Connected speech

1. Assimilation

2. Some rules for assimilation
• Anticipatory assimilation:
o The phonemes /t/, /d/ and /n/ often become bilabial before bilabial
consonants /p/, /b/ and /m/
Ex: “Can you see that boy?” “He's a very good boy” “There are ten men in
the class”
o /t/ assimilates to /k/ before /k/ or /g/.
Ex: "Where has that cat been?"
o /d/ assimilates to /g/ before /k/ or /g/.
Ex: “She's a very good girl”

3. Some rules for assimilation
o/n/ can assimilate to /ŋ/before /g/ or /k/
Ex: “I've been going out too much lately”
“He's bringing his own car”
o/s/ can assimilate to /ʃ/ before /ʃ/
Ex: “I love this shiny diamond”
o/z/ can assimilate to /ʒ/ before /ʃ/
Ex: “We found this cheese shop in Paris”

4. Some rules for assimilation
• Yod coalescence:
o /t/ and /j/ coalesce to form /ʧ/
Ex: “You went to France last year, didn't you?”
o /d/ and /j/ coalesce to form /ʤ/
Ex: “Would you like a cup of tea?”

5. Elision
Omission of a sound to reduce the effort while speaking.

6. Some rules for elision
• /t/ and /d/ within a consonant cluster (word boundaries)
Ex: “We arrived the next day” /neks deɪ/
“We bought a lovely carved statuette”  /kɑ:v stætʃʊˈet/
“We reached Paris and stopped for lunch”  /ri:ʧ pærɪs/ /stɒp fə/
• Complex consonant clusters are simplified
Ex: “She acts like she owns the place”  /æks/
“George the sixth’s throne”  /sɪks θrəʊn/

7. Some rules for elision
• The /ə/ sound can dissapear in unstressed syllables
Ex: “Call the police”  /pli:s/
“Are you coming out tonight?”  /tˈnaɪt/
• The /v/ sound can dissapear in “of” BEFORE consonants
Ex: “It’s a complete waste of time”  /ə/

8. Linking and intrusion

9. Rhotic and non-rhotic accents of English
• Speakers with a RHOTIC accent of English DO pronounce the /r/
sound when is present on the spelling.
Ex: car  /kɑ:r/
• Speakers with a NON-RHOTIC accent of English DO NOT pronounce
the /r/ sound even though it is present on the spelling
Ex: car  /kɑ:/

10. Linking /r/
• For non-rhotic accents: Speakers pronounce the /r/ sound present
on the spelling to link a vowel to another one between boundaries
Ex: “My brother always phones at the wrong time”
“My car is new”
 Natural for rothic accents

11. Intrusive /r/
• For non-rhotic accents: Speakers use the /r/ phoneme (not
present on the spelling) between two vowel sounds
/ə/ /ɑ:/ /ɔ:/
Ex: “I saw it happen” /ɔ:rɪ/
“Law and order” /ɔ:rər/

12. Linking /j/
• Words ending in /i:/ or /eɪ/ /ɔɪ/ /aɪ/ followed by a vowel sound
Ex: “I think, therefore I am”  /aɪjæm/
“I agree”  /aɪjəˈgri:/
WHY?
 Place of articulation

13. Linking /w/
• Words ending in /u:/ /əʊ/ /aʊ/ followed by a vowel sound
Ex: “Go on! Go in!”  /gəʊwɒn/ /gəʊwɪn/
“You are nice”  /ju:wɑ:/
WHY?
 Place of articulation

14. How to teach elision
Tips for teaching

15. How to teach elision
• Superlative adjectives: /t/ sound followed by a consonant
Ex: “Tallest building”  /tɔːlɪs ˈbɪldɪŋ/
“Biggest place”  /ˈbɪgɪs pleɪs/
Contrast with /t/ sound followed by a vowel.
Ex: “Biggest animal”
“Longest hour”

16. How to teach linking
Tips for teaching

17. How to teach linking
• Phrasal verbs in a to-do list
For linking /r/ For linking /j/
Ex: “Clear away” /klɪərəˈweɪ/ Ex: “Tidy away” /ˈtaɪdijəˈweɪ/
“Clear out”/klɪəraʊt/ “Tidy up” /ˈtaɪdijʌp/
For linking /w/
Ex: “Throw away” /θrəʊwəˈweɪ/
“Throw out” /θrəʊwaʊt/

18. Juncture

19. Juncture
• “I scream,you scream,we all scream for ice-cream”
• “The clock keeps ticking” /ki:ps tikin/
• “The kids keep sticking things on the wall” /ki:p stikin/
• “That's my train”
• “It might rain”

20. Juncture
• “The great apes”
• “The grey apes”
oIn the pair:
• “Can I have some more ice?”
• “Can I have some more rice?”

21. Juncture
oConsonants often seem to be attracted across word boundaries:
Ex: “You'll need an egg,an olive and an anchovy(...a negg,a nolive
and a nanchovy”)
oThe coincidence of sounds can lead to examples where listeners
may hear an unintended word:
Ex: “It's no joke (snow)”
“It's tough (stuff)”

22. Contractions

23. Contractions
• I am  I’m /aım/
• I am not  I'm not /aım not/
• Can not  Can’t /ka:nt/
• Would have  Would’ve /wudəv/
• Could not  Couldn’t /kudnt/

24. Should we teach these aspects of
connected speech?

25. Should we teach these aspects of connected
speech?
• In the same way that working on sentence stress and intonation
can help students to better understand spoken English, so can
working on the other features of connected speech.
• It depends on how teachable an item is.
• It depends on what items receive more attention in coursebooks
and which do not.

26. Should we teach these aspects of connected
speech?
• It depends on how they contribute to the intelligibility of the speech.
• It depends on how teachable an item is.
• It depends on how relevant an item is for the student.
• Every teacher has to make their own judgment based on the above
criteria, of how much attention to give to the different features of
connected speech.