Initial Mutations in the Irish Language
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Words change to reflect the role they play in a particular sentence. In English, it's usuallly just the endings of words that change (such as adding -ed to form the past tense of a verb, or adding 's to indicate possession). In Irish, the beginnings of words often change as well. There are two main types of changes that occur:
- Lenition (séimhiú) softens an initial consonant sound.
- Eclipsis replaces one initial sound with another.
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