10. Assimilation

Assimilation is a phonetic process by which one sound under the influence of a sound near it acquires some articulation and acoustic likeness to that of other sound.

Assimilation results in the appearance of new phonemic variant. Each case of assimilation must be analyzed from the following view points:

1. From the point of view of its direction it can be progressive, regressive and reciprocal or /double/.

2. From the point of view of its degree it can be complete, partial and intermediate.

In progressive assimilation the assimilated phoneme is influenced by the preceding phoneme, e.g.

Finished /ʃt/ that’s /that is/ /t s/

In regressive assimilation the assimilated phoneme is influenced by the following one: news /z/ but newspaper /s p/ used to /s t/

.In reciprocal assimilation the adjacent phonemes influence each other.

E.g. asked /k t/; train /t r/. /t/ - becomes post-alveolar, /r/ - partially devoiced; twice /tw/ - /t/ - rounded, /w/ - partially devoiced.

Assimilation is termed complete when the articulation of the assimilated phoneme fully coincides with that of the assimilating phoneme.

e.g. Does she? /dʌʃʃi/; of course she does /əv kɔːʃ ʃi dʌz /

Assimilation is termed intermediate when the assimilated phoneme changes into a certain third phoneme, e.g.

Hand + kerchief = handkerchief /hæŋkətʃiːf /

News + paper = newspaper /’njuːspeɪpə/

Assimilation is termed partial /incomplete/ when the assimilated phoneme acquires only some features similar to the assimilating phoneme.

11. The notion of elision.

The term elision describes the disappearance of a sound. For example, in the utterance He leaves next week speakers would generally elide (leave out) the /t/ in next saying /neks

wi:k

Some rules for elision

The most common elisions in English are /t/ and /d/, when they appear within a

consonant cluster.

We arrived the next day. (/t/ elided between /ks/ and /d/)

We bought a lovely carved statuette. (/d/ elided between /v/ and /st/)

/ німе е/ can disappear in unstressed syllalbes.

I think we should call the police. (// can disappear in the first syllable of police)

12. Linking and intrusive r

Linking R

In many non-rhotic accents, words historically ending in /r/ (as evidenced by an ⟨r⟩ in the spelling) may be pronounced with [r] when they are closely followed by another morpheme beginning with a vowel sound. So tuner amp may be pronounced [ˈtjuːnər æmp].[9] This is the case even though tuner would not otherwise be pronounced with an [r]. Here, "closely" means the following word must be in the same prosodic unit (that is, not separated by a pausa). This phenomenon is known as linking R. Not all non-rhotic varieties feature linking R.

Intrusive r

The phenomenon of intrusive R is an overgeneralizing reinterpretationof linking R into an r-insertion rule that affects any word that ends in the non-high vowels /ə/, /ɪə/, /ɑː/, or /ɔː/;[13] when such a word is closely followed by another word beginning in a vowel sound, an [r] is inserted between them, even when no final /r/ was historically present. For example, the phrase tuna oil would be pronounced [ˈtjuːnər ɔɪl]. The epenthetic can be inserted to prevent hiatus, two consecutive vowel sounds.

Just like linking R, intrusive R may also occur between a root morpheme and certain suffixes, such as draw(r)ing, withdraw(r)al or Kafka(r)esque.

Rhotic dialects do not feature intrusive R. A rhotic speaker may use alternative strategies such as a hiatus between the two consecutive vowel sounds, or the insertion of a glottal stop to clarify the boundary between the two words. Varieties that feature linking R but not intrusive R (that is, tuna oil is pronounced [ˈtjuːnə (ʔ)ɔɪl]), show a clear phonemic distinction between words with and without /r/ in the syllable coda.