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An important feature of lenition in Liverpool English is the debuccalization of/t/to [h] within certain phonological and lexical environments. This paper presents new data in an attempt to understand this little investigated phenomenon and concentrates on (i) the nature of the lenition, and (ii) the environments in which it can and cannot occur. It has often been attested that domain-final/t/can be realized as [h] in Liverpool English only in monosyllabic function words with short vowels (eg Knowles 1973). I claim that function words are the only monosyllabic words that exhibit the lenition and that/t/→[h] can also occur in many polysyllabic words but only in a very restricted set of lexical and phonological environments. I also examine the conditioning effect of syllable structure and show that phonologically closed syllables (ending/½t/) are marked not only by the realization of/t/as [h] but also by the realization of/½/as [I]. Finally I illustrate the previously unrecognized connection between the lenition of/t/→[h] and that of/t/→[R]. To conclude, the phonological generalizations for the realizations of final/t/in Liverpool English are presented. These conditions represent unusual restrictions on a phonological process and I discuss their wider implications. Finally, I ask whether debuccalization to [h]–a process that has occurred in many languages–allows us to observe sound change in progress in Liverpool English.*