Lenition

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Lenition is a phonological and grammatical aspect of Sindarin which reflects the phonological mutations of the language in its evolution from Old Sindarin.

Historical background

Lenition refers to the mutation of medial consonants, occurring usually between two vowels (VCV). It affected the Old Sindarin sounds p, t, k, b, d, g, m and s.

The sounds w, kh were lenited only at the beginning of a word.

More specifically, the evolution of these sounds can be visualized in these examples:

  • p > b: OS *capro > S cabor "frog"
  • t > d: OS *atar > S adar "father"
  • k > g: OS *akar- > S agar "blood"
  • m > v: OS *ramia- > S revia- "to wander"
  • s > -: OS *thelese > *thelehe > S thele "sister"
  • w- > gw-: OS wende > S gwend "maiden"
  • kh- > h-: OS *khanda > S hand "intelligence"

As a consequence, this process took place also in Old Sindarin compounds; even in later compounds that would be pure Sindarin, the lenition occurred as a rule, envisioning retroactively the lenition process from Old Sindarin.

For example the word athrabeth "debate, converse; lit. 'across-word') can be analyzed both as a derivative of OS word *athrapettha but also as a compound of Sindarin words athra- "across" + peth "word".

The fact that the above sounds mutated when medially was solidified as a rule

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Similar softening occurred in Quenya also.
  2. The intermediate stage of g to extinction was yogh

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