Phonological Processes (Linguistics)

## Consonant Gradation

### Fortis/Lenis Alternation

In linguistics, **fortis** and **lenis**, sometimes identified with **tense** and **lax**, are pronunciations of consonants with relatively greater and lesser energy. English has fortis consonants, such as the *p* in *pat*, with a corresponding lenis consonant, such as the *b* in *bat*. Fortis and lenis consonants may be distinguished by tenseness or other characteristics, such as voicing, aspiration, glottalization, velarization, length, and length of nearby vowels. Fortis and lenis were coined for languages where the contrast between sounds such as *p* and *b* does not involve voicing (vibration of the vocal cords).

### Prevocalic Voicing

The voicing of an initial voiceless consonant in a word.

Ex: “peach” /pitʃ/ is pronounced “beach”/bitʃ/

### Word Final Devoicing

*Final devoicing* is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as German, Dutch, Polish, and Russian, among others. In these languages, voiced obstruents in the syllable coda or at the end of a word become voiceless.

### Fronting

A sound made in the back of the mouth (e.g. a velar) is replaced with a sound made in the front of the mouth (e.g. an alveolar)

*Example:* tar for car; date for gate

### Consonant Harmony / Assimilation

#### Velar Assimilation

A non-velar sound changes to a velar sound due to the presence of a neighboring velar sound

*Example:* kack for tack

#### Nasal Assimilation

A non-nasal sound changes to a nasal sound due to the presence of a neighboring nasal sound

*Example:* money for funny

### Gliding of Liquids

A liquid (/r/, /l/) is replaced with a glide (/w/, /j/)

*Example:* wabbit for rabbit

### Stopping of Fricatives

A fricative and/or affricate is replaced with a stop sound

*Example:* tee for see; chop for shop

### De-affricatization

An affricate is replaced with a fricative

*Example:* shop for chop

## Deletion

### Cluster Reduction

A consonant cluster is simplified into a single consonant

*Example:* top for stop

### Weak Syllable Deletion

An unstressed or weak syllable in a word is deleted

*Example:* nana for banana

### Final Consonant Deletion

The deletion of the final consonant of a word

*Example:* bu for bus

## Metathesis

**Metathesis** is the rearranging of sounds or syllables in a word or of words in a sentence. Most commonly, it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as **adjacent metathesis** or **local metathesis.** However, metathesis may also involve switching non-contiguous sounds, known as **nonadjacent metathesis**, **long-distance metathesis**, or **hyperthesis.**

## Vowel Harmony

Vowel harmony is a type of assimilation which takes place when vowels come to share certain features with contrastive vowels elsewhere in a word or phrase.

*Example:* A front vowel in the first syllable of a word would require the presence of a front vowel in the second syllable

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortis\_and\_lenis
2. ↑ https://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/66\_Phonological.pdf
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant\_voicing\_and\_devoicing#Final\_devoicing
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 http://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Speech-Sound-Disorders-Articulation-and-Phonology/Selected-Phonological-Processes/
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metathesis\_(linguistics)
6. ↑ http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/glossaryoflinguisticterms/whatisvowelharmony.htm