Modification of consonants in connected speech. Assimilation

The complete articulation of a speech sound consists of three stages:

1. The on-glide stage – the articulating organs move to the position necessary for the articulation of a sound.
2. The hold stage – the articulating organs are kept in the position for a certain period of time.
3. The off-glide stage – the articulating organs returns to the position of rest.

Assimilation is a process of alteration of speech sounds as a result of which one of the sounds becomes fully or partially similar to the adjoining sound.

Types of assimilation can be distinguished according to:

· Direction,

· Degree of completeness,

· Degree of stability.

1. Direction of assimilation:

Assimilation can act in the following directions:

· Progressive – the following sound is changed under the influence of the preceding one (grandmother, sandwich – [d] under the influence of preceding [n] changes into [n] and then disappears);

· Regressive – the following sound changes the preceding one (width – alveolar [d] becomes dental before interdental [Ө]);

· Double – complex influence of adjacent sounds (tree – the sonorant [r] is partly devoiced under the influence of the voiceless [t] and the alveolar [t] becomes post-alveolar before the post-alveolar [r]).

2. Degree of completeness:

According to the degree of completeness assimilation can be:

· Complete – two adjoining sounds become alike or merge into one (cupboard – [kabƏd]);

· Incomplete – sounds are affected partially by each other (try – the sonorant [r] is partly devoiced by the voiceless [t]).

3. Degree of stability:

According to the degree of stability assimilation can be:

· Obligatory – can be met in historical words (orchard = ort + yard – [o:tjƏd] – [o:t∫Əd]).

· Non-obligatory – can be met in fluent speech (ten girls - [ten gƏ:lz – teηgƏ:lz]).

Nasal plosion

When a plosive is followed by the syllabic [m] or [n] it has no release of its own, the nasal plosion is produced (garden, kitten, mitten, happen, shipmate).

Lateral plosion

When a plosive is followed by [l] the closure produced for the plosive is released together with the sound [l] (little, cattle, please, candle).

Aspiration

The noise voiceless consonants [p, t, k] are pronounced with aspiration. It is an additional noise created at the moment of moving from a consonant to a vowel. The strongest aspiration is produced before a stressed long vowel or before a diphthong [pi:z, paund, ti:, ko:l]. It is weaker before a short vowel or before unstressed vowel [pit, ka:pit]. Aspiration is absent when [p, t, k] are preceded by [s] or followed by a consonant [spi:k, pli:z, trein, stei, skoti∫].

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