Secondary articulation vs assimilation

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Hello guys

I was teaching a linguistics class and I came across this topic "secondary articulation". It was the first time for me to hear the term. I had always known that the effect of a preceding or following sound is called "assimilation". But in the book I have , both terms seem to be different. I did some research on both terms, but I can't seem to reach a satisfying conclusion.

They say that assimilation involves quality and SA involves just place of articulation. I find that so vague. so, is assimilation the broader term? In other words, is secondary articulation a type of assimilation?

And I also came across the term "co-articulation". How is it different?

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@Eman linguist,

It's many years since I was a researcher in experimental phonetics, but basic distinctions can be made between physiological parameters, acoustic parameters, and perceptual parameters. However terms used by phoneticians do not necessarily observe those distinctions because different models of speech production define segmental "targets" in different ways (phonemic, syllabic ,semantic etc), such that "vagueness" may be inevitable.

I suggest you re-read the definitions of those terms and attempt to evaluate them in terms of the parameters I have suggested.

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Secondary articulation vs assimilation

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