Mastering English Connected Speech

Understanding English Speech Rhythm

Rhythm involves noticeable events happening at regular intervals of time. English speech is inherently rhythmical.

Stress-Timed Rhythm

This implies that stressed syllables tend to occur at relatively regular intervals, regardless of whether they are separated by unstressed syllables or not. This is characteristic of English.

Syllable-Timed Rhythm

(Not characteristic of English) All syllables, whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur at regular time intervals. The time between stressed syllables will be shorter or longer in proportion to the number of unstressed syllables.

Foot Theory

A foot is a fundamental unit of rhythm. It begins with a stressed syllable and includes all the following unstressed syllables up to the next stressed syllable.

Assimilation in English Pronunciation

Assimilation is a common phonological process where the phonetics of a speech segment become more like that of an adjacent segment in a word or at a word boundary.

A common example is "don't be silly," where the /n/ and /t/ in "don't" are assimilated to /m/ and /p/ respectively by the following /b/, often pronounced naturally as "dombe silly" in many accents and discourse styles.

Types of Assimilation

Progressive Assimilation

In progressive assimilation, the conditioning sound precedes and affects the following sound.

Examples:

• The regular plural /s/ vs. /z/ (e.g., "cats" /s/, "dogs" /z/)
• The regular past tense /t/ vs. /d/ (e.g., "walked" /t/, "played" /d/)

In these cases, the final sound of the stem conditions the voiced or voiceless form of the suffix.

Regressive Assimilation

In regressive assimilation, the assimilated sound precedes and is affected by the conditioning sound.

Examples:

• "Grandpa": The /p/ causes the /nd/ to be articulated as /m/ (e.g., /græmpɑ:/)
• "Pancake": The /k/ causes the /n/ to become /ŋ/ (e.g., /pæŋkeɪk/)

Coalescent Assimilation

Coalescent assimilation is a type of reciprocal assimilation. The first sound and second sound in a sequence come together and mutually condition the creation of a third sound with features from both original sounds.

Formula: Sound A + Sound B = Sound C

Examples:

• /d/ + /j/ = /dʒ/ (e.g., "soldier" /səʊldjə/ → /səʊldʒə/)
• /t/ + /j/ = /tʃ/ (e.g., "picture" /pɪktjʊə/ → /pɪktʃə/)
• /z/ + /j/ = /ʒ/ (e.g., "treasure" /trezjʊə/ → /treʒə/)
• /s/ + /j/ = /ʃ/ (e.g., "just you" /dʒʌs ju:/ → /dʒʌʃu:/)
• /ts/ + /j/ = /tʃ/ (e.g., "She lets your dog in.")
• /dz/ + /j/ = /dʒ/ (e.g., "She needs your help.")

Linking in Connected Speech

Linking refers to the way sounds connect between words in continuous speech. There are two basic types of linking:

• Consonant > Vowel Linking: We link words ending with a consonant sound to words beginning with a vowel sound.
• Vowel > Vowel Linking: We link words ending with a vowel sound to words beginning with a vowel sound.

Elision: Sound Omission in English

Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. This process often makes the pronunciation easier for the speaker.

Examples:

• him: /hɪm/ → /ɪm/ (e.g., "I saw 'im")
• temperature: /ˈtɛmpərətʃər/ → /ˈtɛmpərtʃər/ or /ˈtɛmprətʃər/
• vegetable: /ˈvɛdʒətəbəl/ → /ˈvɛdʒtəbəl/ or /ˈvɛtʃtəbəl/