I. Assimilation
7.1
Two adjacent consonants within a word or at word boundaries often influence each other in such a way that the articulation of one sound becomes similar to or even identical with the articulation of the other one. This phenomenon is called assimilation.
In assimilation the consonant whose articulation is modified under the influence of a neighbouring consonant is called the assimilated sound;the consonant which influences the articulation of a neighbouring consonant is called the assimilating sound. The term assimilation may also be extended to include cases when two adjacent consonants so influence each other as to give place to a single new sound different from either of them.
7.2
Assimilation may affect all the features of the articulation of a consonant or only some of them. Thus we speak of:
1. … the point of articulation; and both the active organs of speech
2. Assimilation affecting the manner of the production of noise
3. … the work of the vocal cords, the force of articulation
4. … the lip position
5. … the position of the soft palate
7.3
Assimilation affecting the point of articulation takes place when the principal (alveolar) variants are replaced by their dental subsidiary variants if they are adjacent to dental consonant phonemes
7.4
Assimilation affecting active organs of speech and the point of articulation takes place in the following cases. In words with the prefix con-, when it is followed by the consonants [k], [g]: the forelingual alveolar [n] is replaced by the backlingual velar [n], if the prefix bears either a primary or a secondary stress. The same kind of assimilation takes place when a vowel between [n] and [k] in an unstressed syllable is omitted in rapid speech. When [m] occurs immediately before [f] or [v] it is assimilated to them and its principal bilabial variant is replaced by its subsidiary labio-dental variant.
7.5
Assimilation affecting the manner of the production of noise takes place in the following cases. When the constrictive noise fricative [y] occurs before the occlusive nasal sonorant [m] at the word boundary between me and give, in rapid speech they are likely to be assimilated to [m]. Assimilation in this case affects not only the manner of the production of noise, but also the position of the soft palate
7.6
Assimilation affecting the work of the vocal cords takes place in the following. A voiceless consonant may be replaced by a voiced one under the influence of the adjacent voiced con. A voiced con. may be replaced by a voiceless one under the influence of the adjacent voiceless con.
7.7
Assimilation affecting the lip position takes place when labialized subsidiary variants of the phonemes [k], [t], [s], [g] are used under the influence of the following bilabial sonorant [w]
7.8
Assimilation affecting the position of the soft palate takes place when nasal consonants influence oral ones.
7.9
Assimilation may be of three degrees: complete, partial, intermediate. Assimilation is said to be complete when the articulation of the assimilated consonant fully coincides with that of the assimilating one. It is partial when the assimilated consonant retains its main phonemic features and becomes only partly similar in some feature of its articulation to the assimilating sound
The intermediate assimilation is between complete and partial when the assimilated consonant changes into a different sound, but does not coincide with the assimilating consonant.
7.10
Assimilation may be of three types as far as its direction is concerned: progressive, regressive and double.
In progressive assimilation the assimilated consonant is influenced by the preceding consonant. In regressive assimilation the preceding consonant is influenced by the one following it. In reciprocal or double assimilation two adjacent consonants influence each other
7.11
If the present-day pronunciation of a word is the result of an assimilation which took place at an earlier stage in the history of the language we have the so-called historical assimilation
II. Accommodation, reduction, elision
The modification in the articulation of a vowel under the influence of an adjacent consonant or vice versa is called accommodation. In accommodation the accommodated sound does not change its main phonemic features and is pronounced as a variant of the same phoneme slightly modified under the influence of a neighbouring sound.
An unrounded variant of a consonant phoneme is replaced by its rounded variant under the influence of a following rounded vowel phoneme.
A f ully back variant of a back vowel phoneme is replaced by its slightly advanced (fronted) variant under the influence of the preceding mediolingual phoneme [j]
A vowel phoneme is represented by its slightly more open variant before the dark [l] under the influence of the latter’s back secondary focus.
11.1
In rapid colloquial speech certain notional words may lose some of their sounds. This phenomenon is called elision. It occurs both within words and at word boundaries
In English there are certain words which have two forms of pronunciation: strong (full) and weak (reduced). These words include form-words and the pronouns: personal, possessive, reflexive4, relative, and the definite pronoun some denoting indefinite quantity. These words have strong forms when they are stressed. However these words may be used in their strong forms even though unstressed. This takes places in careful speech. Each of these words usually has more than one weak form used in unstressed positions.
11.2
There are three degrees of the reduction of strong forms.
1. The reduction of the length of a vowel without changing its quality (quantitative red.)
2. The second degree of reduction consists in changing the quality of a vowel (q ualitative)
3. The omission of a vowel or consonant sound (zero reduction)
11.4
The following form-words in certain positions are used in their strong forms, even when they are unstressed.
1. Prepositions have their strong forms:
(a) When they are final, e.g.
Do you know where I come from?
(b) When they are followed by an unstressed personal pronoun at the end of a sense-group or a sentence. However in this position the weak form may also be used, e.g.
She was not listening to them.
2. Auxiliary and modal verbs, as well as the link-verb to be, have their strong forms at the end of a sense-group or a sentence, e. g.
Who is on duty to-day? I am.
Who is absent to-day? Ann is.
What is hanging on the wall? Pictures are.
There are some form-words which are never reduced. They are: which, what, where, on, in, with, then, when, how, some in the meaning of ‘certain’.
Well, then go and do as you’re told.
I stand on my right here.
For some reason he hasn’t come to the party,
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