Introduction
Phonological processes are a common and predictable part of phonological development often recognized as simple pronunciation alteration. When phonemes are combined to form words, the segments of neighbouring phonemes become juxtaposed and sometimes undergo changes. Changes can also occur based on phonological environment. Such changes are found in word initial, medial and word final positions in relation to a segment and are all referred to as ‘phonological processes’ .
3.1 Phonological Processes
Phonological processes are the changes sounds undergo for occurring with other sounds in a particular phonological environment. They are a set of restructuring which link the underlying structure to the phonetic surface structure. It presents the realised sequence from the deep structure to the surface structure. One interesting aspect of the phonology of languages is that organised sounds of each language are not always static. They are constantly affected by the surrounding or neighbouring sounds, that is, the neighbouring segments always condition them. These conditioning are governed by rules called,’ Phonological Rules’. Sometimes phonological changes are not merely strictly phonological, changes may occur in the morphology or syntax that warrant a phonological change’
Phonological rules have to be exact in their scientific accounts of linguistic analysis. As such the rule should be scientifically and notationally represented:
X y / b
In the formula above, ‘X’ which is the main focus of the analysis refers to the input to the alternation, while ‘y’ shows the feature changed to, by rule application. The slant ‘/’ refers to the context or environment in which the change occurs.
One important thing about this formula is that any of the elements (x, y, b) could be null. This makes it possible to capture different phonological processes within this formula. If in an analysis, we discover that the input ‘x’ is null, the rule will appear,
Ǿ y / b
This kind of a change can be noticed in some varieties of spoken language. For example, most Nigerian languages do not tolerate consonant clusters. Whenever a Nigerian speaker of English as a second language meets a word in English that has consonant clusters, he is likely to break the cluster and simplify the structure to suit his own language for easier articulation. For example, ‘bread’ /bred/ [buredi}
CCVC CVCVCV
In the above the English ‘CCVC’ structure has been simplified to ‘CVCV’ structure.
Phonological processes are the principles or norms which explain how abstract units are combined and vary when they are used in speech, such processes are assimilation nasalisation, dissimilation, coalescence, contraction, elision, neutralization, metathesis, insertion etc.
3.1.1 Assimilation
Assimilation is a phonological process where a speech sound changes and becomes more like another sound, which follows or precedes it. e.g.:
Im – possible
In – tolerant
In – tangible
In – decent
In – delible
In – sincere
impractical
impatient
impartial
immaterial
indirect
imbalance
In the above, the forms with the prefix as ‘im-’ take bilabial plosives as /p/ and /b/ or nasal /m/, while those with ‘in-‘prefix take alveolar plosives or fricative /s/ . There is anticipation as both are articulated at the same place and this decides which phoneme that is to follow.
On the other hand, the difference between /s/ in the English word ‘cats’ and the /z/ in ‘dogs’ is another kind of assimilation.
The most common phonological rule is assimilation, as many other process have their root in assimilation.
The functions of assimilation are:
. To save time
. To anticipate other sounds
. For ease of articulation
Assimilation is considered in terms of features as: this is totally unclear from the examples above.
ɔ m/-b ɔ/-
f n/-l or
d ŋ/-k
ŋm/-gb
Assimilation can be either:
(i) Progressive Assimilation: The assimilated sound follows the conditioned sound. It is a sort of hand over phenomenon. It is when the change proceeds from left to right.
Man /mãn/
No /n ~ /
Notationally, this can be captioned as:
/V/ ˜V/N-
(ii) Regressive Assimilation (anticipatory) takes place from right to left (R –
L). The assimilated sound precedes (comes before) the conditioning sound.
bon /b˜ /כ So which is the assimilated sound, and which the
conditioning sound? Also, let a secretary place the tilde (nasalization symbol over the vowels)
bomb / b˜ כm/
song /s˜ כŋ/
son /s˜Dn/
By rule application, the above phonological process can be notationally stated:
V ˜V /-N (before)
This means that a non-nasal sound changes to a nasalised sound in an environment before a nasal sound.
Nasalisation
Nasalisation is a phonological process whereby a non-nasal sound picks on the
features of a nasal sound because it occurs in the same distributional environment. e.g.
sing
pin
[sĩŋ]
[pĩn]
pen [pĕn]
sand [sãnd]
It is a secondary articulation, which results from the process of assimilation.
Dissimilation
Dissimilation is a process whereby sounds become less similar to their surrounding segments. This process is less common than the assimilation. It creates distinctiveness in sounds in the same environment. In English the adjectival suffix – ‘al’, has two phonetic realizations of ‘-al’ or ‘-ar’ e.g.
A B
Noun - Adjective
Noun
- Adjective
Electric – electrical
Angle
- Angular
Culture – cultural
Single
-
Singular
Region – regional
Title
-
Titular
Orbit – orbital
Circle
-
Circular
When the ‘-al’ is added to a word that already ends in ‘–l’, it takes the form –ar, where the ‘–r’ is dissimilar to the ‘–l’ of the noun. However, there are exceptions to this rule(s). This is morphologically-induced.
Coalescence
This is a phonological process whereby two contiguous sounds are replaced by one which, though different from each of the two, shares some properties in common with each of the two original sounds. In English coalescence occurs when a morpheme final alveolar plosive or fricative /t, d/ or /s, z/ is followed by [ j ], a palato – alveolar fricative results, mostly when the segment is followed by the suffix “-ion” e.g.,
relate /rileit/
relation /rileiʃ n/
confuse /k nfju:z/
confusion /kənfju:ʃ n/
Contraction
Contraction is a phonological process whereby a sequence of two identical segments is reduced to one. This process is always identifiable with vowels and it is usually a direct result of vowel assimilation, but can also be found in consonants. This process is dominant in Nigerian languages e.g. Isoko
da + udi
drink water
by assimilation
by contraction
Duud
i
Dudi
drink water
Vowel Reduction
Vowel Reduction is a phonological process whereby unstressed vowels are weakend to schwa, this process abounds in English, e.g.
phone /f un/
phonemics /fe ni:mIks/
phone /f un/
phonetics /f netiks/
photography /f utəgra:f/ photography /f tɒgrəfI/
able /eIbl/ ability / bil ti/
super /su:p ) superior /s :pI rIə/
telegraphy /t legr fi/
telegraphy /tl gra:f/ /telәgra:f/
Elision /Deletion
This is a phonological process whereby a segment that had existed is lost or becomes zero. The process may affect a vowel or a consonant. Some segments that are heard in a deliberate or slow articulation of a word in isolation may get deleted/elided or lost in festination (fast speech) and this can even affect an entire syllable. Deletion exists in many forms:
(i) Aphaeresis: This affects a morpheme or a sound at initial position. This is initial deletion e.g. I have – I’ve
The loss could be diachronically (history) traced.
Other examples are:
Knight /nait/
Know /n u/
Pneumonia /njium ni /
Psychology /saik lɒʤi/
(ii) Syncope (Syncopation) is the internal deletion e.g.
listen/lisn/
sword
often
castle
plumber secretary
chocolate
/sɔ:d/
/ɔfn/
/kæsl/
/plɔm /
/sektri/
/ʧɒkleit/
(iii) Apocope (Apocopation) is the deletion of the final segment e.g.
and /9 n/
last time /læstaim/
Apocopation abounds in French words borrowed into English e.g.
coup debut depot chalet
sachet
/ku:/
/debju:/
/dep u/
/sæ
In French, the final vowels of the definite article ‘le’ and ‘la’ are always deleted if the following word begins with a vowel. This process prevents sequences of vowels from occurring across word boundaries and thus maintains the preferred ‘CV’ structure.
le garcon [l ga:s9n] The boy
le ami
[l’ami] The friend (male
la fille
[la fij] The girl
la amie
[lamie] The friend (female)
Neutralization
This is a fact of language. It is a process, which takes place when two distinctive sounds (phonemes) in a language are no longer distinctive. This usually occurs in particular positions in a word. For example /t/ and /d/ are neutralized inter-
vocalically (in between vowel sounds) in American English as in:
Betting [be00马 ]
Bedding [be 00马 ]
In German /t/ and /d/ do not contrast at word final positions e.g;
Rad
[ra:t]
Rat
[ra:t}
Metathesis
This is a phonological process whereby the order of segments is juxtaposed. The
process involves movement, permutation or reversal of segments in a string. This is common in speech errors and children’s language.
Some refer to it as spoonerism coined from Professor Spooner who liked juxtapositioning segment e.g.
professor
prossefor
ask
aks
comfortable
comfterble
certificate
cerfiticate
relevant
revelant
disc
dics
This process has shaped many English words historically. The discrepancy between some spellings and pronunciations is caused by metathesis. For example, ‘iron’ .
Even ‘bird’ in English was once ‘bryd’, ‘run’ was once ‘ irnan’, ‘horse’ was ‘hros’, ‘wasp’ was ‘wæps’, and ‘hasp’ ‘hæps’ .
4.0 CONCLUSION
Phonological processes are the natural facts of languages. It is natural because it is common among all the languages of the world. Phonological processes are the changes phonemes undergo because they happen to occur with other sounds in the same environment. The most common of all the processes is ‘Assimilation’ . All other processes like nasalization, metathesis, neutralization, insertion, deletion etc can be traced to assimilation process.
5.0 SUMMARY
Phonological process is the change sounds undergo for occurring in the same environment with other sounds. These changes could be phonological, morphological and syntactic. Phonologically, a sound change can be conditioned based on phonological environment as in ‘physics’ /fiziks/. The‘s’ changes to /z/ because it occurs in between two vowel sounds. The sound‘s’ is a voiced, while ‘y’ and ‘i’ consonant are voiced sounds. The voiceless sound /s/ has to change to [z] a voiced sound to be like ‘y’ and ‘I’ in terms of voicing. It could be morphologically
conditioned when it happens across word boundary. Consider the English regular past tense formation ‘-ed’ and the regular plural suffixation ‘-s’. These processes are meant for ease of articulation, save time and anticipation of neighbouring sounds.
6.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. What are phonological Processes?
2. List the various phonological processes and explain only five with copious examples.
3. What are the functions of these processes in language development?
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Bowen, C. (1998). Developmental phonological disorders: A practical guide for families and teachers. Melbourne: ACER Press.
Grunwell, P. (1997). Natural phonology. In M. Ball & R. Kent (Eds.), The new phonologies: Developments in clinical linguistics. San Deigo:
Singular Publishing Group, Inc.
Phonological Processes: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Phonological Processes 1.htm. Retrieved 22/12/ 2007
Phonological Processes: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My
Documents\Phonological Development - Phonological Processes.htm. Retrieved 22/12/ 2007.
Phonological Rules: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Phonological Rules 3.htm. Retrieved 22/12/ 2007.U
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