Assimilation and Accommodation in Phonetics

Flashcards covering the concepts of assimilation and accommodation, historical vs living assimilation, obligatory vs non-obligatory assimilation, directions of assimilation, and degrees with examples.

What is assimilation in phonetics?

Two adjacent sounds influence each other's articulation so that one becomes more like the other; also called accommodation or adaptation.

What is adaptation (accommodation) in assimilation?

Modification of the articulation of a consonant under the influence of a neighboring consonant or modification of a vowel under the influence of a consonant (nasalization of vowels, labialization of consonants).

Give an example of consonants being labialized before rounded vowels.

Labialization occurs before rounded vowels, as in words like got, port, should, goose.

What is the advanced backlingual variant before front vowels?

A more backlingual articulation of /k/ and /g/ used before English front vowels; examples: keep, geese.

What is nasalization of vowels under nasal consonants?

Vowels become nasalized when influenced by nasal consonants; examples: moon, sing, night.

What happens to /u:/ after the mediolingual sonorant /j/?

An advanced fronted variant of /u:/ is used after /j/ (the back of the tongue moves toward /j/); examples: boot - beauty, moon - music.

What happens to vowels before the dark variant of /l/?

A slightly more open variant of /e/ is used before the dark /l/; examples: bed – bell, wet – well.

What is elision?

Complete loss of sounds.

What is historical assimilation?

Assimilation that occurred earlier in the language’s history; old forms still exist today. Examples include Norman French borrowings where articulation of [s], [z], [t] adapts to [j] (permission, measure, nature).

What is living assimilation?

Assimilation that occurs in everyday speech in the present; examples include tells you [telʒju], yes, you do [jeʃju du:].

What is obligatory assimilation?

Assimilation that occurs in all native speakers and is part of the articulation basis (nasal plosion, lateral plosion, loss of plosion, etc.).

What is non-obligatory assimilation?

Assimilation that occurs in careless or informal speech; not universal; should not be encouraged, though listeners may encounter it.

Provide examples of non-obligatory assimilations.

Examples include can’t you [ka:nʧə], on duty [ɔn ʤu:ti], as you like [ǝʒ ju laik], did you [diʤu], face you [feiʃ ju], that book [ðæpbuk], that kind [ðækkaind], hard problem [ha:b prɒbləm], ten minutes [tem minits], London Bridge [lʌndǝm briʤ], good-bye [gub bai], don’t believe it [dɜʊmp bli:v], it can’t be done [ɪt kɑ:mp bi dʌn].

What are the three directions of assimilation?

Regressive assimilation, Progressive assimilation, and Double (reciprocal) assimilation.

What is regressive assimilation?

The following sound influences the preceding one, making the preceding one similar to itself (e.g., alveolar sounds become dental before interdental sounds: the, this).

What is progressive assimilation?

The articulation continues after the first sound, influencing the second (e.g., suffix –ed or –s after voiced/voiceless consonants; sonorants become partly devoiced after voiceless consonants: cry, friend).

What is double (reciprocal) assimilation?

Two neighbouring sounds influence each other (e.g., tree: [t] becomes post-alveolar and partly fricative; [r] becomes partly devoiced; quite: [k] becomes rounded, [w] becomes partly devoiced).

What are the degrees of assimilation?

Partial assimilation (one or more features affected), Complete assimilation (all features affected, sound coincides with neighbor), Intermediate assimilation (sound changes into a different phoneme but does not coincide).

What is an example of complete assimilation?

Horseshoe [hɔ:ʃʃu], where the sound sequence becomes indistinguishable from the neighboring sounds.

What is an example of intermediate assimilation?

Congress [kɒƞɡres], How’s your dad? [z] → [ʒ], illustrating a change to a different phoneme without full coincidence.