7 TYPES OF RULES 1PHONOLOGICAL

1. Assimilation – phonological process in which a sound changes to resemble a nearby sound and can occur both
forward and backward.
Ex. The prefix in- where sometimes it appears as in– and others as im-. In front of bilabial words, in– becomes im-
. This also happens across word boundaries, like in between pronounced with an m.

2. Dissimilation – phonological process in which two close sounds changes to become less alike.
Ex. Manner dissimilation where a stop becomes a fricative when followed by another stop. The word sixth is
pronounced sikst, /sθ/ becomes /st/.

3. Insertion – phonological process in which a sound is added to a word.

Ex. Voiceless stop insertion where between a nasal consonant and a voiceless fricative, a voiceless stop with the
same place of articulation as the nasal consonant is inserted. In English, many say hampster instead of hamster,
a /p/ is added.

4. Deletion – phonological process in which speech sounds disappear from words.

Ex. English is a fast/common speech language, so vowels can be deleted to make the word one syllable, and easier
to pronounce in a fast manner. Police becomes plice, and friendship is said as frienship.

5. Metathesis – phonological process in which sounds switch places in the phonemic structure of a word.
Ex. To make words easier to pronounce and understand, letters are switched. Two historical examples include
Old English (brid and aks) becoming Modern English (bird and ask).

6. Strengthening (fortition) – phonological process in which a sound is made stronger.

Ex. Aspiration is where voiceless stops become aspirated when they occur at the beginning of a stressed
syllable. Top is said with as h.

7. Weakening (lenition) – phonological process in which a sound becomes weaker.

Ex. The definition of flapping is before a stressed vowel and before and unstressed vowel where the sound is
pronounced with articulation resembling a flap. The word kitty is an example where the alveolar stop is realized
as /r/.

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7 TYPES OF PHONOLOGICAL RULES. (2016). Pore over the Pages.
https://poreoverthepages.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/7-types-of-phonological-rules/