Transcript Linguistica Inglese 1 Phonology and Phonetics Lecture 3

Introduction to English Linguistics
prof. Hugo Bowles
Lesson 12 Connected speech
Aspects of Connected Speech

weak Forms
 yod coalescence
 elision
 assimilation
Weak syllables (vowels)
father
happy
thank you
open
photograph
radio
influence
Weak syllables (consonants)
bottle
parcel
threaten
seven
happen
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
v
I bought a car
Look at this phrase:
I went to the station and
bought two tickets for my
father and his best friend.
What are the most important
words?
I went to the station and bought two
tickets for my father and his best friend.
went
station
bought
two
tickets
father
best
friend
If we eliminate the other words
can we still understand the
message?
went
tickets
station
father
booked
best
two
friend.
Let’s look at the phrase
transcribed:
I went to the station
bought two tickets
and
/wentstenb
tutkts
for y father
best friend
and
his
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
Pronunciation
Spelling
preposition strong form weak form
to
tu:
tǝ
for
fɔ:
fǝ
from
fr
frǝm
into
ɪntu:
of
ɒv
ɪntǝ
ǝv
as
æz
ǝz
at
æt
ǝt
Auxiliary
verbs
Strong
Weak
do
du:
a:
wɒz
wɜ:
wʊd
kʊd
ʃʊd
kæn
m^st
dǝ
ǝ(r)*
wǝz
wǝ
wǝd
kǝd
ʃǝd
kǝn
mǝs(t)
are
was
were
would
could
should
can
must
Other words
and
but
than
that (as a relative)
you (object pronoun)
Strong form
ænd
b^t
æn
æt
ju:
Weak form
ǝnd, ǝn, n
bǝt
ǝn
ǝt
jǝ
your
jɔ:
her (as object pronoun) hɜ:(r)
jǝ(r)
(h)ǝ(r)*
a
an
the
ǝ*
ǝn
ǝ, i: (before a
æ, ei
æn
i:
vowel)
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/ = /t/
…but use your head!
/ bǝtʃu:zjǝhed /
what you need….
/ wotʃu:ni:d /
the ball that you brought / δǝb:lδətʃu:br:t /
last year….
/d/ + /j/ = //
could you help me?
/kuu:helmi:/
would yours work?
/wu:zwɜ:k/
she had university
exams
/ihuns
tiig

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. You Tube = /ju:tju:b/ or
/ju:tu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 /ʤə/
Do you live here?
/ʤəliviə/
Did you live here?
/(di)ʤəliviə/
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!
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:
1 Alveolar consonants /t/ and /d/ when ‘sandwiched’ between
two consonants (CONS – t/d – CONS), e.g.
The next day…. /δǝneksd
ei/
The last car…
/δǝask
a/
Hold the dog!
/hǝuδǝd
consonant + affricate elision
This can also take place within affricates /ʧ/ and /
/ when preceded
by a consonant, e.g.
lunchtime
/unʧtai/

/untai/
strange days
/streindeI/
/streindeI/

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….
/aiknsik/
- I can’t speak…
Assimilation
Assimilation can be:
 of place
 of voice
 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, /te
ka/
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
the bilabial /b/.
boi/
to prepare for the articulation of
This phenomenon is easy to find also in Italian: think of the
different pronunciations of the ‘n’ in Gian Paolo, Gian Franco
and Gian Carlo.
Assimilation of place before a VELAR

/n/ before a velar becomes /ƞ/
e.g. ban
= /bӕn/
bank = ban+k = /bӕƞk/ not /bӕnk/

/d/ before a velar becomes /g/
e.g. good girl = /gʊg gɜ:l/

/t/ before a velar becomes /k/
e.g. that girl = / æk gɜ:l /
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Assimilation of place before a BILABIAL ( /b/ /m/ /p )/

/n/ before a bilabial becomes /m/
e.g. ten boys = / tem boiz/

/d/ before a bilabial becomes /b/
e.g. bad man = /bæb mæn/

/t/ before a bilabial becomes /p/
e.g. hot meal = / ho mi:l /
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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, as a result groups of
consonants tend to be either all voiced or all voiceless.
Consider the different endings of ‘legs’ /eg/ and ‘hats’
/hæts/, 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
/ha
/hft
tu/
/
has to
/ha
hst/
tu/
e.g. I have to go!
/aihftgu/
used to
/u /us
d
t/