Phonological Processes Summary

·                What is Phonological Processes?

The Phonological Processes are such kind of changes processes that used at some morphological changes in a word. It can be occurred when the morphemes are combined in a form of word.

The Phonological processes are the patterns that usually young children used to simplify the adult speech. All children use these processes while their speech and language are developing. For example, very young children (ages 1 to 3) may say “wa-wa” for “water” or “tat” for “cat.”

Other children may leave out the final sound in words (for example, “pi” for “pig” or “ha“ for “hat.”) Up to age 3, these are appropriate productions. As children mature, their speech and they stop using these patterns to simplify words. In fact, by age 5, most children stop using all phonological processes and their speech sounds more like the adults around them. As children stop using phonological processes, their speech becomes more understandable. This allows them to become better communicators.

·                Why and how do they occur?

There are four categories that occurred in Phonological Processes, such as; assimilation, syllable structure, weakening and strengthening, and neutralization.

1.             Assimilation Processes

In assimilation processes a segment takes on features from a neighboring segment. A consonant may pick up features from a vowel, a vowel may take on features of consonant one consonant may influence another, or one vowel may have an effect on another.

Palatalization and labialization are common processes of this type. In palatalization, the tongue position of a vowel is superimposed on an adjacent consonant; in labialization, the lip position of a rounded vowel induced a secondary articulation onto the consonant.

Features from a consonant may be superimposed on a vowel. In this kind of assimilation, the modification of the vowel is usually allophonic. The vowel of one syllable may become more like the vowel of some other syllable. We can distinguish the vowel harmony from umlauting. Vowel harmony is a case in which vowels agree in certain features; and back vowel are fronted before certain suffixes containing a high front vowel known as umlaut.

2.             Syllable Structure Processes

Syllable Structure Process is sometimes also known as Deletion Processes. That is because children will simplify the syllables by deleting them in order to make consonant-vowel words (C-V). Sound changes that cause sounds or syllables to be reduced in number, deleted, or repeated.

The processes of syllable structure are Consonant or vowels may be inserted or deleted; two segments may coalesce into a single segment; a segment may change major class features, such as a vowel becoming a glide; and two segments may interchange. Any of these processes could cause an alteration in the original syllable structure.

There are four types of this process: Reduplication, Weak Syllable Deletion, Final Consonant Deletion, and Cluster Reduction.

·                Reduplication: This process is as basic as it sounds. A child will reduplicate a syllable.

For example:

mommy now sounds like mama

daddy now sounds like dada

water now sounds like wawa

·                Weak Syllable Deletion: This occurs when children take out the weak syllable that is either before or after a stressed syllable in a word.

For example:

telephone is commonly heard as telfon

·                Final Consonant Deletion: This allows the child to remove the final consonant within a syllable to make a consonant-vowel pattern.

For example:

take will now sound like tai

card would sound like car

·                Cluster Reduction: This process occurs when a child removes consonants from a group of attached consonants. The word stripe has a consonant cluster

For example:

stripe may sound like type or even ripe

snow could sound like no

think may sound like tink

3.             Weakening and Strengthening

Not all change in syllabic structure necessarily lead to a simpler syllable structure. The syllable structure would become more complex; for example, if a vowel in an original CVCV configuration were to be deleted so that two consonant came together.

In syncope a vowel near stressed is deleted. This phenomenon occurred in the development from Latin to French. In English, when the stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones, the vowel immediately following the stressed syllable is often dropped in colloquial speech.

Apocope is the loss of a final unstressed vowel, most often a reduced or schwa-like vowel. In colloquial French final schwa is usually dropped, whereas it would not necessarily be in more formal style.

4.             Neutralization

Neutralization is a process whereby phonological distinctions are reduced in a particular environment. Hence, segment which contrast in one environment have the same representation in the environment neutralization.

Neutralization of word final obstruent takes place in German. In initial and intervocalic position, voiced and voiceless obstruent  are in contrast, only voiceless ones are found in word final position.

Russian has a five-vowel system for its stressed vowels. When these vowels appear in unstressed position there is neutralization: Both i and e appear as i, and both a and o appear as a, and u remains u.

In French, all nasalized vowels are low. Different oral vowels may have the same nasalized partner.

There appears to be an interrelationship between neutralization and assimilation, or between neutralization and weak position. Where obstruent clusters agree in voicing, contrasts in voicing are neutralized. By the same token, if a nasal consonant becomes homorganic to following consonant, then nasal consonant of different places of articulation can no longer contrast in those environments, and one could view this assimilation as a type of neutralization.