Yorkshire assimilation

Abstract

‘Yorkshire assimilation’ is a phonetic phenomenon that has been known to occur in Central Northern (British) English. In this paper I make an attempt to phonologically analyze this phonetic phenomenon within the framework of functional phonology (being practised in the Functional School associated with André Martinet) and conclude that this phonetic phe-nomenon is interpretable in terms of neutralization and the archiphoneme. In addition, remarks are offered about phonological analyses of Yorkshire assimilation that were conducted by researchers working in theoretical frameworks different from mine.