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Concept
Irish initial mutations
Summary
Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterized by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions. The mutations are an important tool in understanding the relationship between two words and can differentiate various meanings.
Irish, like Manx and colloquial Scottish Gaelic, uses two mutations on consonants: lenition (séimhiú ˈʃeː.vjuː) and eclipsis (urú ˈʊ.ɾɣuː) (the alternative names, aspiration for lenition and nasalisation for eclipsis, are also used, but those terms are misleading).
Originally these mutations were phonologically governed external sandhi effects: lenition was caused by a consonant being between two vowels, and eclipsis when a nasal preceded an obstruent, including at the beginning of a word.
There are also two mutations, t-prothesis and h-prothesis, found on vowel-initial words.
See Irish phonology for a discussion of the symbols used on this page.
This table shows the orthographical and phonological effects of both lenition, eclipses, H-prothesis and T-prothesis with both capital and lowercase spelling, and a general pronunciation of broad and slender consonants in IPA across dialects. Vowels are represented by and /V/. Consonants are broad before and slender before . See also Irish orthography which has a table showing the vocalisation of leniated consonants, leading to the development of diphthongs or lengthening of the preceding vowel.
The lenition of L and N is a result from the fortis & lenis sonorants of Old Irish. Found only in a few dialects.
The definite article triggers lenition of:
a feminine noun in the nominative singular
an bhean "the woman"
a masculine noun in the genitive singular
an fhir "of the man" e.g.
Official source
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