Lenition (definition)

The phenomena in which an underlying consonant changes to another phoneme, to create a “weaker” or "softer" form of the consonant. For example, a consonant may become more sonorant (or vowel like) or a /t/ might become and flap [ɾ].For example, in English, the orthographic representation for water is with a /t/ but instead of it being pronounced /wɔtər/ it’s typically pronounced [wɔɾər]with a flap instead.

External Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenition

http://www.mediaevalscotland.org/scotlang/lenition.shtml