Suggested answers to Exercises   1. Phonemic, syllabic and word.           2. flag /flæg/ → /fæg/ = initial cluster reduction   snake /sneɪk/ → /səneɪk/ = epenthesis   police /pəˈlis/ → /ˈlis/ = weak syllable deletion   posts /peʊsts/ → /peʊs/ = final cluster reduction   case /keɪs/ → /seɪk/ = metathesis (switching)   cup /kʌp/ […]

1. Name the three levels at which the speech sound system is organized.   2. Analyze the realizations of the following words and identify which structural phonological simplifying process (Reduplication, Deletion, Cluster Reduction, Metathesis, Epenthesis) may be operating, e.g. dog /dɒg/ → /dɒ/ = final consonant deletion; lamp /læmp/ → /læm/ = final cluster reduction; rabbit /ræbɪt/ → /bærɪt/ = metathesis, film […]

The phonological simplifying processes described in PHONOLOGY 101 should serve to illustrate that many of the ‘mistakes’ children make are not really errors at all. In fact, the majority of children are still using some phonological simplifying processes up to the age of 5;00 years, and some even beyond this. As with most processes of human communication, phonological simplifying processes do […]

The phonological structural simplifications and systemic simplifications discussed in PHONOLOGY 101 are listed in Table 15.   Table 15. Phonological simplifying processes. Table 16 provides summary definitions of each structural process, with examples, and Table 17 presents summary definitions and examples of each systemic phonological simplifying process.   Table 16. Summary definitions of structural phonological processes.   Table 17. […]

Clusters are often simplified by the process of feature synthesis. This occurs when the phonetic characteristics of one segment of the cluster are combined with the phonetic characteristics of the other segment, thereby yielding just one new single segment. Consider the following.   smoke /sməʊk/ → [m̥əʊk]   In this example, the voicelessness of the initial /s/in the cluster is […]