aspects of connected speech 1

7/31/2019 Aspects of Connected Speech 1

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Aspects of

Connected Speech 1

MAFS


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CONNECTED SPEECH

Speech would be much easier to understand ifit was spoken with a gap between every word.

Human speech is a continuous flow it is almostimposible to decide where one sounds ends

and the next begins.

In natural speech we can observe many

processes that result in differences between

isolated words and connected speech


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Examples of connected speech phenomena

are assimilation and elision.

The study of connected speech also involves

looking at the process of reduction in weak

syllables, at rhythm and at prosodic

phenomena such as intonation and stress.


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ASSIMILATION

It is what happens to a sound when it is

influenced by one of its neighbours.

For example, the word 'this' has the sound /s/

at the end, but when followed by / / in a

word such as 'shop' it often changes in rapid

speech (through assimilation) to / /, giving

the pronunciation / p /.


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It s progressive when a sound influences a

following sound, (the next sound).

this is exemplified by the 's ofthe plural

ending in English. / z / after a voiced

consonant ('dogs' /dgz/) but / s / after a

voiceless consonant ('cats'/kts /).

It is regressive when a sound influences onewhich precedes it. ( the previous sound)


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Regressive assimilation:

Alveolar consonants (e.g. / t d s z n /) which

are followed by non-alveolar consonants:assimilation results in a change ofplace of

articulation from alveolar to a different place.

The example of 'this shop' is of this type;

others are 'football' (where foot and ball

combine to produce / f pb l /) and 'fruit-cake'

(/ frut / + / ke k / = / frukke k /).


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ELISION

Some of the sounds that are heard if words are

pronounced slowly and clearly appear not to be

pronounced when the same words are produced

in a rapid, colloquial style, or when the words

occur in a different context.

These "missing sounds" are said to have been

elided.

It is easy to find examples of elision, but very

difficult to state rules that govern which sounds

may be elided and which may not.


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Elision of vowels

It usually happens when a short, unstressed

vowel occurs between voiceless consonants,

e.g. in the first syllable of 'potato', the second

syllable of 'bicycle', or the third syllable of

'philosophy'.

In some cases we find a weak voiceless sound

in place of the normally voiced vowel .


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Elision also occurs when a vowel occurs

between an obstruent consonant and asonorant consonant such as a nasal or a

lateral this process leads to syllabic

consonants, as in 'sudden' / s dn /, 'awful

/ : fl / (where a vowel is only heard in the

second syllable in slow, careful speech).


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Elision of consonants

It happens most commonly when a speaker"simplifies" a complex consonant cluster:

'acts' becomes / aks / rather than / akts /,

'twelfth night' becomes / twel nat / or/twelf nat / rather than / twelf nat /. It

seems much less likely that any of the other

consonants could be left out: the /l/ and the

/n/ seem to be unelidable.


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