Voicing
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This document discusses voicing assimilation in English phonology. It explains that in English, two adjacent obstruent sounds must agree in voicing, with the voicing feature spreading between them. Examples are given of regressive voicing assimilation within morphemes, where the first sound takes on the voicing of the second (e.g. wide /wI+d/ + th // [wwt]). It also describes progressive voicing assimilation across word boundaries before a single phoneme word like 's, with the second sound taking the voicing of the first (e.g. the book /丹cbk/ s /z/ [丹cbks
![44166. STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH II: THE WORD Prof. Yehuda N. Falk
Phonology: Voicing Assimilation
In many languages, including English, two adjacent obstruents cannot disagree in voicing. The feature
[賊 voice] has to spread over both of them.
example [elz脱mpl/] [ lz ]
exception [eksep邸n/ ] [ ks ]
structure [strkr/ ] [ k ]
etc.
So the phonological structure has to look like this:
and not like this:[賊 voice]
[son] [son]
[賊 voice] [賊 voice]
[son] [son]
What happens if two morphemes get put together?
trans /trAnz/ + fer /fr/ [tr脱nsfr/ ]
wide /wI+d/ + th // [wwt]
The second one changes the voicing of the first one. This is called regressive voicing assimilation. We can
write the rule as follows, where the double cross-off shows that a connection is cut, and the dotted line
shows that a new connection is formed.
Regressive Voicing Assimilation
[賊 voice] [賊 voice]
[son] [son]
When the adjacent obstruents are in separate words, theydont usually have to agree in voicing. But when
one of those words is a single phoneme, they do. One single-phoneme word is the contracted form of
is: s. Notice what happens:
the book /丹cbk/ s /z/ [丹cbks]
Here, the assimilation is in the other direction. So English also has a rule of progressive voicing
assimilation, which applies across word boundaries.
Progressive Voicing Assimilation
[賊 voice] [賊 voice]
[son] # [son]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/voicing-131006163757-phpapp02/85/Voicing-1-320.jpg)
Voicing
- 1. 44166. STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH II: THE WORD Prof. Yehuda N. Falk Phonology: Voicing Assimilation In many languages, including English, two adjacent obstruents cannot disagree in voicing. The feature [賊 voice] has to spread over both of them. example [elz脱mpl/] [ lz ] exception [eksep邸n/ ] [ ks ] structure [strkr/ ] [ k ] etc. So the phonological structure has to look like this: and not like this:[賊 voice] [son] [son] [賊 voice] [賊 voice] [son] [son] What happens if two morphemes get put together? trans /trAnz/ + fer /fr/ [tr脱nsfr/ ] wide /wI+d/ + th // [wwt] The second one changes the voicing of the first one. This is called regressive voicing assimilation. We can write the rule as follows, where the double cross-off shows that a connection is cut, and the dotted line shows that a new connection is formed. Regressive Voicing Assimilation [賊 voice] [賊 voice] [son] [son] When the adjacent obstruents are in separate words, theydont usually have to agree in voicing. But when one of those words is a single phoneme, they do. One single-phoneme word is the contracted form of is: s. Notice what happens: the book /丹cbk/ s /z/ [丹cbks] Here, the assimilation is in the other direction. So English also has a rule of progressive voicing assimilation, which applies across word boundaries. Progressive Voicing Assimilation [賊 voice] [賊 voice] [son] # [son]