The first serious typological survey of the lenition process in modern phonological literature.

Robert Kirchner earned his PHD from UCLA and is currently Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Alberta.

Preface Acknowledgments List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction 2 Articulatory Effort 3 Representational Issues 4 Spirantization and Stridency 5 Geminates 6 Effort-Based Contexts 7 Tümpisa Shoshone 8 Florentine Italian 9 Conclusion: Stabalization of Lenition Patterns appendix: Survey of Lenition Patterns Notes References Index