Assimilation (linguistics)

Assimilation in linguistics is mainly a phonological term meaning the similarity of one sound to another. Assimilation occurs between sounds of the same type (vowels or consonants). Assimilation can be complete (in this case, the assimilated sound completely coincides with the one to which it is compared) and incomplete (respectively, only a few signs of the assimilated sound change). In its direction, assimilation can be progressive (the previous sound influences the next one), regressive (the subsequent sound affects the previous one) and mutual (two adjacent sounds influence each other, communicating some articulation features to each other). Assimilation can be contact (the sounds involved in the process are adjacent) and distant (a typical example is the vowel harmony ).

Assimilation is opposed to dissimilation , the process of the separation of two sounds. The source of assimilative processes is usually co-articulation .

Content

Assimilation of consonants

A very common type of assimilation of consonants: assimilation by voicing / deafness. The most common type in this case is the requirement that two noisy consonants walking along are either voiced or deaf. In addition, in many languages (for example, in Russian , German , Dutch ), voiced consonants at the end of a word are stunned.

Other signs, such as hardness / softness (Russian (literary), Ukrainian , Polish , Irish ), place of education ( Russian , Bantu languages ), method of education ( Bantu languages ), nazalization ( Austronesian languages), can also participate in assimilative processes.

Vowel Assimilation

The most common type of assimilation is vowel harmony , that is, assimilation of all vowels within a word on a number of grounds. Harmony of vowels is quite common in terms of series, elevation and labialization (typical of Turkic languages ); Another common type of harmony is harmony on the advancement of the root of a language found in African languages .

Other types of assimilation

Sometimes processes such as intervocal local lenicia , that is, the weakening of the consonant articulation between vowels, are considered as a type of assimilation.

Literature

Kodzasov, S.V., Krivnova, O.F. General phonetics. Moscow: RSUH, 2001
Ashby, M., Maidment, J. An introduction to Phonetic Science. Cambridge: CUP, 2005

Links

Assimilation in linguistics // Encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extra). - SPb. , 1890-1907.