An Introduction to French Pronunciation

124 Consonantal Assimilation
18.1.4 Progressive assimilation, in which one sound exercises
an assimilatory effect on a following sound, is relatively
uncommon in English, but it does occur.
The s of is, when the word is pronounced in full, is a
voiced fricative, /z/, as it is also when reduced to ’s after a
voiced consonant, as in John’s looking for you. But after
a voiceless consonant, as in What’s the matter?, it’s me,
Pete’s looking for you, Cliff’s coming, it is pronounced as /s/,
i.e. it becomes voiceless as the result of assimilation to the
preceding consonant.
18.1.5 In this chapter, we are concerned with assimilation
only in so far as it affects consonants. The phenomenon of
‘vowel harmony’ (see 10.6.5) is, of course, a type of assimilation
affecting vowels.
18.2 Regressive Assimilation of Fortes and Lenes
18.2.1 We saw (6.4.1) that the principal distinction between
such pairs as /t/ and /d/, /s/ and /z/, etc., is that /t/ and /s/
are voiceless (i.e. pronounced without vibration of the vocal
cords) whereas /d/ and /z/ are voiced, i.e. accompanied by
vibration of the vocal cords. We also saw (6.4.2), however,
that the resonance and hence the ‘carrying power’ of a voiced
consonant is greater than that of its voiceless equivalent
and that this may be compensated for by pronouncing
voiceless consonants with greater energy and breath. If we
adopt a widely used pair of technical terms, we can say
that the ‘strong’ (i.e. voiceless) consonants are fortis (plural
fortes) and that the ‘weak’ (i.e. voiced) consonants are lenis
(plural lenes).
18.2.2 The most widespread type of assimilation in
French is regressive assimilation of voiced consonants, i.e.
a voiced consonant becomes voiceless when in contact with
a following voiceless consonant. This, however, does not