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Aspects of Connected Speech - Assimilation

This document discusses assimilation, which is a phonological process where a phoneme alters to become similar to a nearby phoneme. There are three main types of assimilation: place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing. Place of articulation assimilation involves sounds moving closer to the place of articulation of an adjacent sound, like an alveolar stop becoming velar before a velar consonant. Manner assimilation is less common and involves changes like plosives becoming nasals or fricatives. Voicing assimilation means sounds in a cluster will all be voiced or voiceless together for ease of pronunciation. Examples are provided to illustrate each type of assimilation.

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Aizuddin bin Rojalai
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480 views19 pages

Aspects of Connected Speech - Assimilation

This document discusses assimilation, which is a phonological process where a phoneme alters to become similar to a nearby phoneme. There are three main types of assimilation: place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing. Place of articulation assimilation involves sounds moving closer to the place of articulation of an adjacent sound, like an alveolar stop becoming velar before a velar consonant. Manner assimilation is less common and involves changes like plosives becoming nasals or fricatives. Voicing assimilation means sounds in a cluster will all be voiced or voiceless together for ease of pronunciation. Examples are provided to illustrate each type of assimilation.

Uploaded by

Aizuddin bin Rojalai
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Could you please lend me your ears?

Did you buy your food?

Do you notice how the voiced /d/ and the voiceless /y/ are connected in the pronunciation. This is called assimilation.

Meaning
Assimilation is a phonological process where a phone becomes similar to a nearby phone. When a sound is affected by a neighbouring sound.

Types of Assimilation

Place of Articulation

Manner of Articulation

Voicing

Place of Articulation
The most common form involves the movement of place of articulation of the

alveolar stops /t/, /d/ and etc to a


position closer to that of the following

sound.

Example 1
BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/) Phoneme Realised as Example good girl /gg g:l/ that kid /k kd/

/d/
/t/

/g/
/k/

Example 2
BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/)
Phoneme /n/ /d/ Realised as /m/ /b/ Example ten men /tm 'mn/ bad boys /bb bz/

/t/

/p/

hot mushrooms /hp mru:mz/

Manner of Articulation
Less frequent and less noticeable Only found in very fast casual speech Typically toward less extreme obstruction Sometimes progressively

Example 3
Word : Good night /gd nat/ becomes /gn nat/

A final plosive becomes a nasal

Example 4 Word : That side /t sad/ becomes /s sad/

A final plosive becomes a fricative

Example 5
Word : Read these /ri:d i:z/ becomes /ri:ddi:z/

An initial fricative becomes a plosive

Voicing
The vibration of the vocal cords is not something that can be switched on and off very swiftly, as a result groups of consonants tend to be either all voiced or all voiceless.

Example 6
Word : Have to /hv tu:/ becomes /hft/

Word: Has to /hz tu:/ becomes /hst/ Word: I have to go /a hft g/

Example 7
Word: Used to /ju:zd tu:/ becomes /ju:st/

Word : I used to live near you.

/a ju:st lv n ju:/

Example 8
Word: Supposed to /spzd tu:/ becomes /spst/

Word : You were supposed to leave! /ju: w spst li:v/

/t/ changes to /p/ before /m/ /b/ or /p/


-best man -put back -cigarette paper

/d/ changes to /b/ before /m/ /b/ or /p/


-good morning -blood bank -mud pie

/n/ changes to /m/ before /m/ /b/ or /p/


-iron man -brown bear -pen pal

/t/ changes to /k/ before /k/ or /g/ -credit card -fat girl

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