Lecture V

Phonological processes:

lenitions and fortitions.

November, 21st, 2007

The nature of phonological

processes

•

Processes reflect conflicting phonetic restrictions (e.g.

an obstruent intervocalically cannot be both voiced and

voiceless) they fall into contradictory sets, i.e. lenitions

and fortitions.

•

Lenitions – context-sensitive processes that apply in

weak positions and in casual speech . They are speaker-

friendly processes that minimise articulatory difficulties

of speech.

•

Fortitions – context-free processes but expected to

apply in strong positions and more formal styles. Their

teleology (i.e. Ultimate purpose) is to maximise the

perceptual characteristics of speech segments.

Fortitions enhance perceptibility and as such are

listener-friendly

Widely attested lenitions

•

Assimilation of place, manner and
voice

•

Consonant and vowel deletion

•

Spirantisation (approximantisation)

•

Hiatus avoidance strategies:
epenthesis, glide formation,
deletion, coalescense

Assimilation of place

•

Assimilation: regressive and progressive

•

The alveolars/dentals tend to assimilate to the place of

articulation of the following segment (regressive assimilation).

•

The propensity of // for place assimilation can be accounted for

by the fact that a nasal can be produced in most places of

articulation.

•

Examples: / / → / /

/ / → / /
/ / → / /
// → //
// → //

•

Yod coalescense: / / → //, / / → //,

/ / → //, / / → //

•

Non-assimilating languages

Assimilation of voice

•

Voice assimilation can be of two kinds, namely

voicing where [-voice] → [+voice] and

devoicing that is a change [+voice] → [- voice]

•

The plural -s, 3rd person singular –s and the

possessive s undergo the former process,e.g.

bags //, lives //, Bob’s //, while the

latter is mainly applied across word

boundaries, e.g.

•

I like that black dog /    /

•

Differences between Polish and English: no

regressive voicing in English

Assimilation of voice

I like that black dog performed by a

native speaker of American
English.

Assimilation of manner

•

The interdental // tends to be realised in

various ways depending on the

phonological context in which it finds itself.

•

// can be realised as:

•

A nasal sound, e.g. / /

•

A plosive, e.g. / /

•

An approximant, e.g. /  /

•

A tap, e.g. // (only in American

English)

Vowel deletion

•

Established cases of vowel deletion:

- initially: state, scholar
- medially: evening, chimney, Gloucester
- finally: time, name, hands <handes>, eaten

•

Present Day English: affected vowels /, /

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C + // + // + WV e.g. factory, territory

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C + // + // e.g. family, bachelor,specialist

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C + // + // or // e.g. parade, police, terrific

•

F + // + S e.g. phonetics, thermometre,

suppose

Consonant deletion

•

Established cases of consonant deletion:

- initially: hlaford, write, know, gnat,
- medially: listen, listen, castle, but often
- finally: lamb, thumb, hymn,

•

Present Day English:

•

further simplification of consonant clusters:

wristwatch, handbag, mostly, windmill, etc.

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The loss of // after //: always, already,

although

Spirantisation (Approximantisation)

•

Approximantisation – a phonetically

conditioned process whereby

intervocalic voiced plosives are

realised phonetically as

approximants.

•

The process is the likelier the lowest

the adjacent vowels, i.e. /_/ > /_/ >

/_/

zabawnego > dobowego > kibicować

Hiatus avoidance

•

Hiatus – seqeunce of two vowels separated by a syllable

boundary, e.g. going //, the apple //, drawing

//

•

The use of a given linking (epenthetic) consonant is

determined by the articulatory characteristics of the first

vowel.

•

Glide formation:

- in English two or three // can be realised as //
- in Spanish teatro // puerta //

-

in Polish sytuacje //

•

Deletion: hiatus former by two identical vowels realised as

one, e.g. nożyczki i igły // or alkohol //

•

Coalescence – an intermediate vowel quality results from

the coalescence of two constituents of a hiatus

Bibliography

•

O’Grady, William – Dobrovolsky, Michael – Katamba, Francis. (1996).

Contemporary linguistics. London: Pearson Education Limited.

•

Hyman, Larry. 1975. Phonology: theory and analysis. New York: Holt,

Rinehart and Winston Inc.

•

Sobkowiak, Włodzimierz. 2001. English phonetics for Poles. Poznań:

Wydawnictwa Poznańskie.

•

Roach, Peter. 2000. English phonetics and phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

•

Cruttenden, Alan. 1994. Gimson’s pronunciation of English. London: Arnold.

•

Gurevich, Naomi. 2004. Lenition and contrast. New York: Routledge.

•

Jaworski, Sylwester. 2006. “Phonetically conditioned processes: spirantisation

in Polish and English.” Świat Słowian w języku i kulturze 2006: vol. 5, 105-

111. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego.

•

Jaworski, Sylwester. 2007. “Phonetically conditioned processes: vowel

weakening in Polish and Spanish.” To appear in Świat Słowian w języku i

kulturze 2007

•

Jaworski, Sylwester. 2007. “On the phonetic instability of the English
interdentals.” To appear in Doctrina Multiplex

.