Aspects of Connected Speech

Aspects of Connected Speech

Weak Forms

Yod coalescence

Elision

Assimilation

Weak forms

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

e.g. a car vs. I bought a car

Look at this phrase:

I went to the station and

booked two tickets for my

father and his best friend.

What are the most important words?

I went to the station and booked two

tickets for my father and his best

friend.

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

went station booked two

tickets father best friend.

Let’s look at the phrase transcribed:

/aIwent t@th@steiS@n@nbuktu:tikitsI went to the station and booked two tickets

f@mai fa:th@r@nhizbesfren/for my father and his best friend

There is a tendency for vowels in unstressed syllables to shift towards the schwa (central position)

Weak form are commonly used words

Prepositions

Auxiliary verbs

Conjunctions

Prepositions

Strong form Weak form

to tu: t@for fo:(r) f@(r)from from fr@minto Intu: Int@of ov @(v)as a{z @zat at @t

Auxiliary verbs

do du: d@

are a: @(r)*was woz w@zwere w3: w@would W@d w@dcould K@d k@dshould S@d S@dcan kan k@nmust m^st m@s(t)

Others

and and @nd, @n, nbut b^t b@tthan than th@nthat that th@tYou ju: j@

your jo: j@(r)her h3:(r) (h)@(r)*

a a, ei @*an @n @nthe thi: th@, thi (before a vowel)

Weak=unstressed

In the following sentences the underlined words arestressed and so would be pronounced using the

strongform:

I do like chocolate.

She drove to Las Vegas, not from Las Vegas.

We were surprised when she told us her secret.

(stress on ‘were’ for emphasis)

Yod 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/:

/t/ + /j/ = /tS/

…but use your head! /b@tSu:z j@ hed/

what you need…. /wotSuni:d/

the ball that you brought /th@bo:lth@tSu:bro:t/last year…. /la:stSi@/

/d/ + /j/ = /dZ/

could you help me? /kudZu:helpmi:/

would yours work? /wudZo:zw3:k/

she had university

exams

/Si:hadZu:ni:versItijigzamz

Yod coalescence

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/ = /tSu:b/

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 /dZ@/:

Do you live here? /dZ@ liv hi@/

Did you live here? /(di)dZ@ liv hi@/

Yod coalescence

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!

Elision

Elision is very simply the omission of certain sounds in certain

contexts. The most important occurrences of this phenomenon

regard:

Alveolar consonants /t/ and /d/ when ‘sandwiched’ between two

consonants (CONS – t/d – CONS), e.g.

The next day…. /th@neksdei/

The last car… /th@la:s ka:/

Hold the dog! /h@ulth@dog/

Send Frank a card. /senfrank@ka:d/

consonant + affricate elision

This can also take place within affricates /tS/

and /dZ/ when preceded by a consonant, e.g.

lunchtime /luntStaim/

/lunStaim/strange days /streindZ deIz/ /streinZ deIz/

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…. /ai k@n spi:k/

- I can’t speak… /ai ka:nspi:k/

Assimilation

Assimilation can be:

of Place

of Voicing

of Manner

We will look at the first two

Assimilation 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, /teN ka:z/ 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 boIz/ to prepare for the articulation of the

bilabial /b/.

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

/n/ /ng/

e.g. bank = /baNk/

/d/ /g/

e.g. good girl = /gug g3:l/

/t/ /k/

e.g. that kid = /thak kid/

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

/n/ /m/

e.g. ten men /tem men/

/d/ /b/

e.g. bad boys /bab boiz/

/t/ /p/

e.g. hot mushrooms /hop muSru:mz/

ASSIMILATION OF VOICING

The vibration of the vocal cords is not

something that can be switched on and off

very swiftly, as a result groups of

consonants tend to be either all voiced or all

voiceless. Consider the different endings of ‘dogs’ /dogz/ and ‘cats’ /kats/, of the past

forms of the regular verbs such as ‘kissed’ /kist/ and ‘sneezed’ /sni:zd/.

The assimilation of voicing can radically

change the sound of several common

constructions:

have to

has to

/hav tu://haz tu:/

/haft@/, /hast@/

e.g. I have to go! /aihaft@ g@U/

used to /ju:zd tu:/ /ju:st@/

e.g. I used to live near you./aiju:st@lIvni@ju:/

Informal Contractions

Informal contractions are short forms of other words that people use when speaking casually. They are not exactly slang, but they are a little like slang.

For example, "gonna" is a short form of "going to". If you say "going to" very fast, without carefully pronouncing each word, it can sound like "gonna".

Informal Contractions

These informal contractions are not "correct" English. Do not use them in a written exam, for example, except in appropriate situations.

We normally use them only when speaking fast and casually, for example with friends. Some people never use them, even in informal speech.

It is probably true to say that informal contractions are more common in American English.

What are you going to do? >>

What’re you going to do?>>

What’re you gonna do? >>

Whatcha gonna do?

Whatcha goin’ do?

Whatcha gon’ do?

Do you want a beer?

Do you wanna beer?

D'you wanna beer?

D'ya wanna beer?

Ya wanna beer?

Wanna beer?

Beer?

Yo, or Ya > you, Y’all > you all, Ayo > hey you

Aint > am / is / are not

‘em > them / him, ‘er > her

-in’ > -ing

‘cause > because

‘bout > about

Kinda > kind of, Sorta > sort of, coupla > couple of

Lemme > let me

Gotta > have got to