Final Assessment Questions on “Theoretical phonetics” Card-1 Connection of Phonetics with Other Sciences

Card-22

1. 
   The Phenomenon of Assimilation.
   

Assimilation is a sound change in which some phonemes change to become more similar to other nearby sounds. A common type of phonological process across languages, assimilation can occur either within a word or between words.
"handbag" - haendbag –haembag. Assimilation is a sound change in which some phonemes (typically consonants or vowels) change to become more similar to other nearby sounds. A common type of phonological process across languages, assimilation can occur either within a word or between words. It occurs in normal speech but becomes more common in more rapid speech. In some cases, assimilation causes the sound spoken to differ from the normal pronunciation in isolation, such as the prefix in- of English input pronounced with phonetic [m] rather than [n]. In other cases, the change is accepted as canonical for that word or phrase, especially if it is recognized in standard spelling: implant pronounced with [m], composed historically of in + plant. English "handbag" (canonically /ˈhændbæɡ/) is often pronounced /ˈhæmbæɡ/ in rapid speech because the [m] and [b] sounds are both bilabial consonants, and their places of articulation are similar. Assimilation can be synchronic, an active process in a language at a given point in time, or diachronic, a historical sound change.
There are different types of assimilation depending on which sounds are altered. A sound can either be influenced by the sound that comes before it or after it. The types are as follows: Progressive (before) Regressive (after)
Progressive assimilation This refers to when a sound is influenced by the sound that comes before it. The /s/ sound is influenced by the previous sound and changes to a /z/ sound, e.g.
/bægs/ (bags) → /bægz/ (bagz)

2. 
   Types of English pronunciation.
   

There is wide range of pronunciation of any language, the English language as well. Moreover pronunciation is socially influenced, i.e. it is influenced by education and upbringing. The varieties that are spoken by a socially limited number of people only in certain localities are known as dialects. Due to communication media (radio, TV, cinema), the increased mobility of the population, concentration of the population in the cities, the dialectal differences are becoming less marked. Dialect speakers are, as a rule, the less educated part of the population. In present-day English the number of local speech dialects is being reduced to a fewer, more or less general, regional types. Every regional type of pronunciation is characterized by features that are common to all the dialects used in the region. The dialects, in their turn, are marked one from another by a number of peculiarities specific to each of them. The orthoepic norm of a language is the standard pronunciation adopted by native speakers as the right and proper way of speaking.