Grammar-internal and grammar-external
assimilation
JOHN HARRIS
Processes traditionally described as assimilations fall
into two main types according to the impact they have on the
informational content of speech signals. In grammar-internal
assimilation, exemplified by vowel harmony, sound properties that are
suprasegmentally extended have a linguistic marking function. In
grammar-external assimilation, exemplified by lenition, the extended
properties belong to the carrier signal.
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