Assimilation (linguistics)

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Assimilation is a regular and frequent sound change process by which a phoneme changes to match an adjacent phoneme in a word. A common example of assimilation is vowels being 'nasalized' before nasal consonants as it is difficult to change the shape of the mouth sufficiently quickly.

If the phoneme changes to match the preceding phoneme, it is progressive assimilation (also left-to-right, perseveratory, or preservative assimilation). If the phoneme changes to match the following phoneme, it is regressive assimilation (also right-to-left or anticipatory assimilation). If there is a mutual influence between the two phonemes, it is reciprocal assimilation. In the latter case the two phonemes can fuse completely and give a birth to a different one. This is called a coalescence.

Assimilation may result in the neighbouring segments becoming identical, yielding a geminate consonant; this is complete assimilation. In other cases, only some features of phonemes assimilate, e.g. voicing or place of articulation; this is partial assimilation.

Examples

Complete assimilation:

The word assimilation itself (from Latin ad + simile)
illegible (in + legible)
suppose (sub + pose)
in Italian: Egitto (tt < pt), dottore (tt < kt), and many more

Partial assimilation:

voicing: the pronunciation of absurd as apsurd or abzurd
devoicing: bats (bat + the plural morpheme s, which is underlyingly /z/)
place of articulation: impossible (in + possible), incomplete (in which n represents the velar nasal)

Numerous examples can be found at List of Latin words with English derivatives.

Assimilation (linguistics)

See also