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

=== Assistant: 2511132055ET ===
251113_2055ET

Lenition = “softening” of consonants. In Irish it’s systematic, spelled, and grammatical, not just “lazy pronunciation.”

==== - Irish name: séimhiú. ====
* Historically: putting a dot above the consonant (ṁ, ḃ, ċ…); now it’s written with h after the consonant: - b → bh, c → ch, d → dh, f → fh, g → gh, m → mh, p → ph, s → sh, t → th.
* Phonetically: most of these become fricatives or weaken; one becomes silent.

Think: “stop → fricative” or “strong → weak/zero”.

==== Very simplified (Standard-ish): ====
* b → bh ≈ /bˠ ~ v ~ w/ depending on position & dialect
* c → ch ≈ /x/ (like German Bach), or /ç/ after front vowels
* d → dh ≈ /ɣ ~ j ~ ɟ/ depending on broad/slender & position
* f → fh ≈ silent (main one to remember)
* g → gh ≈ /ɣ ~ j/ (similar pattern to dh)
* m → mh ≈ /v ~ w/ (nasal goes away, becomes fricative/approximant)
* p → ph ≈ /f/
* s → sh ≈ /h/ or zero, not [ʃ] (your [ʃ] is slender s, different thing)
* t → th ≈ /h/ or a very lenited dental [θ]-ish in some dialects

You do not get English-style [ʃ] from lenition; that’s slender s (via e/i). Lenited s = sh in spelling, /h/ in sound.

==== Lenition is independent of broad/slender: ====
* You can have broad and lenited: bh = /vˠ ~ w/
* Or slender and lenited: bh = /vʲ/
* Broad/slender is encoded by neighbouring vowel letters (a o u vs e i).
* Lenition is encoded by adding h (or dot historically).

So the consonant has two attributes:
# broad vs slender (palatal vs velarized)
# lenited vs unlenited (weak vs strong)

==== You don’t just lenite at will; it’s triggered by grammar. Big ones: ====

===== - mo “my”, do “your (sg)**, a “his” → lenition: - capall “horse” → - mo chapall “my horse” - do chapall “your horse” - a chapall “his horse” =====

But a “her” does not lenite (it eclipses): another story.

===== - an + fem. noun in nominative singular → lenition: - cailín “girl” (actually masc., so no) vs - bean “woman” → an bhean “the woman” - bó “cow” → an bhó =====

===== - Feminine noun + following adjective → lenition of adjective: - bean mhaith “a good woman” - but fear maith “a good man” (no lenition) =====

===== In practice, you memorize the past forms as lenited: =====
* ólann sé “he drinks” → d’ól sé “he drank” (historical do + ól → d’ól).
* bris “break” → bhris sé “he broke”.

Interrogatives, negatives etc. have their own patterns (some lenite, some eclipse).

==== - Lenition (séimhiú) = add h → softening / fricative / h / zero. ====
* Eclipsis (urú) = add a new consonant in front: - b → mb, c → gc, d → nd, f → bhf, g → ng, p → bp, t → dt.
* Different triggers (e.g. i + eclipsis vs mo + lenition, etc.).

You’ll see both in the same paradigm; they’re just different mutation types.

==== 1. Sound intuition: - see ch, ph, th, sh → expect no stop; think /x, f, h, h/. - see fh → often silent. ====
# Grammar intuition: - memorize triggers like mo/do/a (his), an + feminine, past verbs, certain prepositions / particles. - whenever you’d say “my X”, “his X”, “the [feminine] X”, check if X starts with a lenitable consonant.
# Don’t confuse: - lenited s (sh) = /h/, - slender s (s with e/i) = [ʃ].

If you want, next step we can take a bunch of concrete nouns/verbs and I’ll mark: no mutation / lenited / eclipsed, with the actual IPA, so you can see how the system behaves across a mini-paradigm.