Definition of assimilation, adaptation and elision

Assimilation is the influence of a sound on a neighboring sound so that the two become similar or the same. For example, the Latin prefix in- 'not, non-, un-' appears in English as il-, im-. and ir- in the words illegal, immoral, impossible (both m and p are bilabial consonants), and irresponsible as well as the unassimilated original form in- in indecent and incompetent. Although the assimilation of the n of in- to the following consonant in the preceding examples was inherited from Latin, English examples that would be considered native are also plentiful. In rapid speech native speakers of English tend to pronounce ten bucks as though it were written tembucks, and in anticipation of the voiceless s in son the final consonant of his in his son is not as fully voiced as the s in his daughter, where it clearly is [z]."

A series of four experiments compared the effects of unequal probability anchoring and selective adaptation on phonetic and nonphonetic judgments. The basic stimulus series was a synthetic stop consonant continuum ranging from /b/ to /d/. On this continuum were superimposed covariations in fundamental frequency, intensity or vowel. In each experiment subjects listened to identical test tapes under two judgment conditions: place of articulation, and pitch or loudness or vowel judgments. The two types of judgment were significantly dissociated under both anchoring and adaptation paradigms, thus demonstrating that the former may be no less selective than the latter. From this and other evidence, it was concluded that the two paradigms are, in principle, equivalent, and that the main factors in speech adaptation effects are peripheral fatigue and central auditory contrast. If the selective processes of fatigue and contrast are taken to reflect functional channels of analysis rather than the operation of feature detectors, the same broad processes can be seen at work in both speech and nonspeech adaptation.

Elision is very simply the omission of certain sounds in certain contexts. The most important occurrences of this phenomenon regard:

1) Alveolar consonants /t/ and /d/ when ‘sandwiched’ between two consonants (CONS – t/d – CONS), e.g.

The ne xt d ay….	/ðə ˈneks ˈdeɪ/
The la st c ar…	/ðə ˈlɑ:s ˈkɑ:/
Ho ld th e dog!	/ˈhəʊl ðə ˈdɒg/
Se nd F rank a card.	/sen ˈfræŋk ə ˈkɑ:d/

This can also take place within affricates /t§/ and /d½/ when preceded by a consonant, e.g.

lunchtime	/ˈlʌntʃtaɪm/	become	/ˈlʌnʃtaɪm/
strange days	/ˈstreɪndʒˈdeɪz/	/ˈstreɪnʒˈdeɪz/

The phoneme /t/ is a fundamental part of the negative particle not, the possibility of it being elided makes the foreign students life more difficult. Consider the negative of can – if followed by a consonant the /t/ may easily disappear and the only difference between the positive and the negative is a different, longer vowel sound in the second:

I can speak….	/aɪ kən ˈspi:k/
I can’t speak…	/aɪ ˈkɑ:n(t) ˈspi:k/

Note that when can’t is followed by a vowel, e.g. ‘I can’t eat’, the /t/ is not elided.

Can something similar happen to didn’t?

2) A second form involves the omission of the schwa /\/ before liquids /l/ and /r/, e.g.

secre tar y	/ˈsekrət(ə)ri/
ca mer a	/ˈkæm(ə)rə/
me mor y	/ˈmem(ə)ri/

In some cases this elision may be optional (dictionaries usually represent the optional sound in italics e.g. /ˈlʌn t ʃtaɪm/, in others it is the norm.

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