ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY Weeks 13 & 14

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Sounds in context – in touch (immediate neighbours); Sounds /t/ & /d/; voiced & voiceless alveolar plosives; Context = consonant chain/string (usually 3 consonant sounds);

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Context = consonant chain/string (usually 3 consonant sounds); Sounds /t/ & /d/ are sandwiched and are not pronounced – they are elided E.g. cost me five pounds stopped for a drink you and me must be him

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Assimilation (of voicing) Endings/suffixes –s/es & -ed How do we pronounce them? If preceded by a voiceless sound, they will be pronounced as /s/ & /t/; If preceded by a voiced sound, they will be pronounced as /z/ & /d/

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Assimilation (of voicing) If preceded by a voiceless sound, they will be pronounced as /s/ & /t/; If preceded by a voiced sound, they will be pronounced as /z/ & /d/ They represent the notion of assimilation of voicing (a voiced sound wants to be next to another voiced one and the same goes for voiceless sounds)

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Assimilation (of manner of articulation) Illustrated via voiced, dental fricative /ð/ If preceded by /l/, the mentioned sound, /ð/ itself becomes /l/, e.g. file the documents If preceded by /n/, /ð/ itself becomes the mentioned alveolar nasal, e.g. in the living room

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Assimilation (of place of articulation) Prominent contexts: If followed by bilabial sounds, alveolar sounds /d/, /t/ and /n/ can become bilabials, e.g. ten pigs (/n/ will become bilabial /p/); that ball (/t/ becomes /b/; cold miner (/d/ becomes /m/)

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Assimilation (of place of articulation) Prominent contexts: If followed by velar sounds /k and /g/, alveolar /t/ and /d/ can become velars themselves, e.g. that car (/t/ becomes /k/); good girl (/d/ becomes /g/)

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Assimilation (of place of articulation) Prominent contexts: If followed by palatal /j/, alveolar /s/ and /z/ become /ʃ/ and /ʒ/, e.g. this yellow skirt (/s/ becomes /ʃ/); does university possess that (/z/ becomes /ʒ/)

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Assimilation (of place of articulation) Prominent contexts: If followed by palatal /j/, alveolar /t/ and /d/ become palato-alveolar /tʃ/ and /dʒ/, e.g. put your bag here (/t/ becomes /tʃ/); could you do that (/d/ becomes /dʒ/)

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Assimilation (direction of alteration) We can differentiate between: progressive & regressive assimilation If the first sound of the two neighbours affects the second sound, the process is progressive, e.g. book+s (ending is pronounced as /s/ since /k/ is voiceless)

Weeks 13 & 14 Elision & Assimilation/-s Elaborated Assimilation (direction of alteration) We can differentiate between: progressive & regressive assimilation If the second sound of the two neighbours affects the first sound, the process is regressive, e.g. good boy (alveolar /d/ becomes bilabial /b/, under the influence of the neighbor /b/)