Phonology 101

METATHESIS Definition: The rearrangement of two consonants in a syllable.

CLUSTER REDUCTION Definition: Omitting one or more consonants in a consonant cluster.

WEAK SYLLABLE DELETION Definition: Omitting the unstressed or weak syllable of a multisyllabic word.

CONSONANT DELETION Definition: Consonant deletion occurs whenever a consonant in syllable-initial or syllable-final position is omitted.

Two types of deletion A simple way to alter the structure of a word is to omit particular speech segments. There are two main speech segments that are typically deleted: consonants weak syllables NEXT>> Consonant…

REDUPLICATION Definition: The repetition of the initial CV syllable in a multisyllabic word. [For further clarification see On the Definition…

Structural alterations Structural simplifications involve some  alteration to the structure of a particular word. Specifically, it is the structure of the syllables that make up the word that is affected. Structural simplifications are, therefore, sometimes known as syllable structure processes. There are five main structural simplifications: reduplication…

Simplifying processes in child language Phonological simplifying processes, as we will describe them in PHONOLOGY 101, are not generally a feature of adult language but they do occur in typically developing child speech. As we have seen, the processes constitute a set of rules or procedures for…