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Assimilation is a sound change in which some phonemes (typically consonants or vowels) change to become more similar to other nearby sounds. A common type of phonological process across languages, assimilation can occur either within a word or between words. It occurs in normal speech but becomes more common in more rapid speech.
A different example of coronal harmony, sometimes referred to as NATI rule, occurs in Sanskrit, where [n] is retroflexed to [ɳ] if it is preceded by a retroflex continuant, mainly [ɽ] and [ʂ], in the same word, even at a distance. The retroflexion spreads from left to right affecting any coronal nasal until the word boundary is reached.
In this example, the standard pronunciation uses the process of synaeresis to compress both of the original vowel sounds into one syllable. However, when speakers are asked to produce this word in a more controlled situation, in a careful reading style, French speakers often produce extended forms or different allophonic variants for the word ...
For example, the English suffix -s is pronounced [s] when it follows a voiceless phoneme (cats), and [z] when it follows a voiced phoneme (dogs). [1] This type of assimilation is called progressive, where the second consonant assimilates to the first; regressive assimilation goes in the opposite direction, as can be seen in have to [hæftə].
In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic change) or a more general change to the speech sounds that exist (phonological change), such as the merger of two sounds or the creation of a new sound.
For example, chain shifts such as the Great Vowel Shift (in which nearly all of the vowels of the English language changed) or the allophonic differentiation of /s/, originally *[s], into [s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ θ χ χʷ h], do not qualify as phonological change as long as all of the phones remain in complementary distribution.
This type normally originates in language history: modern a, for example, derives from Latin AD, and today's geminate in [akˈkaːza] is a continuation of what was once a simple assimilation. Gemination cued by final stressed vowels, however, is transparently phonological.
Similarly, Dutch voicing assimilation patterns may be applied to English utterances so that, for example, iceberg is pronounced as [aɪzbɜːk], and if I as [ɪv aɪ]. [25] Speakers have difficulty with the glottalization of /p t k/, either not pronouncing it or applying it in the wrong contexts so that good morning is pronounced [ɡʊʔ ...