1. Positional Conditioning:
* Initial position: A sound may be pronounced differently at the beginning of a word compared to the middle or end.
* Example: In English, the "t" sound in "top" is aspirated (released with a puff of air), while the "t" sound in "stop" is unaspirated.
* Final position: A sound may be pronounced differently at the end of a word.
* Example: In English, the "r" sound in "car" is pronounced differently than the "r" sound in "cart" due to the vowel before it.
2. Contextual Conditioning:
* Adjacent sounds: The pronunciation of a sound can be affected by the sounds that come immediately before or after it.
* Example: In English, the "k" sound in "cat" is pronounced differently than the "k" sound in "kick".
* Surrounding environment: The pronunciation of a sound can be affected by the sounds that are further away in the word or sentence.
* Example: In English, the vowel in "cot" and "caught" are pronounced differently, due to the surrounding consonants.
3. Features of the Sound:
* Vowel harmony: The pronunciation of a vowel can be affected by the presence of other vowels in the word.
* Example: In Turkish, vowels in a word tend to harmonize in terms of their backness and roundness.
4. Lexical Conditioning:
* Allophony: The pronunciation of a sound can vary depending on the specific word it occurs in.
* Example: In English, the "l" sound in "pool" is pronounced differently than the "l" sound in "lip".
Understanding phonological conditioning is important for:
* Phonetic transcription: Knowing how sounds are affected by their context allows us to accurately transcribe speech.
* Language acquisition: Children learn to recognize and produce the sounds of their language by paying attention to phonological conditioning.
* Language change: Phonological conditioning can lead to changes in the pronunciation of words over time.
In summary:
Phonological conditioning is a fundamental principle in phonetics and phonology that explains how the pronunciation of sounds is influenced by the sounds surrounding them. Understanding this principle is essential for gaining a deeper understanding of language and its evolution.