ‘English phonology and linguistic theory: an introduction to issues, and to Issues in English Phonology’, Language Sciences 29, p.117-153.
Carr, Ph. (1993). Phonology. London: Macmillan.
Dobson, E.J. (1968). English Pronunciation 1500-1700. First/second edition. Two volumes. Oxford: Clarendon.
Ewen, C. and Harry, H. (2001). The Phonological Structure of Words: an Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Foley, J.(1977).Foundations of Theoretical Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gussmann, E. (2002). Phonology: Analysis and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harris, J. (1990). Segmental complexity and phonological government. Phonology 7. p. 255-300.
Harris, J. (1994). English Sound Structure. Oxford: Blackwell
Hickey, R. (2009). ‘Weak Segments in Irish English’, in Minkova (2009), p.116-29.
Hock, H. (1991). Principles of Historical Linguistics. Second edition. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hock, H. H. and Joseph, B. (1996). Language History, Language Change and Language Relationship. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Honeybone, P. (2001). Lenition Inhibition in Liverpool English. English Language and Linguistics,5, p.213-249.
Honeybone, P. (2008). Lenition, weakening and consonantal strength: Tracing concepts through the history of phonology. In Lenition and Fortition. Carvalho, J., Scheer, T. and Segeral, Ph. (eds). Studies in generative grammar 99. Mouton de Gruter: Berlin.
Honeybone, P. (2012). Lenition in English. In The Oxford Handbook of The History of English. Nevalainen, T. and Traugott, E. (eds.). UK: Oxford University Press. Chapter 60. p.773-787.
Honeybone, P. (2001). ‘Lenition Inhibition in Liverpool English’, English Language and Linguistics 5, p. 213-249.
Honeybone, P.(2002).Germanic Obstruent Lenition: some mutual implications of theoretical and historical phonology. Ph.D dissertation, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Honeybone, P. (2005a). Diachronic evidence in segmental phonology: the case of obstruent laryngeal specifications, in Marc. van Oostendorp and Jeroen van de Weijer (eds.), The Internal Organization of Phonological Segments. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, p. 319-354
Honeybone, P. (2005b). Sharing makes us stronger: process inhibition and segmental structure, in Philip Carr, Jacques Durand and Colin Ewen (eds.) Headhood, Elements, Specification and Contrastivity: Phonological Papers in Honour of John Anderson. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, p.167-192.
Hyman, L. (1975). Phonology: Theory and Analysis. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Carvalho, J.,Scheer, T. and Segeral, Ph. (eds.) (2008). Lenition and Fortition. Studies in generative grammar 99. Mouton de Gruter: Berlin.
Kallen, J. (2005). Internal and external factors in phonological convergence: the case of English /t/ lenition, in P. Auer, F. Hinskens, and P. Kerswill (eds.), Dialect Change: the Convergence and Divergence of Dialects in Contemporary Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kenstowicz, M. (1994). Phonology in Generative Grammar. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell
Kirchner, R.(1998).An Effort-Based Approach to Consonant Lenition. Ph.D dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
Kirchner, R. (2004). Consonant lenition, in B. Hayes, R. Kirchner and D. Steriade (eds.), Phonetically-based Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lass, R., and Anderson, J. (1975). Old English Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lass, R.(1984).Phonology: an Introduction to Basic Concepts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lass, Roger (1991-1993). ‘Old English fricative voicing unvisited’, Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 35-37: 3-46.
Luick, K. (1914-1940). Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache. Reprinted 1964. Oxford: Blackwell.
Martinet, A. (1952). Celtic lenition and Western Romance consonants. Language 28, p. 192- 217.
Mascaro, J.(1984). Continuant spreading in Basque, Catalan, and Spanish. In Language Sound Structure; Mark Aronoff and Richard Oehrle (eds.), p. 287-98. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Nevalainen, T. and Traugott, E. (eds.) (2012). The Oxford Handbook of the History of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Odden, D. (2005). Introducing Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oxford English Dictionary (2006), http://www.oed.com/, accessed April 2015.
Scheer, T. and Segeral, Ph. (2008). Positional factors in lenition and fortition, in Brandao de Carvalho, Scheer, and Segeral (2008), p.131-172.
Szigetvari, P. (2008). ‘What and where?’, in Brandao de Carvalho, Scheer, and Ségéral (2008), p. 93-129.
Trask, R.L. (1996). A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology. London: Routledge.
Trask, R.L. (2000). The Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Watson, K. (2006a). ‘Lenition and segmental interaction: evidence from Liverpool English (and Spanish), Glossa 1, p. 54-71.
Watson, K. (2006b). ‘Phonological resistance and innovation in the North-West of England’, English Today, p.55-61.
Watson, K. (2007). ‘Liverpool English’, Journal of the International Phonetics Association 37, p. 351-360.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.6n.1p.29
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
2012-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature
To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the journal emails into your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.