Aspects of Connected Speech Dr. Marga Vinagre Department of English Studies UAM

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Aspects of Connected Speech Dr. Marga
VinagreDepartment of English StudiesUAM
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Aspects of Connected Speech

• Weak Forms
• Elision
• Linking
• Assimilation
• Yod coalescence

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Weak 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

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Look at this sentence I went to the hotel and
booked a room for two nights for my father and
his best friend.
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What are the most important words?
I went to the hotel and booked a room for two
nights for my father and his best friend.
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If we eliminate the other words can we still
understand the message?
went hotel booked room two nights
father best friend.
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• a? ?went t? ð? h???tel ?n ?b?kt ? ?rum f? ?tu
  ?na?ts f? ma? ?f?ð?r ?n h?z ?best ?frend
• http//davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/notes20and2
  0exercises/weak20forms20audio/introandpreps/weak
  _forms.htm

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

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Rules of weak vs. strong form usage

• The strong form is used in the following cases
• a) For many weak-forms when they occur at the end
  of a sentence
• Im fond of chips (???????? ?? ??????)
• Chips are what Im fond of (?????? ? ???? ???
  ????? ??)

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• b) When a weak-form is being contrasted with
  another word
• The letters 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 (? ??? ? ??? ??
  ????? ?????????)

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• 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 shouldnt 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.

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Weak form are commonly used words

• Prepositions
• Auxiliary verbs
• Conjunctions
• Pronouns

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Practice weak forms

• http//davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/notes20and2
  0exercises/weak20forms20audio/introandpreps/weak
  _forms_2.htm

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More weak forms http//ell.phil.tu-chemnitz.de/pho
n/connect/weakForms.html Exercises on weak forms
1 http//davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/notes20and
20exercises/index_of_exercises_on_weak_forms.htmç

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Exercises on Weak Forms 2

• Transcribe 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.     Whats that knife for?
• 5.     The book that she bought was more
  expensive than mine.
• 6.     They can walk to school tomorrow, theyre
  old enough.
• 7.     Hes as good as his brother at playing
  cards you should watch him some day.
• 8.     These carrots are for my Granny. Shes
  really fond of boiled vegetables.
• 9.     They were there in the corner, didnt you
  see them?

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Weak Forms Exercise 2 - Key

• /g?v ?t t? ?mi/
• / ?t te?ks ??ri. ?a??z t? get fr?m ?h?? t?
  ?l?nd?n/
• /k?d j? ?g?v mi ? ?la?t/
• /w?ts ð?t ?na?f f?/
• /ð? b?k ð?t ??i b?t w?z m?r ?k?spens?v ð?n
  ?ma?n/
• /ðe? k?n ?w?k t? ?skul t??m?r?? ðe??r ???ld
  ??n?f/
• /hiz ?z ?g?d ?z ?z ?br?ð?r ?t ?ple?j?? ?k?dz
  ju ??d ?w?t? ? ?m ?s?m de?/
• /ðiz ?kær?ts ? f? ma? ?græn? ?iz ?r??li f?nd
  ?v ?b??ld ?ved?t?b(?)lz/
• /ðe? w? ?ðe?r ?n ð? ?k?n? ? d?dnt ju si ð?m/

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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. /?_at_neksde?/
The last car /?_at_l?sk?/
Hold the dog! /h_at_?l?_at_d?g/
Send Frank a card. /senfr??k_at_k?d/
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consonant affricate elision
2. This can also take place within affricates
/tS/ and /dZ/ when preceded by a consonant,
e.g.   lunchtime /l?ntStaim/ ? /l?nStaim/
  strange days /streIndZ deIz/ ? /streInZ deIz/
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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_at_n spik/   - I cant speak /ai kanspik/
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Elisions Other cases

• a) Loss of weak vowel after p, t, k
• (?ht?????, ?h?????, ?h?????, ?h????,
• ?h???, where h indicates aspiration)

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• b) Weak voweln, l or r becomes syllabic
  consonant
• tnait, plis, krekt
• c) Avoidance of complex consonant clusters
• George the sixths throne ????? ?? ???? (??)
  ?????
• In clusters of three plosives or two plosives
  plus a fricative the middle plosive may disappear
• acts (???) looked back (??? ???) scripts
  (??????)

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• d) Loss of final v in of before consonant
• lots 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.

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• 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 nt, pronounced nt (after vowels)
  nt (after consonants)
• There are also vowel changes associated with nt
  can (???) cant (????) do (??) dont (?????)
• g) Are spelt re, pronounced ? after vowels
  usually with some change in the preceding vowel,
  e.g. you (??) youre (???) we (??) were (???)
  they (???) theyre (???)

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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 ?????? ?????

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• 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.

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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).

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

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Assimilation (the cases most often described
affect consonants)

• Assimilation can be
• of place of articulation
• of manner of articulation
• of voicing

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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 kaz/ 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/.
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BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/) BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/) BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/)
/n/ Before velar ? /N/
e.g. bank /b?Nk/ e.g. bank /b?Nk/ e.g. bank /b?Nk/
/d/ Before velar ? /g/
e.g. good girl /g?g g3l/ e.g. good girl /g?g g3l/ e.g. good girl /g?g g3l/
/t/ Before velar ? /k/
e.g. that kid /??k kid/ quite good /????? ???/ e.g. that kid /??k kid/ quite good /????? ???/ e.g. that kid /??k kid/ quite good /????? ???/



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BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/) BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/) BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/)
/n/ Before bilabial ? /m/
e.g. ten men /tem men/ e.g. ten men /tem men/ e.g. ten men /tem men/
/d/ Before bilabial ? /b/
e.g. bad boys /b?b b??z/ e.g. bad boys /b?b b??z/ e.g. bad boys /b?b b??z/
/t/ Before bilabial ? /p/
e.g. hot mushrooms /h?p m?Srumz/ light blue /???? ???/ e.g. hot mushrooms /h?p m?Srumz/ light blue /???? ???/ e.g. hot mushrooms /h?p m?Srumz/ light blue /???? ???/
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Assimilation of Manner

• Its much less noticiable and is only found in
  the most rapid and casual speech. For example,
  its possible to find cases where a final plosive
  becomes a fricative or a nasal that side ???
  ????, good night ??? ????

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Assimilation 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 /d?gz/ and cats
/k?ts/, of the past forms of the regular verbs
such as kissed /k?st/ and sneezed /snizd/.
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The assimilation of voicing can radically change the sound of several common constructions The assimilation of voicing can radically change the sound of several common constructions The assimilation of voicing can radically change the sound of several common constructions
have to has to /hav tu/ /haz tu/ /haft_at_/, /hast_at_/
e.g. I have to go! /a?haft_at_ g_at_U/ e.g. I have to go! /a?haft_at_ g_at_U/ e.g. I have to go! /a?haft_at_ g_at_U/
used to /juzd tu/ /just_at_/
e.g. I used to live near you. /a?just_at_lIvn?_at_ju/ e.g. I used to live near you. /a?just_at_lIvn?_at_ju/ e.g. I used to live near you. /a?just_at_lIvn?_at_ju/
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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/
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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_at_/  
Do you live here? /dZ_at_ l?v h?_at_/
Did you live here? /(d?)dZ_at_ l?v h?_at_/
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/d/ /j/ /dZ/
could you help me? /k?dZuhelpmi/
would yours work? /w?dZ?zw3k/
she had university exams /Sih?dZunIv?sItigz?mz
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/t/ /j/ /tS/
but use your head! /b_at_tSuz j_at_ hed/
what you need. /w?tSunid/
the ball that you brought /?_at_b?l?_at_tSubr?t/
last year. /l?stS?_at_/
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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 /tjub/ /tSub/
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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 didnt go to
France that year.   Could you open the window
please?   Youve already had yours!