【正文】
fluencing a preceding sound, we call it regressive assimilation. The converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is known as progressive assimilation.22. Devoicing is a process by which voiced sounds bee voiceless. Devoicing of voiced consonants often occurs in English when they are at the end of a word. (not occurring with stops and vowels)23. The changes in assimilation, nasalization, dentalization, and velarization are all phonological processes in which a target or affected segment undergoes a structural change in certain environments or contexts.24. Distinctive feature: A particular characteristic which distinguishes one distinctive sound unit of a language from another or one group of sounds from another group. Binary feature: A property of a phoneme or a word which can be used to describe the phoneme or word. A binary feature is either present or absent. Binary features are also used to describe the semantic properties of words.25. Suprasegmental features are those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments. The principal suprasegmental features are syllables, stress, tone, and intonation.26. Syllable: A unit in speech which is often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word. A syllable has a nucleus or peak, often the task of a vowel. [Open syllable: A syllable which ends in a vowel. Closed syllable: A syllable which ends in a consonant.] or [Open syllable (a syllable without coda), Closed syllable (a syllable with coda)]27. Maximal Onset Principle (MOP): When there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the coda. 28. Stress refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable.