Which term describes a process where a sound changes to become more like an adjacent sound?

• A. Assimilation
• B. Elision
• C. Metathesis
• D. Coalescence

Answer: (A)

Sound changes to become more like a neighboring sound happen because articulation influences nearby sounds. This pattern, assimilation, describes how a sound can take on features—such as place of articulation or voicing—from a neighbor to ease pronunciation or due to coarticulation in fast speech. A classic example is the nasal n changing to m before a bilabial sound like p in the word input, giving [ˈɪmpʊt]. The preceding consonant adopts the same place of articulation as the following one, making the sequence feel more smoothly connected.

Elision is the dropping of a sound, metathesis is the flipping of sounds, and coalescence is two sounds merging into a single new sound. Assimilation specifically accounts for the neighboring sound becoming more like its neighbor.