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phonological conditioning
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phonological conditioning

linguistics
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Phonological conditioning, a concept within linguistics, refers to how the pronunciation of a sound is influenced by its surrounding sounds. This is a key aspect of phonology, the study of sound patterns in languages.12

A common example is assimilation, where a sound becomes similar to a neighboring sound. For instance, in the phrase "his shoe," the 's' sound might become like 'sh' due to the following 'sh' sound. Phonological rules in a language predict these pronunciation variations, ensuring that words are represented in their underlying forms while accounting for predictable alternations. These rules help explain sound changes over time and how languages evolve.3241

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4 Britannica Sources
  1. assimilation
  2. phonology
  3. linguistics - Sound change
  4. phonetics - Phonological rules

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