Lenition

Lenition is a process of phonetic change that consists of weakening (passage from fortis (strong) to lenis (weak)) of a consonant, or more generally in the loss of articulatory tension in a sound (in such a way that it is replaced by another less obstructive one, located higher up on the loudness scale), even reaching complete elision.^{[< i>citation required]}

Weakening can occur in multiple traits, for example:

• The sonorization ([-sonoro]→[+sonoro]) of a deaf consonant (e.g. /t/ → /d/)
• The fricativization ([-continue]→[+continue]) of an occlusive (e.g. /b/ → /β/), etc., a similar case is the desafrication or relation of occlusion in Africans (e.g. / →/ → /р/ as in boy boy boy  "mushasho").^{[chuckles]required]}

An example of lenition is found in the evolution of Latin from delicatus to the word delgado in Spanish, when a substitutive change is made from the feature [-sound] to [ +voiced] of the phonemes /k/ → /g/ and /t/ → /d/.^{[citation required]}