Irish initial mutations
Word initial consonantal sound changes in Irish / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterized by its initial consonant mutations.[1] 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.
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Irish, like Scottish Gaelic and Manx, features two initial consonant mutations: lenition (Irish: séimhiú [ˈʃeːvʲuː]) and eclipsis (urú [ˈʊɾˠuː]) (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.
Irish also features t-prothesis and h-prothesis, related phenomena which affect vowel-initial words.
See Irish phonology for a discussion of the symbols used on this page.