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
tickets

station
father

booked
best

two
friend.

Lets look at the phrase transcribed:

/aIwent t@th@steiS@n@nbuktu:tikits
I 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

to
for
from
into
of
as
at

Strong form

Weak form

tu:
fo:(r)
from
Intu:
ov
a{z
at

t@
f@(r)
fr@m
Int@
@(v)
@z
@t

Auxiliary verbs

do
are
was
were
would
could
should
can
must

du:
a:
woz
w3:
W@d
K@d

S@d
kan
m^st

d@
@(r)*
w@z
w@
w@d
k@d
S@d
k@n
m@s(t)

Others
@nd, @n, n
b@t
th@n
th@t
j@

your
her

and
b^t
than
that
ju:
jo:
h3:(r)

a
an
the

a, ei
@n
thi:

@*
@n
th@, thi (before a vowel)

and
but
than
that
You

j@(r)
(h)@(r)*

Weak=unstressed

In the following sentences the underlined words are

stressed and so would be pronounced using the
strong
form:

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 semivowel /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!

what you need.

the ball that you brought

last year.

/b@tSu:z j@ hed/
/wotSuni:d/
/th@bo:lth@tSu:bro:t/
/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/

Yod coalescence
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@/

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!

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
/lunStaim/
strange days

/luntStaim/

/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 cant 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/)

/ng/

/n/
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/
e.g. bad boys

/t/

/b/

/bab boiz/

/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:
/hav tu:/
/haft@/, /hast@/
have to
/haz tu:/
has to
e.g. I have to go!
/aihaft@ g@U/
used to

/ju:zd tu:/

e.g. I used to live near you.

/aiju:st@lIvni@ju:/

/ju:st@/

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? >>

Whatre you going to do?>>
Whatre 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, Yall > 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