Language Structure Problems
List of Phonological Processes:
- Aphaeresis/Aphesis: deletion of first segment(s) of a word.
- Example: around -- round
- Example: because -- cause
- Apocope: deletion of last segment(s) of a word.
- Example: breakfast -- breakfas
- Assimilation: Sounds becoming more alike. These can be voicing, manner or place. there is usually a conditioning factor and an effected sound.
- Example of Place: miss you -- mishu
- Example of voicing: bean+s -- [binz]
- Coalescence: two sounds merge into one, often taking voicing from one segment and place from another:
- Eexample: 'like that' -- 'laigat'
- Devoicing: a voiced segment becomes voiceless.
- Epenthesis: inserting segment(s) into a word:
- Example: student -- estudent
- Example: warmth -- warmpth
- Final devoicing: last sound of a word is devoiced. This is an active process in many Germanic languages. It's a kind of assimilation if you grant that the conditioning factor could be the silence that could follow a word.
- Gemination: a segment, vowel or consonant, becomes double long
- Example: the /s/ in the phrase Miss Sandy. (Note that if her name were Miss Andie, the /s/ would be shorter or a glottal stop would be inserted before the /a/). also: if you pronounce 'great time'... the /t/ does sound longer.
- Haplology: syllable or part of a syllable (usually vc or cv) is deleted when there is an identical one nearby.
- Example: probably -- probly. (there are two [ab] combinations and one is deleted).
- Linking: two words joined together usually by a glide but also by palatalization or gemination.
- Metathesis: two elements change places.
- Neutralization: A contrast that usually exists in a language (like the two vowels in bate and bet) is not realized in certain phonological environments as in this case before /r/.
- Palatalization: a sound, usually before a /j/ glide but often before a high front vowel, is moved closer to the palat. miss you -- mishu or 'make Eve -- [mejciv] where [c] is a palatal stop as in 'keep'. Note that when English alveolar stops palatalized, they usually become africates.
- Reanalysis: adding, subtracting or moving word boundaries. Example bacon -- bake in, the ants are -- the answer, my tie -- might I.
- Spirantization: stops become fricatives, usually between vowels. example ata -- asa. Only the manner changes here. Note though that place might also change. Since there is no voiced bilabial fricative in English, when you spirantize a [b] in english you often get [v].
- Syncope: deletion of segment(s) from the middle of a word: suppose -- sppose.
Yes, haplology is often a special case of syncope.
- Vowel Reduction: Vowels in unstressed syllables become shwa or similar short lax vowel.