Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sport of Ukraine The Department of Foreign Languages Practice and Teaching

Methodology

ASSIMILATION IN ENGLISH

Prepared: Maryna Olegivna Korolenko Checked: Maryna Volodymyrivna Goroshko

Khmelnitskyi 2010

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.3 1. ASSIMILATION IN ENGLISH4 2. CASES AND EXAMPLES OF ASSIMILATION IN ENGLISH.7 CONCLUSIONS...12 LITERATURE...13

INTRODUCTION Speech is a continuous stream of sounds without a definite borderline between each word. When we communicate with each others, we adapt our pronunciation to our audience and tend to speak at a pace which is convenient for us, rather than speaking clearly. This causes changes to the shape of words. As a result, certain words are lost, and so me phonemes are linked together while speaking. These changes are described as features of connected speech. Among the phonological processes that affect connected speech are:

assimilation (changing sounds) elision (losing sounds) intrusion and linking (adding or joining sounds between words)

These features preserve rhythm and make the language sound natural. The physiological or psychological mechanisms of coarticulation are unknown, but we often loosely speak of a segment as "triggering" an assimilatory change in another segment. In assimilation, the phonological patterning of the language, discourse styles and accent are some of the factors contributing to changes observed. There are four configurations found in assimilations: the increase in phonetic similarity may be between adjacent segments, or between segments separated by one or more intervening segments; and the changes may be in reference to a preceding segment, or to a following one. Although all four occur, changes in regard to a following adjacent segment account for virtually all assimilatory changes (and most of the regular ones). Also, assimilations to an adjacent segment are vastly more frequent than assimilations to a nonadjacent one. (These radical asymmetries might contain hints about the mechanisms involved, but they are unobvious.)

1. ASSIMILATION IN ENGLISH

Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been completed. An example of this would be 'hot potato'. The (t) in 'hot' is dropped as the lips prepare for the (p) sound for 'potato'. A related process is coarticulation where one segment influences another to produce an allophonic variation, such as vowels acquiring the feature nasal before nasal consonants when the velum opens prematurely or /b/ becoming labialised as in "boot". The sound that changes is called the assimilated sound or the target. The sound that causes the change is called the conditioning sound or trigger . Two sounds that have the same place of articulation are called homorganic . Assimilation is a phonological process where a phone becomes similar to a nearby phone. This is probably the most common phonological process in all languages. Lets take a look at the English prefix in[Im] i[m]potent i[m]partial i[m]possible i[m]practical i[m]mature i[m]balance [In] i[n] direct i[n] dependent i[n] tolerance i[n] sufferable i[n] sufficient [I] i[] conclusive i[] considerate i[] correct i[] complete i[] convenient i[] gratitude

The nasal in the prefix in- has the same place of articulation as the following consonant:
[m] before [p, b, m] [n] before [t, d, s] [] before [k, g]

We say: the nasal assimilates in place of articulation to the following consonant.

Consider the following data: i[n]advisable i[n]animate i[n]ordinate i[n]eligible Based on these data, [In] occurs in the most environments: before vowels, t, d, s. Therefore, we want to say that the underlying form of the prefix is /In/.
/In/ [Im] / bilabial consonants [I] / velar consonants [In] elsewhere

Voicing assimilation in English in third person singular and plural endings s

cup rip kit pat hack back cup[s] rip[s] kit[s] pat[s] hack[s] back[s] cub rib kid pad hag bag cub[z] rib[z] kid[z] pad[z] hag[z] bag[z] come rim can pan hang bang come[z] rim[z] can[z] pan[z] hang[z] bang[z] cull thrill kill pal hill ball cull[z] thrill[z] kill[z] pal[z] hill[z] ball[z]

The suffix s in English assimilates in voicing to the preceding consonant.

There are different types of assimilation: regressive/anticipatory, progressive and reciprocal. regressive/anticipatory: articulation of the following sound will be anticipated.

In most cases assimilation is regressive progressive: articulation of a sound continues in the next sound, which means it reciprocal: two sounds that produce a third one. (Example: dont you) Regressive assimilation : this is leftward assimilation; the phone assimilates to a preceding phone. (English in-, Biblical Hebrew, Yoruba progressive prefix) Progressive assimilation : this is rightward assimilation; the phone assimilation to a following phone. (English s)

will be maintained. Progressive assimilation is rare.

Direction of assimilation:
Progressive Assimilation Conditioning Sound Assimilated Sound

Regressive Assimilation Assimilated Sound Conditioning Sound

Very occasionally two sounds (invariably adjacent) may influence one another in reciprocal assimilation. When such a change results in a single segment with some of the features of both components, it is known as coalescence or fusion. If a sound changes with reference to a following segment, it is traditionally called "regressive assimilation"; changes with reference to a preceding segment are traditionally called "progressive". Many find these terms confusing, as they seem to mean the opposite of the intended meaning. Accordingly, a variety of alternative terms have arisen not all of which avoid the problem of the traditional terms. Regressive assimilation is also known as right-to-left, leading, or anticipatory assimilation. Progressive assimilation is also known as left-to-right or perseveratory or preservative, lagging or lag assimilation.

Process of assimilation alters sounds so that they become similar (partial assimilation) or identical (total assimilation) to a neighboring or nearby sound. So, assimilation comes in two types: Complete (total) assimilation : one phone becomes identical to another phone. Partial assimilation : one phone acquires the same feature as another phone (place, manner, voicing, height, backness, rounding, etc.) Some authorities distinguish between partial and complete assimilation; that is, between assimilatory changes in which there remains some phonetic difference between the segments involved, and those in which all differences are obliterated. Assimilation can also be synchronic being an active process in a language at a given point in time or diachronic being a historical sound change.
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2. CASES AND EXAMPLES OF ASSIMILATION IN ENGLISH 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. / t / changes to / p / before / m / / b / or / p / / d / changes to / b / before / m / / b / or / p / / n / changes to / m / before / m / / b / or / p / / t / changes to / k / before / k / or /g/ / d / changes to / g / before / k / or / g / / n / changes to // before / k / or / g /

7. / s / changes to // before // or / j / 8. / z / changes to // before // or / j / 9. // changes to / s / before / s / / t / changes to / p / before / m / / b / or / p /

basket maker best man cat burglar cigarette paper circuit board coconut butter court martial direct method dust bowl fast motion first base flight plan foot brake front bench front man fruit machine Great Britain harvest moon hatchet man hit man hot metal mixed bag mixed blessing mixed marriage mixed metaphor pocket money post mortem pot plant private property put back put by right pair secret police set point set back set piece sheet metal sit back soft porn split pea split personality street piano

hot money last post Left Bank light bulb light music light meter light middleweight market price midnight blue mint bush private bill private member private patient private parts private practice

sweet basil sweet pea sweet pepper sweet potato test ban test match test paper that man unit price wet blanket white bag white birch white meat white paper

/ d / changes to / b / before / m / / b / or / p /
bad pain blood bank blood bath blood brother blood poisoning blood pressure blood pudding broad bean card punch closed book command module command post custard pie custard powder good cook good morning grand master ground plan head boy hold back lord mayor mud bath mud pie Old Bailey old boy old man old maid old moon

dead beat food poisoning food processor gold plate gold medal gold mine good man

Oxford blue red bag second mate sound barrier stand by united party word blindness

/ n / changes to / m / before / m / / b / or / p /
action planning American plan brown paper brown bear chicken breast Common Market con man cotton belt cotton picker down payment fan belt fan mail Foreign minister Foreign mission garden party green belt green bean hen party human being in blue iron maiden iron man on me one pair open book open market open prison pen pal pin money queen bee queen mother question mark roman mile sun bath sun blind tin plate town planning venetian blind virgin birth wine box wine bar

/ t / changes to / k / before / k / or /g/

cigarette card credit card cut glass fat girl first class flat cap short cut smart card street credibility street cry that cake

/ d / changes to / g / before / k / or / g /
bad girl bird call closed game cold call cold cream field glasses good cook Grand Canyon ground control ground cover had come had gone hard cash hard copy hard core hard court highland cattle red carpet sand castle second class second coming second cousin slide guitar

/ n / changes to // before / k / or / g /
action group common good common ground garden cress golden gate golden goose human capital in camera iron curtain open court roman calendar roman candle roman catholic tin can tone control town clerk town crier

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/ s / changes to // before // or / j / followed by a rounded vowel sound

bus shelter dress shop nice shoes nice yacht space shuttle

/ z / changes to // before // or / j / followed by a rounded vowel sound

cheese shop rose show these sheep where's yours?

// changes to / s / before / s /
bath salts bath seat birth certificate both sexes both sides earth science fifth set fourth season fourth summer north-south divide

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CONCLUSIONS

So, Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. Assimilation is a phonological process where a phone becomes similar to a nearby phone. This is probably the most common phonological process in all languages. Assimilation can be: 1. regressive/anticipatory, progressive and reciprocal 2. complete (total) and partial 3. synchronic and diachronic

Assimilation appears in connected speech. Native speakers normally do not have a problem with unclear utterances caused by connected speech, as they can assume what the missing part could be within that context. Non-native speakers, on the other hand, sometimes have difficulty predicting which lexical item may or may not appear in a particular context. This already is a significant problem for learners. However, the non-native speaker not only has to recognize the common phonological processes and the use of reduced forms but also use them himself, unless he wants to risk sounding fairly unnatural. Furthermore, the listener will have trouble to identify the points of focus if the speaker uses too many stressed forms. In conclusion, aspects of connected speech are of significant importance for people who learn a new language.

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LITERATURE

1. http://www.stanford.edu/~colleenr/ling113/handout5.pdf 2. http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/assimilation.html 3. http://introling.ynada.com/category/phonetics-phonology 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assimilation_(linguistics)

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