They are subjected to qualitative changes, e.g. man [mæn] – sportsman ['spɔ:tsmən] The quality of the vowel is reduced to the neutral sound [ə]
Test 4. 1 What is the principal function of the phoneme? Constitutive 2 The articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaning are called … non-distinctive, irrelevant or redundant 3 The phonemes of a language form a system of … sounds 4 The ability to produce English with an English-like pattern of stress and rhythm involves … stress-timing (the placement of stress on selected syllables) 5 Modifications of a consonant under the influence of a neighbouring consonant are termed … assimilation, reduction, oppositions 6 A deletion of a sound in rapid or careless speech is termed … ELISION/ellipsis 7 Connecting of the final sound of one word or syllable to the initial sound of the next one is called … linking 8 Modifications of a consonant under the influence of the adjacent vowel or vice versa are called … accommodation/adaptation 9 Inserting of a vowel or consonant segment within an existing string of segments is called … Epenthesis 10 The process when two syllables, usually both weak, optionally become one is called … Compression 11 According to the degree the assimilating C takes on the characteristics of the neighbouring C, assimilation may be … partial, total 12 What are the most common types of assimilation in English? Progressive, regressive and reciprocal 13 What type of assimilation occurs in the contractions it’s, that’s… Progressive (perseverative) assimilation 14 What is the name of assimilation in which the first consonant and the second consonant in a cluster fuse and mutually condition the creation of a third consonant with features from both original consonants? Coalescent (RECIPROCAL) assimilation 15 Give an example of affricatization.
