Which morphophonemic process describes a change where a sound shifts to resemble a neighboring sound?

• A. Assimilation
• B. Metathesis
• C. Dissimilation
• D. Insertion

Answer: (C)

This describes assimilation. Assimilation is when a sound becomes more like a neighboring sound, usually to make pronunciation smoother. It happens because articulatory settings for one sound influence the sounds around it.

A common example is the prefix that shifts to match place of articulation before a following consonant, as in in- becoming im- before labial sounds like p, b, or m (important, impossible). Another everyday case is voicing assimilation in plurals: the -s ending is pronounced as [z] after a voiced preceding consonant (e.g., dogs [dɔɡz]), while it’s [s] after a voiceless one (e.g., cats [kæts]).

In contrast, dissimilation would make sounds less alike, metathesis would swap the order of sounds, and insertion would add a sound. So the process described is assimilation.