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Could you please lend me your

ears?

Did you buy your food?

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Do you notice how the voiced /d/and the voiceless/y/ areconnected in the pronunciation.

This is called assimilation.

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Meaning

Assimilation is a phonological

process where a phone becomes

similar to a nearby phone. When a sound is affected by a

neighbouring sound.

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Types of Assimilation

Place ofArticulation

Manner ofArticulation

Voicing

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Place of Articulation

The most common form involves the

movement ofplace of articulation of the

alveolar stops /t/, /d/ and etc to a

position closer to that of the following

sound.

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Example 1

BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/)

Phoneme Realised as Example

/d/ /g/good girl

/ggg:l/

/t/ /k/ that kid/k kd/

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Example 2

BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/)

Phoneme Realised as Example

/n/ /m/ ten men/tm 'mn/

/d/ /b/bad boys

/bb bz/

/t/ /p/hot mushrooms

/hpmru:mz/

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Manner of Articulation

Less frequent and less noticeable

Only found in very fast casual speech

Typically toward less extreme

obstruction

Sometimes progressively

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Example 3

Word : Good night

/gd nat/ becomes /gn nat/

A final plosive becomes a nasal

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Example 4

Word : That side

/t sad/ becomes /s sad/

A final plosive becomes a fricative

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Example 5

Word : Read these

/ri:d i:z/ becomes /ri:ddi:z/

An initial fricative becomes a plosive

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Voicing

The vibration of the vocal cords is

not something that can be switched

on and off very swiftly, as a resultgroups of consonants tend to be

either all voiced or all voiceless.

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Example 6

Word : Have to

/hv tu:/ becomes /hft/

Word: Has to

/hz tu:/ becomes/hst/

Word: I have to go

/ahftg/

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Example 7

Word: Used to

/ju:zd tu:/ becomes /ju:st/

Word : I used to live near you.

/aju:stlvn ju:/

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Example 8

Word: Supposed to

/spzd tu:/ becomes /spst/

Word : You were supposed to leave!

/ju: wspstli:v/

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/t/ changes to /p/ before /m/ /b/ or /p/

-best man -put back -cigarette paper

/d/ changes to /b/ before /m/ /b/ or /p/

-good morning -blood bank -mud pie

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/n/ changes to /m/ before /m/ /b/ or /p/

-iron man -brown bear -pen pal

/t/ changes to /k/ before /k/ or /g/

-credit card -fat girl

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