Phonological Processes

The Phonological Processes analyses find target phones that match one Phonex expression and count how many of their aligned actual phones match a second expression. Phon includes ten named presets and a configurable Custom Process.

Open a preset from Stock Analyses > Phonological Processes, or open Custom Process and select or edit a process in its parameter form.

Process presets

Each preset uses an exact Phonex match for the aligned IPA Actual phone. The expressions are:

Table 1. Shipped phonological-process presets
ProcessIPA TargetIPA Actual
Coronal Backing{coronal}{dorsal}
Deaffrication{affricate}{-affricate}
Deletion\w^$
Devoicing{voiced}{voiceless}
Liquid Gliding & Vocalization{liquid}[\g\v]
Glottalization{-glottal}{glottal}
Lateralization{-lateral}{lateral}
Fricative Stopping{fricative}{stop}
Velar Fronting{velar}{coronal}
Voicing{voiceless}{voiced}
Note:
Epenthesis is not a shipped Phonological Processes analysis. Use the Epenthesis Query to find unaligned IPA Actual phones.

Parameters

Table 2. Phonological Processes parameters
ParameterDefaultEffect
Process The opened preset; Custom for Custom Process Selects a shipped target/actual matcher pair. Choosing another preset also updates the report title.
Report Title Process name Sets the title of the generated report.
Combine results for all selected participants Off Combines the selected participants before calculating summaries and aggregate tables.
IPA Target Matcher Preset expression; empty for Custom Defines the potential target phones counted in # Targets. A value is required.
IPA Actual Matcher Preset expression; empty for Custom Defines which aligned actual phones count as realizations of the process. Presets use an exact, case-insensitive match.
Include aligned phones On Adds the corresponding actual phone and phone alignment to each target result so the process can be evaluated.
Search by Word Searches the target matcher within aligned IPA words.

Standard aligned-phone, word, syllable, tier, additional-tier-data, and participant filters can narrow or extend the results. See Aligned Phones and Common Query Parameters.

Figure 1. Phonological Processes Parameters
Phonological Processes Parameters

How process percentages are calculated

# Targets is the number of phones returned by the IPA Target matcher. Count is the subset whose aligned IPA Actual value matches the process's actual expression.

% = Count / # Targets × 100.

The denominator therefore includes all selected target opportunities, not just successful process realizations. For Deletion, an empty aligned actual value counts as the process realization.

Report output

Table 3. Phonological Processes report sections
Section or tableContents
Parameters and Readme The selected process settings and a short description of the preset.
Summary An all-participants table with # Targets, Count, and % for each speaker, plus one table per participant with these measures by session, role, and age.
Aggregate A participant table reserved for aggregated target/actual process patterns. Some current preset reports contain an empty Aggregate table.
Listing Every process realization with source-record information, IPA Target, IPA Actual, and phone alignment.