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CONNECTED SPEECH Overview What is connected speech?Aspects of connected speechWeak FormsElisionAssimilationLinking

What is connected speech ?"English people speak so fast" is a complaint I often hear from my students, and often from those at an advanced level, where ignorance of the vocabulary used is not the reason for their lack of comprehension. When students see a spoken sentence in its written form, they have no trouble comprehending. Why is this?

The reason, it seems, is that speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without clear-cut borderlines between each word. In spoken discourse, we adapt our pronunciation to our audience and articulate with maximal economy of movement rather than maximal clarity. Thus, certain words are lost, and certain phonemes linked together as we attempt to get our message across.What is connected speech?

When we speak naturally we do not pronounce a word, stop, then say the next word in the sentence. Fluent speech flows with a rhythm and the words bump into each other. To make speech flow smoothly the way we pronounce the end and beginning of some words can change depending on the sounds at the beginning and end of those words.

These changes are described as features of connected speech. How this affects native and non-native speakersAs native speakers, we have various devices for dealing with indistinct utterances caused by connected speech. We take account of the context, we assume we hear words with which we are familiar within that context. In real-life interaction, phonetically ambiguous pairs like " a new display" / " a nudist play", are rarely a problem as we are actively making predictions about which syntactic forms and lexical items are likely to occur in a given situation.

Non-native speakers, however, are rarely able to predict which lexical item may or may not appear in a particular situation. They tend to depend almost solely on the sounds which they hear. Learners whose instruction has focused heavily on accuracy suffer a "devastating diminuation of phonetic information at the segmental level when they encounter normal speech." (Brown 1990.)

Importance of Studying Connected Speech There is a huge difference between what our students see printed on a page and what we actually say in everyday speech. Research shows that teaching learners about connected speech can really make a difference in terms of how well they understand native speakers. Equally, some ability to use these features in their own speech will also be likely to make students more confident and fluent speakers.Aspects of connected speechSo what is it that we do when stringing words together that causes so many problems for students?Features of connected speechAs a brief overview, there is a strong tendency in English to simplify and link words together in the stream of speech, in order to help the language flow rhythmically. Some of the most common features:Weak forms There are a large number of words in English which can have a "full" form and a "weak" form. This is because English is a stressed timed language, and in trying to make the intervals between stressed syllables equal, to give the phrase rhythm, we tend to swallow non-essential words. Thus, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries and articles are often lost, causing comprehension problems for students, particularly for those whose language is syllable timed. Some examples of words which have weak forms are; Andfish and chips (fishn chips)a chair and a table (a chair n a table)CanShe can speak Spanish better than I can (The first "can" is the weak form, the second the full form.)OfA pint of beerThats the last of the wine!HaveHave you finished? (weak)Yes, I have. (full)ShouldWell, you should have told me. (Both "should" and "have" are weak here)

Weak formsWhen 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. a car /e k:/ I bought a car/a b:t k:/

Weak form are commonly used wordsPrepositionsAuxiliary verbsConjunctions

Strong form

Weak form

Prepositions

to

for

from

into

of

as

at

Auxiliary verbs

are

was

were

would

could

should

can

must

Others

and

but

than

that

you

your

her

a

an

the

Weak=unstressedIn 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)

EXAMPLES1- Betcha for( I ) bet you as in Betcha cant catch me.

2- Gotcha for( I ve ) got you as in Gotcha at last Look at this phrase:I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend. 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.

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

Lets look at the phrase transcribed:

/a went t h tel n bkt

ru:m f tu: nats f ma f:r n

hz best frend/ Learners must come to not only recognise and cope with the weak forms they hear, but also to use them themselves when speaking English. If they do not their language will sound unnatural and over formalised, with too many stressed forms making it difficult for the listener to identify the points of focus. This, the degree to which connected speech contributes towards "naturalness" or "intelligibility", is a useful starting point from which to measure the value to students of the different features of connected speech.Working on weak forms Here are some ways in which we can attempt to help our students with weak forms.How many words do you hear?Play a short dialogue, or a group of sentences, and ask students to listen and write down the number of words they hear. Go over each phrase to check whether they could identify all the words and then to see if they can accurately produce what they heard. Contrast the weak or natural version with the full version, pointing out that the full version is often more difficult to pronounce.

nnatural speechActivities built around "unnatural speech" are an enjoyable way of working on weak forms and rhythm. To obtain "unnatural speech", record someone reading a sentence as if it were just a list of words. A good way of doing this is to put the words onto flash cards, and to reveal one at a time, so the reader gives each word its full pronunciation.

When you have a few sentences, play them several times to the students, who should then work in pairs to try to make the speech more natural sounding. They can then either use graphics to show the points they would change, or take turns reading out their different versions, or record themselves using a more natural pronunciation. Conduct a general feedback session at the end of the activity, discussing reasons for the changes the groups have made.IntegratingIntegrate pronunciation into vocabulary work, practising, for example, the weak form in phrases with "of" (a loaf of bread, a cup of coffee, a can of coke). Integrate weak forms into grammar work. If practising "going to" for example, the teacher can write on the board examples such as: Go on holidayEarn more moneyBuy a carAsk different students to read these phrases as a sentence with "going to". Listen for and highlight the weak form of "to" before the consonant sounds, and the "full" form of "to" with the linking "w" sound before the vowel.

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 The next day. / neks de/ The last car / l:s k:/ Hold the dog! /hl dg/ Send Frank a card. /sen frk k:d/ Africates / t / & / d /This can also take place within affricates /t/ and /d/ when preceded by a consonant, e.g.lunchtime /lnttam/ becomes /lntam/

strange days /strenddez/ /strendez/ Elision of notThe 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./a kn spi:k/ /- I cant speak/a k:n(t) spi:k/ / /

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

Assimilation

This is when the sound at the end of one word changes to make it easier to say the next word. For example:ten boys sounds like tem boys (the /n/ sound changes to the bilabial /m/ to make it easier to transition to the also bilabial /b/)Incidentally bilabial just means two lips together, which is a good example of the kind of jargon that puts people off!

Regressive assimilation: The phoneme that comes first is affected by the one that comes after it. Example: This year / ij ji /, bright color /braik kal/ light blue /laip blu/.

Progressive assimilation: The phoneme that comes first affects the one that comes after it. Example: those year / ji

Assimilation of place of articulation

Assimilation of place of articulation

Assimilation of place of articulation

Assimilation of place of articulation

Assimilation of manner

Only regressive assimilation of alveolar consonantNote: // follow a plosive or nasal at the end of a preceding word Eg: get them /get m/ /gettm/ in the /in / /inn/

Assimilation of voice

eg: I like that black dog / ai laik t blk dg/ / ai laig d blg dg/Only regressive assimilation of voiceCatenationThis is when the last consonant of the first word is joined to the first vowel of the next word. This is very very common in English, and can be very confusing for students. For example:an apple sounds like a napple (Teacher, what is a napple?)

Elision Elision means that you lose a sound in the middle of a consonant cluster, sometimes from the middle of a word. E.g. sandwich becomes sanwich.Or from the end of a word. For example:fish and chips fishnchips

Rules of elision

Rules of elision

c. Avoidance of complex consonant cluster:d. Loss of /v/ in of before consonant Example:IntrusionThis is when an extra sound intrudes. There are three sounds that often do this /r/ /j/ and /w/E.g. go on sounds like gowonI agree sounds like aiyagreeLaw and order sounds like lawrunorder[I probably should have used a phonemic keyboard!]If you want to discover more about features of connected speech- and I think its fascinating stuff, theres a list of useful books at the end of the post, but now lets look at some activities to help raise awareness and encourage more natural sounding speech.

4. Linking

Linking is the phenomenon where words or sounds are linked together. There are 5 basic rules of linking. Rules of linking:Rules of linking

4. Linking * Note: Sometimes listeners have ambiguity in meaning with other words. Example: /maitrein/: my train or might rain

/aiskri:m/: Ice cream or I screamFurther reading

Further readingSound Foundations by Adrian UnderhillPronunciation by Dalton and SeidlholferHow to Teach Pronunciation by Gerald KellyTeaching English Pronunciation by Joanne Kenworthy