Connected English Speech

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Question 1:
Briefly explain aspects of“ConnectedSpeech”?
Connected speech is spoken language in a continuous sequence, as in
normal conversation. It is also called connected discourse. There is often a significant difference
between the way words are pronounced in isolation and the way they are pronounced in the
context of connected speech. In connected speech, words or syllables are clipped, phrases are run
together, and words are stressed differently than they would be in writing.
Deletionof Sounds in ConnectedSpeech
One of the characteristics of connected speech is the deletion or clipping of sounds that
occurs when words run together. For example, "want to" can become "wanna", "going to" can
become "gonna", "rock and roll" can become "rock 'n' roll", and "them" can become "'em" or
"'dem" in connected speech. These are very informal usages of common words that most often
occur in casual conversation, so they would probably not be present in formal speech or writing.
Author Rachael-Anne Knight goes into detail about the mechanics of connected speech
processes (CSP) in Phonetics: A Coursebook:
 "They occur at the edges of words since this is where words 'meet' in sentences.
 Connected speech processes are optional...
 We can think of [connected speech processes] affecting sounds at the phonemic level
rather than the allophonic level. When /t/ or /d/ or /h/ is elided, for example, we do not

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find that a different allophone occurs; we simply find that the phoneme is lost altogether,"
(Knight 2012).
Knight also notes that connected speech can cause confusion or misunderstanding when words
and sounds are changed or lost.
Stress Patterns in ConnectedSpeech
In English, the stress pattern of a word is generally influenced by its context. Because of
this, even native speakers may pronounce the same word differently, as is often the case in
British vs. American English. Connected speech complicates the use of stress by relocating it
from one word to another.
Author Peter Roach illustrates stress in connected speech in Phonology: A Practical Course:
"An aspect of connected speech...is that the stress on a final-stressed compound tends to move to
a preceding syllable and change to secondary stress if the following word begins with a strongly
stressed syllable. Thus...
bad-'tempered but a bad-tempered 'teacher
half-'timbered but a half-timbered 'house
heavy-'handed but a heavy-handed 'sentence"
(Roach 2009).
People writing metered poetry, such as iambic pentameter in sonnets, have to pay
attention to where the stresses fall on words in their lines in order to correctly work within the

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constraints of the form. People speaking metered poetry will probably use stress however it
sounds most natural in connected speech.
Features ofConnectedSpeech:
Here are some of the more common features of connected speech:
Assimilation
Assimilation occurs when a phoneme (sound) in one word causes a change in a sound in
a neighbouring word. For example, try saying the following pairs of words:
 in Bath
 last year
 Hyde Park
You’ll notice that the last sound of the first word changes in each case. The /n/ sound
becomes /m/, /t/ becomes /tʃ/ and /d/ becomes /b/.
Elision
Elision is the loss of a phoneme, most commonly the last phoneme of a word, and most
commonly the /t/ and /d/ sounds. Have a look at these examples:
 left back
 stand by

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 looked back
 I must go
In each case the last phoneme of the first word is elided (lost). In the simplest terms, the
reason is that the time and effort required to change the mouth position from the /t/ to
the /b/ sound (as in the first example) or the /t/ to the /g/ sound (as in the last example) is
too great!
Catenation
In catenation the last consonant of the first word is joined to the vowel sound at the
start of the second word. For example:
 pick it up – (learners will hear something like pi ki tup)
 what is it – (learners will hear something like wo ti zit)
Intrusion
Intrusion is what you might expect from the name – an extra sound “intrudes” into the
spoken utterance. Try saying the following pairs of words:
 media event
 I always
 go away
Do you hear the /r/ sound intruding after “media”, the /j/ sound intruding after “I” and
the /w/ sound intruding after “go”?