T-lenition

The clearest phonetic feature of southern Irish English is the realization of /t/ as a fricative with identical characteristics of the stop, i.e. an apico-alveolar fricative in weak positions. Extensions include the lenition of /t/ in a weak position beyond the initial stage of apico-alveolar fricative to /r/ then to /h/ with final deletion as in the following instance.

As mentioned above, the THIN and THIS lexical sets show alveolar stops rather than the dental stops of supraregional Irish English.