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