Which phonological process is demonstrated by substituting /r/ with [w]?

• A. Gliding
• B. Fronting
• C. Stopping
• D. Epenthesis

Answer: (A)

Gliding is when a liquid becomes a glide. Replacing the rhotic liquid /r/ with the glide [w] fits this pattern because /r/ is a liquid and [w] is a glide, a sound closer to a vowel in its articulation. This change smooths the transition between sounds, often making speech easier to produce in a syllable. An everyday illustration is a child saying "rabbit" as "wabbit," where the /r/ sound is substituted by a [w] glide.

Other processes involve moving the place of articulation without changing the basic type of sound (fronting), turning a fricative or affricate into a stop (stopping), or inserting an extra vowel between sounds (epenthesis), which are not what’s happening when /r/ becomes [w].