Assimilation

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 485.

Palatalization

Aspiration Loss

[p], [t], [k] lose aspiration after the constrictive voiceless [s] consonant as in [spi:k]. Voiceless plosive consonants are pronounced without aspiration in unstressed syllables as in “potato, tobacco”.

This consonant softening happens after raising the tongue's middle part to the hard palate.

English consonant pronunciation is hard, not palatalized. However before front-row vowels like [i], [i:], [iә], [e], [ei] consonants may take on an undesirable palatalization shade. To avoid mistaken palatalization, pronounce a consonant and vowel apart, slightly holding vowel articulation start not to raise the tongue's middle part to the palate in pronouncing a consonant as in [s-in], [l-es].

Speech sounds affect each other so that neighboring sounds can take on their features. Assimilation is quality likening between neighboring consonant sounds.

In progressive assimilation the 1st sound affects the following one like in voiceless consonant and sonant combinations where the sonant becomes devoiced as in [pj]-“piano”, [kl]-“clear”, [sw]-“sweet”.

In regressive assimilation the 2nd sound affects the previous one like apical alveolar sounds before interdentals becoming interdental too as in [tθ], [nð].

In reciprocal assimilation both sounds affect each other. In the [tw] combination the [t] consonant becomes lipped while the [w] sonant is pronounced with a devoiced start. In [tr] the apical alveolar [t] is pronounced as a cacuminal sound while the [r] sonant becomes semi-devoiced.