Aspects of Connected Speech Aspects of Connected Speech

Dr. Marga Vinagre Dr. Marga VinagreDepartment of English StudiesDepartment of English Studies

UAMUAM

Aspects of Connected SpeechAspects of Connected Speech

Weak FormsElisionLinkingAssimilationYod coalescence

Weak formsWeak forms

When we talk about weak forms in English phonetics this refers to a series of words which have one pronunciation (strong) when isolated, and another (weak) when not stressed within a phrase.

e.g. a car v. I bought a car

Look at this sentence:

I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend.

What are the most important What are the most important words?words?

I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend.

If we eliminate the other words If we eliminate the other words can we still understand the can we still understand the

message?message?

went hotel booked room two nights father best friend.

a went tə ðə hətel ən bkt ə ru:m fə tu: nats fə ma f:ðər ən hz best frend

http://davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/notes%20and%20exercises/weak%20forms%20audio/introandpreps/weak_forms.htm

There is a tendency for vowels in There is a tendency for vowels in unstressed syllables to shift towards unstressed syllables to shift towards

the schwa (central position)the schwa (central position)

Almost all the words which can have both a strong and weak form belong to a category that can be called grammatical words (advs, preps, conjs, pronouns, etc) All these words are in certain circumstances pronounced in their strong forms, but are more frequently pronounced in their weak forms.

Rules of weak vs. strong form Rules of weak vs. strong form usageusage

The strong form is used in the following cases:

a) For many weak-forms when they occur at the end of a sentence:

I’m fond of chips ( )Chips are what I’m fond of ( )

b) When a weak-form is being contrasted with another word:The letter’s from him, not to him ( : )A similar case is a co-ordinated use of prepositions:I travel to and from London a lot ( : )A work of and about literature ( : )

c) When a weak-form is given stress for the purpose of emphasis:You must give me more money ( : )

d) When a weak-form is being cited or quoted: ‘You shouldn’t put “and” at the end of a sentence’ ( When weak-form words whose spelling begins with ‘h’ (her, have) occur at the beginning of a sentence, the pronunciation is with initial h, even though this is omitted in other contexts.

Weak form are commonly Weak form are commonly used wordsused words

PrepositionsAuxiliary verbsConjunctionsPronouns

  Strong form Weak form

Prepositions    

to tu:

for

from

into

of

as

at

Auxiliary verbs    

do du: dd

are

was

were

would

could

should

can

must

Others    

and

but

than

that (as a relative)

you (as object pronoun) ju:

your

her (as object pronoun)him

a

an

the (before a vowel)

Practice weak formsPractice weak forms

http://davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/notes%20and%20exercises/weak%20forms%20audio/introandpreps/weak_forms_2.htm

More weak forms

http://ell.phil.tu-chemnitz.de/phon/connect/weakForms.html

Exercises on weak forms 1

http://davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/notes%20and%20exercises/index_of_exercises_on_weak_forms.htmç

Exercises on Weak Forms 2Exercises on Weak Forms 2Transcribe the following sentences using phonetic

symbols: 1.     Give it to me! 2.     It takes three hours to get from here to London. 3.     Could you give me a light? 4.     What’s that knife for? 5.     The book that she bought was more expensive than

mine. 6.     They can walk to school tomorrow, they’re old

enough. 7.     He’s as good as his brother at playing cards; you

should watch him some day. 8.     These carrots are for my Granny. She’s really fond of

boiled vegetables. 9.     They were there in the corner, didn’t you see them?

Weak Forms Exercise 2 Weak Forms Exercise 2 - Key- Key

1. /gv t tə mi:/2. / t teks θri. aəz tə get frəm hə tə lndən/3. /kəd jə gv mi ə lat/4. /wts ðət naf f:/5. /ðə bk ðət i: b:t wəz m:r kspensv ðən man/6. /ðe kən w:k tə sku:l təmrə ðeər əld nf/7. /hi:z əz gd əz z brðər ət plejŋ k:dz ju əd

w:t m səm de/8. /ði:z kærəts ə fə ma græn i:z rəli fnd əv

bld vedtəb(ə)lz/

9. /ðe wə ðeər n ðə k:nə ddnt ju si: ðəm/

Elision  Elision is very simply the omission of certain sounds in certain contexts. Under certain circumstances certain sounds disappear (a phoneme may be realized as zero or have a zero realisation)The most important occurrences of this phenomenon regard:

1.     Alveolar consonants /t/ and /d/ when ‘sandwiched’ between two consonants (CONS – t/d – CONS), e.g.

The next day…. The last car… Hold the dog! Send Frank a card.

consonant + affricate elisionconsonant + affricate elision

2. This can also take place within affricates /t/ and /d/ when preceded by a consonant, e.g. lunchtime strange days

Elision of ‘not’Elision of ‘not’The phoneme /t/ is a fundamental part of the negative particle not, the possibility of it being elided makes the foreign students life more difficult. Consider the negative of can – if followed by a consonant the /t/ may easily disappear and the only difference between the positive and the negative is a different, longer vowel sound in the second: + I can speak….  - I can’t speak… /

Elisions: Other casesElisions: Other cases

a) Loss of weak vowel after p, t, k

(ht, h:, h, h, h, where h indicates aspiration)

b) Weak vowel+n, l or r becomes syllabic consonanttnait, pli:s, krekt

c) Avoidance of complex consonant clustersGeorge the sixth’s throne : () In clusters of three plosives or two plosives plus a fricative the middle plosive may disappearacts () looked back ( ) scripts ()

d) Loss of final v in ‘of’ before consonantlots of them ( )waste of money (w )

e) Contractions of grammatical words (are they elisions or not?)-Had, would: spelt ‘d (pronounced d after vowels , d after consonants);-Is, has: spelt ‘s (pronounced s after fortis consonants, z after lenis consonants) except that after ,,,, ‘is’ is pronounced and ‘has’ is pronounced in contracted form.

f) Will: spelt ‘ll, pronounced l (after vowels), l (after consonants)

g) Have: spelt ‘ve, pronounced v (after vowels) and (after consonants)

h) Not: spelt n’t, pronounced nt (after vowels) nt (after consonants)There are also vowel changes associated with n’t can () can’t (:) do (:) don’t ()

g) Are: spelt ‘re, pronounced after vowels usually with some change in the preceding vowel, e.g. you (:) you’re () we (:) we’re () they () they’re ()

Linking

In real speech we tend to link words together. The most familiar case in the use of the linking r:

- here [] but here are [ ]- Four [:] but four eggs [: ]

Many RP speakers use r in a similar way when thereis no “justification” from the spelling intrusive r (considered substandard by many):

- Formula A [: ]- Media event [: ]

Other examples of ‘linking r’:- far off, four aces, answer it, fur inside, near

it, wear out, secure everything

Other examples of ‘intrusive r’:- Russia and China, drama and music, idea

of, India and Pakistan, area of agreement, law and order, awe-inspiring, raw onion.

Smoothing & Compression (John Wells on tripthongs)

Smoothing means the loss of the second part of the strong vowel (diphthong).

Compression means the squashing of the two syllables into one syllable. Both of these processes are optional (or stylistically determined).

Hence given the disyllabic starting point pa.ə power, we can smooth it to disyllabic pa.ə. We can then compress the result to give monosyllabic paə. (This may be subject to the further process of Monophthonging, giving pa:.) Similarly, ə.ŋ going can be smoothed to ə.ŋ and then compressed to əŋ.“If my definition of triphthong holds, then a triphthong would be generated only if we apply Compression without first applying Smoothing”..

Assimilation (the cases most often Assimilation (the cases most often

described affect consonants)described affect consonants) Assimilation can be:of place of articulationof manner of articulationof voicing

Assimilation of PlaceAssimilation of Place

The most common form involves the movement of place of articulation of the alveolar stops /t/, /d/ and /n/ to a position closer to that of the following sound. For instance, in the phrase ten cars, the /n/ will usually be articulated in a velar position, so that the tongue will be ready to produce the following velar sound /k/. Similarly, in ten boys the /n/ will be produced in a bilabial position, /tem b/ to prepare for the articulation of the bilabial /b/.

BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/)

/n/Before velar

//

e.g. bank =

/d/Before velar

/g/

e.g. good girl = //

/t/Before velar

/k/

e.g. that kid = quite good

BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/)

/n/Before bilabial

/m/

e.g. ten men /tem men/

/d/Before bilabial

/b/

e.g. bad boys

/t/Before bilabial

/p/

e.g. hot mushrooms /

Assimilation of Manner

It’s much less noticiable and is only found in the most rapid and casual speech. For example, it’s possible to find cases where a final plosive becomes a fricative or a nasal that side [ ], good night [ ]

Assimilation of VoicingAssimilation of Voicing

The vibration of the vocal folds is not something that can be switched on and off very swiftly and, as a result, groups of consonants tend to be either all voiced or all voiceless. Consider the different endings of ‘dogs’ // and ‘cats’ //, of the past forms of the regular verbs such as ‘kissed’ // and ‘sneezed’ /sni:zd/.

The assimilation of voicing can radically change the sound of several common constructions:

have to

has to

e.g. I have to go!

used to

e.g. I used to live near you. /

Yod coalescenceYod coalescence

Yod is the name of the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet – it stands for the vowel /i/ or the semi-vowel /j/. In English phonetics Yod coalescence is a form of assimilation – it is a phenomenon which takes place when /j/ is preceded by certain consonants most commonly /t/ and /d/:

The fact that two extremely recurrent words in English, you and your, start with /j/ means that understanding of this simple mechanism is vital to the understanding of spoken English. Do you and also did you are often pronounced as

 Do you live here? //

Did you live here? //

/d/ + /j/ = //d/ + /j/ = /

could you help me? /

would yours work?

she had university exams

/t/ + /j/ = /t/ + /j/ =

…but use your head!

what you need….

the ball that you brought /

last year….

Yod coalescence is common in colloquial speech and is becoming ever more so. Note that it can occur:

- between word boundaries (as above examples)

- within words e.g. tube /tju:b/ = /

Exercise. Identify places where yod coalescence may occur in the following phrases:

 What you need is a good job! You told me that you had your homework done. She didn’t go to France that year. Could you open the window please? You’ve already had yours!