Phonological rules

Nasal assimilation

a vowel will become nasalized before a nasal stop [m],[n], [ng]

Nasal place assimilation

the alveolar nasal /n/ becomes dental [n̪] before the voiceless interdental fricative [θ]

/n/ → [n̪] / _θ

ex: anthropology

Devoicing assimilation

Devoicing: obstruent→voiceless / voiceless_

/s/ is an allophone of phoneme /z/ after a voiceless obstruent

Palatalization

voiceless alveolar stop becomes an affricate dental before high tense vowel [I], or palatal glide

output is closer to alveopalatal region

/t/ → [t͡s] /_i

Deletion

process where u delete a segment in certain phonetic contexts

Ex of deletion in English

Schwa is often deleted before a stressed syllable

[pəréjd] >[p̥réjd] parade

Deletion in French

le abre> l’arbre so any type of liaison

Epenthesis

opposite of deletion, inserting a new segment

consonant epenthesis> warmpth instead of warmth

typically to break up illicit clusters of segments

consonant epenthesis

eases transition between sonorant and non sonorant consonant

so a consonant will be inserted that shares properties of both adjacent segments

same place of articulation as the sonorant consonant to their left, and have the same voicing as the non-sonorant consonant to their right.

vowel epenthesis

can’t have a word begin with two initial consonants, so insert a vowel

Lenition/flapping

“consonant weakening”

/t/ or /d/

consonants lenite next to vowels esp in V_V environment

a stop become a fictive, affricate or nasal

when a dental or alveolar stop changes to a flap in a V_V situation

Ex of lenition

stops [t] and [d] weaken into r in butter budder

Neutralization

when the output of a phonological rule is an allophone of another phoneme

English plural neutralization

the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ will often become voiced /z/ when saying the plural form of stuff

ex: cats> dogs> dogz

z and s are different phonemes, but under neutralization there’s the allophones /s/ and /z/

Vowel lengthening

a vowel will be lengthened before a voiced consonant than before a voiceless obstruent

Vowel Lengthening: vowels → long /_voiced obstruent

Canadian raising

minor diphthongs /aj/ and /ow/ become raised to [ʌj] and [ʌw]