Features of connected speech As a brief overview, there is a strong tendency in English to simplify and link words together in the

stream of speech, in order to help the language flow rhythmically. Some of the most common features: Assimilation This is when the sound at the end of one word changes to make it easier to say the next word. For example: ten boys sounds like tem boys (the /n/ sound changes to the bilabial /m/ to make it easier to transition to the also bilabial /b/) Incidentally bilabial just means two lips together, which is a good example of the kind of jargon that puts people off! Catenation This is when the last consonant of the first word is joined to the first vowel of the next word. This is very very common in English, and can be very confusing for students. For example: an apple sounds like a napple (Teacher, what is a napple?) Elision Elision means that you lose a sound in the middle of a consonant cluster, sometimes from the middle of a word. E.g. sandwich becomes sanwich. Or from the end of a word. For example: fish and chips fishnchips Intrusion This is when an extra sound intrudes. There are three sounds that often do this /r/ /j/ and /w/ E.g. go on sounds like gowon I agree sounds like aiyagree