ENG143 Phonetics and varieties of English

Lecture 16

SOUNDS IN CONNECTED SPEECH

REVISION

Phonemes or words are not usually pronounced in isolation.

In connected speech, their sounds are affected by both context and stress.

Why?

Principle of least effort = trying to make things as easy as possible

This is limited by

Need for efficient communication = intelligibility must not be lost

Ways of making pronunciation more effortless in connected speech:

1. Weak forms
2. Assimilation
3. Elision
4. Adding an extra sound

1. Weak forms
Some words are pronounced differently depending on whether they are stressed or unstressed.
This happens to many words that are 1) monosyllabic, 2) grammatical and 3) frequently
occurring. Weak forms take weak vowels: /i, u, / and //.

Articles: a, an, the

Prepositions: at, for, from, of, to
Auxiliary verbs: can, could, must, do, does
Personal pronouns: you, he, she, me, him, his, her, us, them, we
Forms of to be: be, been, are, is, was, were
Forms of to have: have, has, had
Other words: and, as, but, some, than, that, there

When do we use strong and weak forms?

Weak forms are used in unstressed position

Weak-form-words are commonly unstressed and thus used in their weak form

Strong forms are used in stressed positions for a) emphasis, b) contrast, c) at the end of
an utterance (before a pause)

Initial /h/ is not dropped in weak forms at the start of an utterance (after a pause) it is
dropped in weak forms that occur in medial and final position.

Example:

Her 'mother 'told her it wasnt 'her turn yet.

2. Assimilation
A phoneme is changed to become more similar to its neighbours. Assimilation can be
regressive (most common) or progressive.
Assimilation normally affects consonants either in terms of place of articulation or force of
articulation (voiced/lenis or voiceless/fortis). Assimilation affecting manner of articulation is
quite rare. Coalescence is a different kind of assimilation in which two consonants change and
blend into another consonant different from both of them (e.g. would you /wd/).
Assimilation affecting place of articulation normally involves the alveolar sounds /t, d, n/. If
these sounds are followed by a bilabial sound they usually assimilate into their bilabial
equivalents /p, b, m,/. When followed by a velar sound they may assimilate into velar /k, g, /.

When followed by a bilabial sound:

/t/ /p/

foot pain

/d/ /b/

would pay

/n/ /m/

ten pounds

When followed by a velar sound:

/t/ /k/

fight crime

/d/ /g/

should come

/n/ //

in Greece

Cluster /nt/
/nt/ /k/

dont get back RP/dk gep bk/ AE /dok gep bk/

/nt/ /mp/

cant possibly RP /k:mp psbli/ AE /kmp p:sbli/

The alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/ can also be affected when followed by palatal /j/ or
affricates // or //:
/s/ //

this shop

/z/ //

has she
3

Assimilation affecting force of articulation usually involves devoicing of /v, d, z/ in the

expressions have to, had to, has to, pronunciation of past tense -ed /t/ or /d/ and pronunciation
of the inflectional-s /s/ or /z/:

Devoicing
/hv tu/ /hf tu/
/hd tu/ /hd tu/
/hz tu/ /hs tu/

Past tense -ed:

lenis /d/

when preceded by a voiced sound: /lad/, /kld/, /lvd/

fortis /t/

when preceded by a voiceless sound: /rpt/, /kkt/, /mt/

Inflectional -s:
lenis /z/

when preceded by a voiced sound: /u:z/, /noz/, /belz/

fortis /s/

when preceded by a voiceless sound: /fli:ts/, /helps/, /bes/

3. Elision
One or more phonemes disappear completely. The most common types of elision include:
1) word final /t/ and /d/ between two consonants: best cheese, old man
2) elision of schwa, especially before /l/ and /r/: history, police

4. Adding an extra sound

In RP (and other non-rhotic accents) word-final <r> is not pronounced: e.g. far /f:/. If far is
immediately followed by another word starting in a vowel, the /r/ is pronounced as a link
between the words as in /f:r we/. Linking /r/ is always represented in the spelling.
Some RP speakers also use an intrusive /r/ between vowels. This /r/ is not represented in
writing, e.g. Anna and Paul /nr n p:l/
4