Phonology: features of connected speech

By miguelbengoa | Published: October 28, 2008 http://miguelbengoa.com/elt/?p=714

This series of posts explore some of the features of connected speech with the following aims.
To revisit and consolidate old knowledge by
creating a list of common features of connected speech in English.
To provide a reasonably accessible resource for others to use so that it may be used to
give weight to the argument that phonetics is an important classroom tool.
Depth and Breadth of Information
A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow
draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again. Alexander Pope: An Essay on
Criticism, 1709.
Rather than give huge a huge list of examples for readers to wade through, I have taken the little
learning approach in the hope that armed with some of the basic concepts of how spoken English
works at a sonic level, you will feel inspired to start to play with these sounds for yourself and
embark on the fascinating journey of understanding of how speaking is strung together. Phonetics
is a practical topic and thus the more you play and experiment with the sounds and the effects the
more understanding you will achieve.
Assimilation
This is the influence of one sound on another to become more like itself. For a full and exhaustive
description of this phenomenon have a look at the excellent Wikipedia page.
To illustrate, how would your pronounce the following?
1. /t/ in that man /pmn/
2. /n/ in ten girls /temg:lz/
3. /s/ in this shop /p/
At the end of a syllable, sounds made on the ridge just behind the teeth are affected by sounds
produced with the lips . In technical speak: the alveolar consonants (/t/, /d/ and /n/) become
bilabial (/p/, /b/ and /m/).
Other examples
ground plan /gram pln/
action planning /kmpln/
brown bear /bambe/
Common Market /kmm:kt/
bus shelter /belt/
Voicing can also be affected when the voiced consonant /v/ can become its unvoiced equivalent /f/
when followed by the unvoiced /t/.
have to go /hftg/
The plosive /d/ and /j/ can coalesce (i.e. fuse) becoming less much less plosive. In fact it becomes
the affricate /d/.
how dyou do? /hadu:/
Similarly, the plosive /t/ and semi-vowel /j/ can coalesce to become the affricate /t/
dont yknow /dnk/
Elision
Elision is the complete disappearance of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, making the word
or phrase easier for the speaker to pronounce.
One of the most common elisions in spoken English is /t/ and /d/.
next please /nekspli:z/
I dont know /adn/
post the letter /pslet/
old man /lmn/
you and me /ju:nmi:/
stand there /stne/
Try to say the above word pairs without eliding the /t/ or /d/ respectively. How natural or
unnatural do they sound?
Apostrophes that mark missing parts of words are signalling elision. Examples include
cant for cannot
hes for he is
Sometimes sounds are totally omitted:
comfortable /kftbl/ or /kftbl/?
fifth /ff/ or /f/?
temperature /temprt/ or /tempt/ or even /temprt/?
Some native speakers would argue that they never elide their speech and might go on to state that
elision is a sign of, at best, lazy speech, and at worst sloppy and or degenerate speech. Should you
wish to challenge their view, ask them how they might prefer to pronounce without any elision:
Worcester

Elision is the articulatory organs literally cutting corners in connected speech, mainly at word
boundaries. Speakers who do not elide may sound over meticulous and overly-formal and it may
not be possible for them to take advantage of the natural rhythm patterns and intonation that come
with fluency.
Liaison (a liaison is an intrusion)
Liaison refer to the insertion of a sound between two others. In English, the most common sounds
that are most usually inserted, in English, between two words are: /r, j, w/
Here r and there; get to w it; happy j or sad
Speakers of languages that dont have these semi-consonants will either not make the liaison,
or substitute another sound from their language to make the link.
Juncture
This is where the consonant at the end of a word carries over to connect with a vowel at the
beginning of the next word.
great ape sounds like grey tape / gretep /
white wine why twine / watwan /
ice cream I scream / askri:m /
Reduction
The substitution of the weak central vowel (called schwa //) in unstressed syllables.
Two or// three; a bit of/v/ time
Double Processes
What can make these distinctions difficult to classify is that often more than one of these processes
happen at the same time:
Elision + Assimilation
bend back
(1) Drop /d/ ben back (elision)
(2) /n/ becomes /m/ (assimilation)
Result: bem back
Elision + Reduction
up and down
(1) drop /d/ up an down (elision)
(2) // becomes // (reduction)
Result: up n down
Stress Timing
A quick definition: stress timed language are languages in which stressed syllables occur at roughly
equal intervals of time. At the other end of the cline can be found syllable times languages in which
each syllable is always given the same amount to time. One example of a syllable timed language is
Italian and one possible explanation as to why it sounds so machine gun fast to English speakers
ears is that contrary to English, In Italian, every syllable is given the same amount of time.
How to demonstrate this to learners? Firstly, I board the following:
You me him her
You and me and him and her
You and then me and then him and then her
You and then it is me and then it is him and then it is her
Then come a series of questions to get learners looking at the sentences:
How many words (or syllables) are there in the first line? [4]
How many words (or syllables) are there in the second line? [7]
How many words (or syllables) are there in the third line? [10]
How many words (or syllables) are there in the last line? [16]
Which line takes the longest to say? Do you think it would be the first or the last?
Learners generally respond that it must be the last. To put their not unreasonalbe theory to the test,
I use a time measuring tool, such a metronome, or hand claps to provide an even beat. Each line is
said one by one with the stressed words on the beat.
This is, for me, one of the greatest dangers of treating the English language as a monolithic
structure based on pedagogic grammars. Many teachers have so stressed the importance of
pedagogic grammar to learners that it is now very difficult for learners to believe that grammar is
not the be all and end all of the English language.
Vowel Reduction
Vowel reduction is a feature of stress timing. Vowel reduction refers to the way that vowels are
reduced when they are not stressed. A simplified version of vowel reduction would be to say that
unstressed vowels reduce to schwa.
Try this experiment. Say the following sentences, putting the stress on the underlined syllables:
You and me.
I wish you would tell me.
In the first sentence, the you and me are given full stress but what happens to the you and
me in the second sentence?
Unstressed vowel in connected speech are characterised by a reduction in length and a change in
quality. By change in quality, I mean that most monophthongs (single vowels) do reduce to schwa,
or at the very least move towards schwa.
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