N°021_Vol.3_24

Introduction: Speaking is getting words in action. Once words are in motion, for sake of fluency some sounds get modified under certain circumstances to become much more like the sounds they are sharing neighborhood with, this is known as assimilation. It is a cross-linguistic process which is consequently found in many languages among which Nafara. The issue of assimilation is studied in Nafara spoken in Sinématiali. This variant has a specificity compared to that spoken in Karakoro, Komborodougou and Napiélédougou. Sounds systematic organization, patterns and functions triggered off our interest to this Nafara variety. Let us have a glance at the syntagmatic axis ‘kpoʔo’ big and ‘o’ meaning the. When combined, the voiceless labiovelar stop becomes voiced labiovelar stop /gb/ o gbog° that is ‘the biggest. Here there is assimilation in voicing.  This research paper has two mains of objectives. First of all, due to the lack of previous accounts on assimilation in Nafara and in literature, this study will consequently permit to fill up this gap. Secondly, after having determine the different types of assimilation in Nafara, we are going to demonstrate how assimilation operates in this language. each individual language has its specificities when it comes to assimilation so what sorts of assimilation are there is Nafara language? Are the sorts of assimilation found in Nafara common to the ones of the other languages namely that of the English language? What are the phonological requirements for the assimilation process to be complete? Is assimilation rule applying at lexical or at post-lexical domain in Nafara since the present study is framed around lexical phonology? To find answers to the following interrogations, we hypothesize that in Nafara; assimilation may be in voicing, place and manner of articulation only; assimilation is universal and the same types found in other languages may be found in Nafara; rules interaction could be required for the assimilation to work under certain circumstance; assimilation rules may apply only post-lexically. To conduct this work, here is the roadmap we are going to follow up. In the first section headed literature review, we will make the survey of some works on assimilation. The second section will be about the theoretical and the methodological framework. There, the theory used, the data and their nature will be presented. Part will focus on the data analysis and their interpretation. The last part will show the result and then discuss them.   Without further ado, let us delve into some previous works in the domain to enlarge our perspectives.