Aspects of Connected Speech

English Phonetics and Phonology

Lecture 5
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 v. 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 station booked two

tickets father best 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
 Strong form Weak form

Prepositions

to tu: t@

for fo:(r) f@(r)

from from fr@m

into Intu: Int@

of ov @(v)

as a{z @z

at at @t
Auxiliary
verbs
do du: d@

are a: @(r)*

was woz w@z

were w3: w@

would W@d w@d

could K@d k@d

should S@d S@d

can kan k@n

must m^st m@s(t)

Others
and and @nd, @n, n
but b^t b@t
than than th@n
that (as a relative) that th@t
you (as object pronoun) ju: j@

your jo: j@(r)

her (as object pronoun) h3:(r) (h)@(r)*

a a, ei @*
an @n @n
the thi: th@, thi (before a
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 semi-
vowel /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! /b@tSu:z j@ hed/

what you need. /wotSuni:d/

the ball that you brought /th@bo:lth@tSu:bro:t/

last year. /la:stSi@/

 /d/ + /j/ = /dZ/

could you help me? /kudZu:helpmi:/

would yours work? /wudZo:zw3:k/

she had university /Si:hadZu:ni:versItijigzamz

exams
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/

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:

1 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 /luntStaim/ /lunStaim/

strange days /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/.

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.
 BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/)
/n/ /ng/
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/ /b/

e.g. bad boys /bab boiz/

/t/ /p/

e.g. hot mushrooms /hop muSru:mz/

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

used to /ju:zd tu:/ /ju:st@/

e.g. I used to live near you.

/aiju:st@lIvni@ju:/