Allophones: different versions of the same phoneme.

(Knight)

Alveolar fricative regressive place assimilation: the alveolar fricatives may become post-alveolar
fricatives without altering their voicing when followed by a palatal approximant or a post-alveolar
fricative. /s/→/ʃ/ /z/→/ʒ/. (Tench)

Alveolar stop regressive place assimilation: the alveolar stops /t d n/ may become bilabial when
followed by bilabial consonants or they may become velar stops when followed by velars without
altering their voicing. Ten pens /ten penz/ → /tem penz/. Ten keys /ten kiːz/ → /teŋ kiːz/. (Tench)

Alveolar syllabic nasal progressive place assimilation: the alveolar syllabic nasal may become bilabial
or velar when preceded by a bilabial or velar plosive in the same word and followed by a consonant in
the same or the next word or a pause. Pen (transcribe) (Tench)

Aspiration: audible puff of air that occurs after another sound; it sounds rather like a short /h/.
Aspiration is present in voiceless plosives /t/ and / k/. The position of /p t k/ in the syllable, and the
stress of that syllable. Aspiration occurs any time a voiceless plosive occurs at the very beginning of a
stressed syllable. However, are always unaspirated when they follow an /s/ in the onset of a stressed
syllable. (Knight)

Assimilation: process by which two or more sounds become more similar to each other. This similarity
is achieved by one of the sounds taking characteristics from the other one. (Tench)

When an adjustment is made to accommodate an actual phonetic feature in the immediate

environment, the process of simplification is known as assimilation. The adjustment makes the
phoneme more similar to its environment. (Tench)

A given sound (the assimilating sound) takes on the characteristics of a neighbouring sound (the
conditioning sound). There are three types: progressive assimilation the conditioning sound precedes
and affects the following sound. It may occur when a plosive is followed by a syllabic nasal and the
nasal undergoes assimilation to the same place of articulation as the preceding plosive. Regressive
assimilation: the assimilated sound precedes and is affected by the conditioning sound. /t, d, n/ are
replaced by bilabials before bilabial consonants and by velars before velar consonants; /s, z/ are
replaced by palato-alveolars before consonants containing a palatal feature. And coalescent
assimilation: The first sound and second sound in a sequence come together and mutually condition
the creation of a third sound with features from both original sounds. Coalescence of /t, d, s, z/with
/j/: The process which has led historically to earlier /t, d, s, z/ + /j/ giving /ʧ, ʤ, ʃ, ʒ/ medially in a word
may operate in contemporary colloquial speech at word boundaries

Coalescence: two sounds merge into one sound which shares characteristics from the two original
ones. (Tench)

The alveolar plosives may merge with a following palatal approximant to become post-alveolar
affricates. It is only common when the plosive and the approximant are in different words and the
approximant is in a grammatical word. Don’t you /dəʊnt jʊ/ →/dəʊnʧu/. (Tench) When two
successive consonants affect each other (tench)
Complementary distribution: where one allophone occurs, another cannot. (Knight)

Elision: complete removal. Mainly affects /t d/ if they are preceded by a consonant and also followed
by a word beginning with a consonant. (Tench)

Loss of phonemes or of vowels. Three types: initially → state, scholar medially → Gloucester, evening
final syllable → time, name. There could be vowel or consonant elision. Among vowels: Allophonic
variation: When one syllable ends with a closing diphthong and the next syllable begins with a vowel,
the second element of the diphthong may be elided. Phonemic elision: when final schwa occurs with
following linking /r/ and word-initial vowel, /ə/ may be elided. Among consonants: alveolar plosives
are apt to be elided when /t/ or /d/ is the middle one of three consonants. Any consonant may appear
in third position, though elision of the alveolar plosive is relatively rare before /h/ and /j/. Elision is
common in the sequence voiceless continuant + /t/ or voiced continuant + /d/. Elision of final /t/ or
/d/ is rarer before initial /h/. Final /t,d/ followed by a word beginning with /j/ are usually kept in a
coalesced form, i.e. as /ʧ/ and /ʤ/. The /t/ of the negative /-nt/ is often elided before a following
consonant and sometimes before a vowel.

Free allophonic variation: situation, where alternative allophones of a phoneme are possible. (Knight)

Glottalisation: the oral closure for the voiceless plosives /p t k/, when they occur at the end of an
utterance. (Knight)

Labialization: technical term for lip-rounding. Any consonant can be labialised before rounded vowels
or before /w/. We use the diacritic [ʷ].consonants are affected by the following sound, this is an
anticipatory process. Labialisation does not affect the primary articulation of the sound, but adds
another constriction. This constriction is a secondary articulation, because it is less extreme than the
other, primary, articulation. (Knight)

Liaison: refers to the smooth linking or joining together of words in connected speech. Final
consonants are linked to following initial vowel sounds. It is an essential ingredient of both rhythm
and intonation.

Neutralisation: the contrast between /p t k/ and /b d g/ is shown in word-initial position by pairs.

However, following /s/ there is no such contrast. Word beginning / sp- st- sk-/ are not contrasted with
words beginning /sb- sd- sg-/. The contrast between voiceless and voiced is neutralised following /s/
in word-initial position. Another case of neutralization concerns the allophones /m/ and /n/ before /f/
and /v/. The nasal consonant in each case is likely to be [allophone], i.e. the labiodentals sound
anticipating the labiodentals [f]. (Gimson)

Palatalisation: a secondary articulation is added in the palatal region of the vocal tract. We use the
diacritic [ʲ]. (Knight)

Phonemes: smallest units that can make a meaning difference in a language, but they occur in slightly
different forms depending on their environment (Knight)

Phonemic assimilation: all the cases of /n/ assimilation that involve adjustments from one phoneme,
/n/, to another, /m velar nasal/ (Tench)
Pre-fortis clipping: sounds are shorter (clipped) when they come before (pre-) a voiceless (fortis)
consonant in the same syllable. (Knight)

Progressive assimilation: a sound takes features from the sound preceding it, since the features
‘move’ forward A→B. (Tench)

Regressive assimilation: a sound takes features from the following, since the features ‘move’
backward or is anticipated A←B. (Tench)

Sequence of plosives: the release phase of the first plosive takes place during the hold of the second
plosive. Although the back of the tongue breaks it contact with the velum, no audible plosion will be
heard at this stage, because the air is stopped by the alveolar closure. The release of the first plosive
in a sequence is in audible. The sequence may be within a word, or may result from putting two words
together. (Maidment)

Unaspirated: there is no /h/-like friction after the release of the /p/. (Knight)

Velarisation: a secondary articulation in the velar region of the vocal tract. Applies primarily to /l/ in
English, but only occurs in certain environments. (Knight)

Voice assimilation: it is a regressive assimilation and the feature which is borrowed is voicelesness.
Thus /v/ becomes /f/ because the following sound /t/ or /k/, is voiceless. Assimilation of voiceless to
voiced does not occur. This sort of assimilation only affects /v/ and /z/. Have to, of course, newspaper.
(Tench)