ABSTRACT
This chapter draws a necessary distinction between assimilation and elision as these apply to the phonology of the Igbo language. It shows that where as vowel assimilation is a very common feature of spoken Igbo, the scope of vowel elision is very much restricted in the language. Two types of assimilation are described: vowel assimilation, which is always regressive; and low tone assimilation, which involves only a small sub-category of Igbo nominals with a certain inherent tone pattern. Assimilation in Igbo involves only vowels; there is no known case of consonant assimilation in the language except that of syllabic nasals which are homorganic with the immediately following consonant. Vowel elision takes place when two lexical items combine to give rise to proper names or other concrete nouns. Vowel elision is restricted to the process of certain lexical coinages in Igbo, the products of which are generally proper names or concrete nouns.
