3. Definition
• Assimilation is a significant difference in natural
connected speech; the way sounds belonging to
one word can cause changes in sounds belonging
to neighboring sounds. (Peter Roach)
• Assimilation is a phonological process in which a
segment changes to resemble its neighbours
more closely. In partial assimilation, the targeted
segment takes on some, but not all, of the
characteristic of the source segment.
4. The purpose of learning it
• To notice every single word when someone is
speaking naturally, especially native speaker.
5. Characteristic
• Assimilation is something which varies in
extent according to speaking rate and style;
it’s more likely to be found in rapid and casual
speech; less likely in slow and careful speech.
• Generally in speaking, assimilation usually
affecting consonants.
6. Example
1. If you notice it already, that person who
standing above the light blue of the sky is my
father.
2. “Haha. Don’t be silly.”
3. That careful act will make you get those
advantageous things in vary day.
4.“Hey, good night!”
5. That side is a reason why I love him.
8. Progressive Assimilation
If the phoneme changes to match the
preceding phoneme, it is progressive
assimilation.
Example :
Get them get ðəm Becomes gettəm
Read these riːd ði:z become ri:ddi:z
9. Regressive Assimilation
If the phoneme changes to match the following
phoneme, it is regressive assimilation.
Example : good girl /gug gɛ:l/
11. Assimilation of place
• Assimilation of place is most clearly observable in some cases where a final
consonant with alveolar is followed by an initial consonant with not alveolar.
• Example : the final consonant in ‘that’ = ˈðæt Is alveolar t . The /t/ will
become /p/ before a bilabial consonant as in ‘that person’ = ˈðæp ˈpə:sən
• Before a dental consonant /t/ will change to a dental plosive.
• Example : that thing =ðæt θɪŋ , get those= get ðəʊz , cut through= kʌt
θruː
• Before a velar consonant, the /t/ will become /k/
• Example : that case=ðæk keɪs , bright colour=braɪk kʌlə: , quite good=
kwaɪk gʊd
• In similar contexts, /d/ would become /b/ , /d/, /g/ and /n/ would
become /m/ , /n/, / ŋ /
• Assimilation of place is only noticeable in this regressive assimilation of
alveolar consonants; it is not something that foreign learners need to learn
to do.
12. Assimilation of manner
• Assimilation of manner is much less noticeable and is only found in the
most rapid and casual speech. It is thus possible to find cases where final
plosive becomes a fricative or nasal for example ‘that side’ = ðæs saɪd ,
‘good night’=gʊn naɪt
• In one particular case we find progressive assimilation of manner, when
/ð/ follows a plosive or nasal at the end of preceding word. For example :
• ‘in the’ = ɪn ðə becomes lnnə
• Get them= get ðəm Becomes gettəm
• Read these = riːd ði:z becomes ri:ddi:z
13. Assimilation of voice
• Assimilation of voice is also found, but again only in a limited way. If the final
phonemeis a voiced consonant and the initial phoneme is voiceless, we often find
that voiced consonant has no voicing. But final phoneme is voiceless and initial
phoneme is voiced, a context in which in many languages, final phoneme would
become voiced, assimilation of voice never takes place; consider the following
example : “I like that black dog” = aɪ laɪk ðæt blæk dɑg
• It is typical of many foreign learners of English that allow regressive assimilation of
voicing to change the final /k/ of ‘like’ to /g/ , the final /t/ of ‘that’ to /d/ and the
final /k/ of ‘black’ to /g/. This creates a very strong impression of foreign accent,
and is something that should obviously be avoided.
14. Assimilation of Voice
• An example of a type of assimilation that has
become fixed is the progressive assimilation of
voice with the suffixes /s/ and /z/; when a verb
carries a third person singular ‘-s’ suffix or a noun
carries an ‘-s’ plural suffix or an ‘-s’ possessive
suffix, that suffix will pronounced as /s/ if the
preceding consonant is fortis (voiceless) and as
/z/ if the preceding consonant is lenis (voiced)
For example:
Cats = kæts ; Jumps= dʒəmps ; Dogs= dɔgz ;
Runs= rʌnz
