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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

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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, ə/ and /ɪ/.

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 wasn’t 'her turn yet. 

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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 /wʊdʒə/).

Assimilation affecting place of arti culation 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, ŋ/. 

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/ → /ŋ/  in Greece

Cluster /nt/

/nt/ → /ŋk/  don’t get back RP/dəʊŋk  gep bæk/ AE /doʊŋk  gep bæk/

/nt/ → /mp/  can’t possibly RP /kɑ:mp p ɒsə bli/ AE /kæmp pɑ:sə bli/

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

affricates / ʃ / or /ʒ/:

/s/ → /ʃ / this shop

/z/ → /ʒ/ has she

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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

/hæv tu/ → /hæf tu/ 

/hæd tu/ → /hæd tu/ 

/hæz tu/ → /hæs tu/ 

Past tense -ed:

lenis /d/ when preceded by a voiced sound: /laɪd/, /k ɪld/, /lɪvd/

fortis /t/ when preceded by a voiceless sound: /ræpt/, /k ɪkt/, /mæ ʃ t/

Inflectional -s:

lenis /z/ when preceded by a voiced sound: / ʃ u:z/, /ənoɪz/, /belz/

fortis /s/ when preceded by a voiceless sound: /fli:ts/, /helps/, /beθs/ 

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 ɑ:/. 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 ɑ:r əweɪ/. 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  /ænər ən pɔ:l/