Editing Openai/69186d20-2d14-8013-b9c6-c09000f173f6 (section)

=== Assistant: 2511142039ET ===
251114_2039ET

short answer: modern Irish basically has ''unaspirated'' /p t k/; there is no phonemic aspirated vs unaspirated contrast like in English. The “h” of lenition is not stop-aspiration in the English sense; it’s (historically) turning stops into fricatives/approximants.

===== For /p t k/ in Irish: =====
* They’re typically unaspirated or only very weakly aspirated: - cupán /kʊˈpˠɑːn̪ˠ/ → [kˠʊˈpˠɑːn̪ˠ], not [kʰʊˈpʰɑːn]. - teach /tʲax/ → [tʲax], not [tʰjak].
* There is no contrast /p/ vs /pʰ/, /t/ vs /tʰ/, /k/ vs /kʰ/. Different dialects may have a bit more or less puff of air in certain contexts, but it’s allophonic, not part of the phonological system.

So compared to English:
* English: “voiceless” stops are strongly aspirated in stressed onsets; that’s a primary cue.
* Irish: stops are mostly unaspirated, so your English ear often hears them as “b/d/g-ish.”

===== Historically and grammatically, you see formulas like “aspirate the consonant” in Celtic grammars. That’s lenition, spelled with h in modern orthography: =====
* b → bh, c → ch, d → dh, f → fh, g → gh, m → mh, p → ph, s → sh, t → th.

Phonetically, these are not just “/p/ with a puff of air”:
* ph → /f/ (voiceless labiodental fricative)
* th → /h/ or ∅
* ch → /x/ or /ç/
* dh/gh → /ɣ, j, ɰ/ depending on broad/slender + dialect
* bh/mh → /v, w, β/ etc.

So:

: 

Diachronically, yes: lenition probably started as something like C → Cʰ → fricative, but in modern Irish it’s fully phonologised as different segments, not “aspirated stops”.

===== - Irish does not use aspiration as a primary cue for its stop system. =====
* Almost all consonants are classified as broad vs slender, not aspirated vs unaspirated.
* Lenition (“aspiration” in old grammar-speak) = turning a stop/nasal into a fricative or approximant, often written with h, not adding a puff of air to the same stop.

That’s why:
* Irish /p/ in cupán sounds “b-like” to you → it’s just unaspirated /p/.
* English /p/ in pan sounds “extra strong” → it’s aspirated /pʰ/.