as we look at how ASL signs are formed
and consider the phonology at a deeper
level we notice that sometimes sign formation changes depending on what
comes before and what comes after a sign and
depending on what context the sign is
used in these changes are examples of
phonological processes
now notice that English also exhibit
some phonological processes in fact
English has many phonological processes
let's look at if you just so we can
understand the type of thing we're
talking about when we're talking about phonological change we'll notice that
we have the word to wait
and notice how that word is pronounced
wait with that T sound at the end of the
word and we know from what
we've already learned that T is the-
the "T" sound is one particular allophone of a category but which allophone we use
depends on what's going on before and
after the sound so when we take
the word weight and add the word
add another sound at the end waiter then
we don't actually pronounce it the way i
just did we don't say waiter we say
waiter so we change from a t2 a flap the
other sound
weight - waiter that's a phonological
process
similarly whenever we're in formal
situations were likely to pronounce the
word family with three distinct
syllables "fam-a-lee" family
however most of the time when we're
speaking less formally we pronounce that
with only two syllables family
we delete the sound of the middle of the
word we delete that vowel that weak A
sound so this out the word goes from
family to family
these are examples of English
phonological changes changes that don't
affect the meaning of words but that
affect the way that sounds are
pronounced in sequence the way that
sounds are pronounced as they join
together with other sounds so - we'll
look at the way that signs change as
they're formed with other signs
now notice that phonological changes
very some neurological changes are
obligatory that is native signers
always do them
you must use them in particular
situations some phonological changes are
optional
they might depend on whether they're-
we are in a formal setting or less
formal setting
in fact many phonological changes
occur much more frequently in informal
settings than they do in formal settings
where people tend to stick to the more
more typical dictionary production of a
sign and also we should note that
some changes
change the meaning of a sign now
remember if the meaning of the sign
changes based on the way you produce it
then that's not phonological that's not
just a variation in the pronunciation
that's a variation in the meaning and so
that's going to be called a
morphological change we'll hold off on
those until we discuss morphology later
the first example of an ASL phonological
process that we should consider is
movement epenthesis
now epenthesis simply means the addition
of something something that's inserted
so the insertion of a movement movement
epenthesis
what this means is that linguist notice
that in order to move from one side to
the next you have to have movement
if I'm going to sign the sign MY and
then the sign FATHER
well there's going to be a movement
between the sign my and the sign father
my hand has to move from the center of
my torso up to my forehead that
movement is inserted between signs and
this has to happen
you couldn't sign my father unless you're
willing to move your hand from one place
to the next
then there's some movements occur in the
middle of signs so if i'm signing the
sign for WANT then the hands start out
in front of the body and move toward the
body
that's part of the sign WANT itself
that's in the sign but if I sign
"I want" you know "I want bread" then I'm
going to sign
I and then the hands are going to move
out that's not part of a sign at all
that's between signs that's the movement inserted between the sign I then the sign WANT
I WANT and then my hands will have to
move to sign bread that movement in the
middle of the sign WANT is part of the
sign itself part of the whole movement
structure but then the movement from
want to bread is an additional movement
that i have to add between the signs
this movement is the movement epenthesis
Assimilation occurs when the feature of
a sign affects the sign before or after it
for example if I'm going to sign I HAVE
then in a formal setting I might sign I
with the pointer finger and then have
with my with my bent V handshape
I have however often times in informal
settings sign
I will be formed not with the pointer
finger as the sign I or me is normally
signed but with the bent handshape
this is because i know that my next sign
is going to be the side have which has
the the open bent b handshape so I sign
I already with the hand shape that I'm
going to use to sign HAVE
so rather than changing my hand shapes
for the signs I and HAVE I'll have the
same hand shape that is the sign have
influences the sign that comes before it
similarly you could influence any other
parameter of signs if I know that I'm
going to sign the sign
MOTHER and then THINKS then rather than
sign MOTHER right in the middle of the
channel
I might sign it over to the side
slightly and that's because i know that
the next sign THINK is going to be at
the temple on the side of my head
and so the location of the sign MOTHER
is assimilated or changed just a little
bit because of the sign that's going to
come after it the sign THINK so don't
just think that hand shapes can be
assimilated any feature of a sign can be
assimilated palm orientation location
movement any feature of the sign can be
assimilated
whether it's the sign before or the sign
after it that's affecting the formation
weak hand anticipation occurs when the
weak hand becomes ready to form the next
sign before that that hand is actually
necessary for example if I'm going to
sign MY FAMILY then while i'm signing MY
my weak hand might go ahead  and
come up and even start to form the
letter F as I'm about to sign FAMILY
similarly if I'm going to sign to you
GOOD MORNING then
even though i don't anticipate
or not good morning let's try GOOD NIGHT and as I
sign
GOOD my hand my non-dominant hand
becomes ready for my dominant hand to
meet it even before I'm finished signing
sign good
so as I said good the non-dominant hand
comes up and anticipates or gets ready
for the the sign that is going to be used
for
sometimes a hold can be deleted in the sign
so if you have a sign that normally
has holds in the middle of it
such as the sign DEAF usually uses holds
so you have the the first hold at the
first movement and then another hold at the
end those hold might be deleted and you
might simply have the sign
tap to the side of your face very
quickly before you sign something like
DEAF FAMILY or DEAF SCHOOL
that's called a hold deletion when not
all of the holds of the sign are used
metathesis is the ability to move
segments of a sign
to move the order switch the order of
segments of the sign for example the sign
CONGRESS can either start on the
dominant side of the body or the
non-dominant side of the body the sign
DEAF can start at the mouth or at the
ear you can switch that order
often times this order switches depending
on what sign is going to come before and
what sign is going to come after
so metathesis can be thought of as a
type of assimilation in sign language
now as you thinking about
these phonological processes you need to
remember that they can co-occur don't
think that it's just assimilation of
just hold deletion you might have an
instance of hold deletion and
assimilation or hold deletion and weak
hand anticipation
also remember that some of these are
situation dependent that is sometimes it
depends on what signs come before and
what signs come after as to whether or
not a phonological process will occur
don't think that you can just use every
phonological process willy-nilly and
then finally some of these are
dialectical that is some phonological
processes are only used in particular
dialects ASL
perhaps in dialects used to call you
dad or dialects in the south or
dialects used in particular in a
different country that uses ASL such as
Puerto Rico or the Philippines
