Aspects of Connected Speech Dr. Marga Vinagre Department of English Studies UAM

1. Aspects of Connected Speech Dr. Marga VinagreDepartment of English StudiesUAM

2. Aspects of Connected Speech • Weak Forms • Elision • Linking • Assimilation • Yod coalescence

3. Weak forms When we talk about weak forms in English phonetics this refers to 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

4. Look at this sentence: I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend.

5. What are the most important words? I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend.

6. If we eliminate the other words can we still understand the message? went hotel booked room two nights father best friend

7. awent tə ðə hətel ən bkt ə ru:m fə tu: nats fə maf:ðər ən hz best frend • http://davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/notes%20and%20exercises/weak%20forms%20audio/introandpreps/weak_forms.htm

8. There is a tendency for vowels in unstressed syllables to shift towards the schwa (central position)

9. Almost all the words which can have both a strong and weak form belong to a category that can be called grammatical words (advs, preps, conjs, pronouns, etc.) All these words are in certain circumstances pronounced in their strong forms, but are more frequently pronounced in their weak forms

10. Rules of weak vs. strong form usage • The strong form is used in the following cases: a) For many weak-forms when they occur at the end of a sentence: I’m fond of chips (  ) Chips are what I’m fond of (     )

11. b) When a weak-form is being contrasted with another word: The letter’s from him, not to him (     : ) A similar case is a co-ordinated use of prepositions: I travel to and from London a lot (  :     ) A work of and about literature ( :  v   )

12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnrb8HnQvfU&feature=related c) When a weak-form is given stress for the purpose of emphasis: You must give me more money (    : ) d) When a weak-form is being cited or quoted: ‘You shouldn’t put “and” at the end of a sentence’ (          When weak-form words whose spelling begins with ‘h’ (her, have) occur at the beginning of a sentence, the pronunciation is with initial h, even though this is omitted in other contexts.

13. Weak forms of commonly used words • Prepositions • Auxiliary verbs • Conjunctions • Pronouns

14. Strong form Weak form Prepositions to tu: t@ for f:(r) f@(r) from frm fr@m into Intu Int@ of v @(v) as {z @z at {t @t

15. Auxiliary verbs do du: d@ d are : @(r)* was wz w@z were w3: w@ would wd w@d could kd k@d should Sd S@d can kn k@n must mst m@s(t)

16. Others and nd @nd, @n, n but bt b@t than n @n that (as a relative) t @t you (as object pronoun) ju: j (j) your j: j@(r) her (as object pronoun) him h3:(r) h (h)@(r)*  a a, ei @* an n @n the i: @, i (before a vowel)

18. Practice weak forms • http://davidbrett.uniss.it/phonology/notes%20and%20exercises/weak%20forms%20audio/introandpreps/weak_forms_2.htm

19. More weak forms http://ell.phil.tu-chemnitz.de/phon/connect/weakForms.html

20. Please, writethistranscription in ordinary script (1)

21. Key toexercise 1 I really think we ought to do something about all this.  Yes, it really is getting completely out of hand. Ever since those terrible rock concerts started we’ve been getting nothing but long-haired hippies and freaks coming from all over the place with their vans and dogs and bottles of beer.  Yes, it’s time we did something about it as a community, you know, if you wait for the police to do something you’ll be waiting a long time.

22. Exercisesonweakforms 2 Transcribe the following sentences using phonetic symbols: • 1.Give it to me! • 2.It takes three hours to get from here to London. • 3.Could you give me a light? • 4.What’s that knife for? • 5.The book that she bought was more expensive than mine. • 6.They can walk to school tomorrow, they’re old enough. • 7.He’s as good as his brother at playing cards; you should watch him some day. • 8.These carrots are for my Granny. She’s really fond of boiled vegetables. • 9.They were there in the corner, didn’t you see them?

23. WeakFormsExercise 2 - Key • /gv t tə mi:/ • / t teks θri. aəz tə get frəm hə tə lndən/ • /kəd jə gv mi ə lat/ • /wts ðət naf f:/ • /ðə bk ðət i: b:t wəz m:r kspensv ðən man/ • /ðe kən w:k tə sku:l təmrə ðeər əld nf/ • /hi:z əz gd əz z brðər ət plejŋ k:dz ju əd w:tm səm de/ • /ði:z kærəts ə fə magræni:z rəli fnd əv bld vedtəb(ə)lz/ • /ðe wə ðeər n ðə k:nə  ddnt ju si: ðəm/

24. Elision Elision is very simply the omission of certain sounds in certain contexts. Under certain circumstances certain sounds disappear (a phoneme may be realized as zero or have a zero realisation) 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.

25. Consonant + affricate elision 2. This can also take place within affricates /tS/ and /dZ/ when preceded by a consonant, e.g. lunchtime /lntStaim//lnStaim/ strange days /streIndZ deIz//streInZ deIz/

26. 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@nspi:k/ • I can’t speak… /aika:nspi:k/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3OkXi5osfU&feature=related

27. Elisions: Other cases a) Loss of weak vowel after p, t, k (ht, h:, h, h, h, where h indicates aspiration)

28. b) Weakvowel+n,lorrbecomessyllabicconsonant tnait, pli:s, krekt c) Avoidance of complexconsonantclusters George thesixth’sthrone:   ()  In clusters of threeplosivesortwoplosives plus a fricativethemiddleplosivemaydisappear acts () looked back ( ) scripts ()

29. d) Loss of final v in ‘of’ before consonant lots of them (  ) waste of money (w  ) e) Contractions of grammatical words (are they elisions or not?) -Had, would: spelt ‘d (pronounced d after vowels , d after consonants); -Is, has: spelt ‘s (pronounced s after fortis consonants, z after lenis consonants) except after ,,,, ‘is’ is pronounced  and ‘has’ is pronounced  in contracted form.

30. f) Will: spelt ‘ll, pronouncedl (aftervowels), l (afterconsonants) g) Have: spelt ‘ve, pronouncedv (aftervowels) and  (afterconsonants) h) Not: speltn’t, pronouncednt (aftervowels) nt (afterconsonants) There are alsovowelchangesassociatedwithn’t can () can’t (:) do (:) don’t () g) Are: spelt ‘re, pronouncedaftervowelsusuallywithsomechange in theprecedingvowel, e.g.you (:) you’re () we (:) we’re () they () they’re ()

31. Linking • In real speech we tend to link words together. The most familiar case in the use of the linking r: • here [] but here are [ ] • Four [:] but four eggs [: ] Many RP speakers use r in a similar way when thereis no “justification” from the spelling  intrusive r (considered substandard by many): • Formula A [:  ] • Media event [: ]

32. Other examples of ‘linking r’: • far off, four aces, answer it, fur inside, near it, wear out, secure everything Other examples of ‘intrusive r’: • Russia and China, drama and music, idea of, India and Pakistan, area of agreement, law and order, awe-inspiring, raw onion.

33. Assimilation (the cases most often described affect consonants) Assimilation can be: • of place of articulation • of manner of articulation • of voicing

34. 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/.

37. Assimilation of Manner • It’s much less noticiable and is only found in the most rapid and casual speech. For example, it’s possible to find cases where a final plosive becomes a fricative or a nasal that side [ ], good night [ ]

38. Assimilation of Voicing The vibration of the vocal folds is not something that can be switched on and off very swiftly and, as a result, groups of consonants tend to be either all voiced or all voiceless. Consider the different endings of ‘dogs’ /dgz/ and ‘cats’ /kts/, of the past forms of the regular verbs such as ‘kissed’ /kst/ and ‘sneezed’ /sni:zd/.

40. 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/:

41. 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 youand also did you are often pronounced as /dZ@/:

42. /d/ + /j/ = /dZ/

43. /t/ + /j/ = /tS/

44. 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/

45. 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!

46. 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!

47. Furtherlinking /j/, /w/ The sounds /j/ and /w/ can also be pronounced between vowel sounds: 1. If the first word ends in a vowel sound like // or /i:/ and the next word starts with any vowel sound, we add the sound /j/ 2. If the first word ends in a vowel sound like // or /u:/ and the next word starts with any vowel sound, we add the sound /w/

48. Examples Every ear /evri j/ (sounds like every year) He earns /h j:nz/ (sounds like he yearns) You ache /ju: wek/ (sound like you wake)

49. Compression & smoothing Sometimes a sequence of sounds has two possible pronunciations: either as two separate syllables, or compressed into a single syllable (marked by  between the syllables affected) Leni ent: a slower pronunciation li:n i nt and a faster one li:n jnt Madden ing: a slower pronunciation md n  or md n  and a faster one md n

50. Generallytheuncompressedversionis more usual: In rarerwords In slowordeliberatespeech Thefirst time a wordisused in a givendiscourse