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ASSIMILATION

المؤلف:  Parviz Birjandi

المصدر:  AN INTRODUCTION TO PHONETICS

الجزء والصفحة:  C6-P131

2026-07-25

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ASSIMILATION

Assimilation is when one sound is influenced and changed by a neighboring sound. Many phoneticians use the term assimilation to refer to cases in which one sound affects the sound that appears on its left side. These scholars do not refer to right-ward sound change as assimilation.

Generally speaking, there are three types of assimilation that can be identified: assimilation of place, assimilation of manner, and/or assimilation of voice. Assimilation of place can be demonstrated by ratbag (that is, [ˈræpbæg]) or oatmeal (that is, [ˈəʊpmi:ɫ]) where the /t/ sound is replaced by a /p/ sound. This is because the alveolar plosive /t/ is simplified into the /p/ sound which is closer to the bilabial plosive /b/. Assimilation of manner refers to when two different manners of articulation influence each other to form a different type of manner of articulation. Examples of this are the pronunciation of [Indian] as [ˈɪnʤən] or the pronunciation of [’səʊlʤə(r)]. This is because the plosive /d/ combines with the approximant /j/ to form the affricate /ʤ/. Assimilation of voice is illustrated by the pronunciation of "have to" with an /f/ sound rather than the /v/ sound (i.e., [ˈhæftə]) as the voiced fricative is followed by a voiceless consonant.

The reason for assimilation is because (a) the tongue cannot always move quickly enough to get from one position to another in order to articulate the next sound, or because (b) the mouth is to busy anticipating the following sound. In either case, it approximates the sound before moving on to the next segment of sound. This approximation is technically referred to as assimilation. The following rules explain the most common types of assimilation that take place in English.