This document discusses various natural speech phenomena in English that occur in casual speech, including linking, blending, elision, weakening, haplology, coalescence, gemination, and metathesis. Linking occurs when sounds from adjacent words are joined together, such as the "linking r." Blending happens when consonants blend with following vowels. Elision refers to sounds disappearing, such as deletion of initial "h." Weakening can involve final consonants or medial "t." Haplology eliminates repeated syllables. Coalescence happens when speech sounds merge. Gemination pairs identical sounds. Metathesis reorders sounds within a word. These phenomena give English its distinctive rhythm compared to formal pronunciation

1. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL EXPERIMENTAL
“FRANCISCO DE MIRANDA”
ÁREA CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
PROGRAMA DE EDUCACIÓN MENCIÓN INGLÉS
PHONETICS II
Speech Phenomena
Licdo. Julio Reyes

2. Licdo. Julio Reyes

3. Speech Phenomena
In English, we have many natural speech
phenomena (NSP) which, along with stress, give
English its distinctive rhythm. We call these NSP
because they are common in normal spoken
English, colloquial, and especially in fast speech.
Licdo. Julio Reyes

4. Speech Phenomena
Linking
“Linking” or “joining together” of sounds is what this term
refers to. In general, we produce the phonemes that
belong to the words we are using in a more or less
continuous stream, and the listener recognizes them (or
most of them) and receives the message.
Linking takes place when the end of one word is joined on
to the beginning of the following word. In English the best-
known case of linking is the “linking r”: there are many
words in English (e.g. ‘car’, ‘here’, ‘tyre’)
For example:
‘The car is’ ðə kɑ_r iz "
‘Here are’ hIər ə
Licdo. Julio Reyes

5. Types of Linking
Consonant to consonant linking (CC)
The final consonant in a word links with the consonant of the
following word, if both consonants are similar.
pressed daisies
epidemic cholera
apparent takeover
Consonant to vowel linking (CV)
If a word ends in a consonant and the next word begins with a
vowel, the consonant links up with the following word. (Final
consonants can also link with initial <w, h, y, r> of the following
word, especially in faster speech.)
weak eyes
sweet oranges
for admission
Licdo. Julio Reyes

6. Types of Linking
Vowel to vowel linking (VV)
If a word ends in a vowel and the next word begins with a
vowel (in faster speech, they may also link if the second
word begins with <w, h, y, r>).
to our home
the Olympics
high in the air
thirty hours
Licdo. Julio Reyes

7. Speech Phenomena
Blending
Blending (palatalization)
Final <t, d, s, z> sounds blend with following <y> sounds
when <y> begins a function word, creating new sounds.
For example:
Could you -- couldja 
Can’t you --can’tcha .
press your – pressyur.
as your -- azyur zy.
Licdo. Julio Reyes

8. Speech Phenomena
Elision - Deletion
The nature of elision may be stated quite simply; under
certain circumstances sounds disappear. That is, a
phoneme may be realised as zero, or have zero realisation
or be deleted. Elision is typical of rapid, casual speech.
Licdo. Julio Reyes

9. Types
H-deletion
The <h> beginning a function word gets deleted within a
sentence; often this deletion leads to linking.
let her (sounds like letter)
get him
Cluster simplification
A consonant cluster is a group of two or more consonants
together. When a consonant cluster comes at the end of a
word, the last consonant often gets cut off, specially if the
combination is hard to pronounce quickly. This is more
common in faster speech.
just once [wAns] Ghost Busters
months [mAns] just starting
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10. Licdo. Julio Reyes

11. Speech Phenomena
Weakening
Final consonant weakening
Final <t, p, k> are not pronounced with a release of air if
the next word begins with a consonant, or at the end of a
phrase or sentence.
just¬ because sap¬ sucker
sick¬ leave Just¬ do it¬ !.
Licdo. Julio Reyes

12. Weakening
Medial t-weakening
Oftentimes the <t> inside a word weakens and sounds
something like a [d], especially before a vowel. This
happens when the <t> comes after a stressed syllable and
before an unstressed syllable. At the beginning of a
stressed syllable, <t> is pronounced with full strength. This
weakening also happens in phrases, for example, when a
content word followed by a function word.
letter, batter, hitter, bitter, better pattern, spotted, clutter,
fertile, transporter, reporter, let her, let him, get him
Licdo. Julio Reyes

13. Weakening
Weak syllable reduction (iambic reduction)
In many words with a stressed syllable followed by two
weak (unstressed) syllables, the first weak syllable is
reduced or deleted — pronounced extremely lightly and
quickly, or not at all.
interest [int’rest] probably [prob’bly]
finally [fin’lly]
also: conference, difference, histoy, etc.
Licdo. Julio Reyes

14. Speech Phenomena
Haplology
Haplology is defined as the elimination of a syllable when
two consecutive identical or similar syllables occur. The
phenomenon was identified by American philologist
Maurice Bloomfield in the 20th century.
Linguists sometimes jokingly refer to the phenomenon as
"haplogy" (subjecting the word "haplology“).
For example:
Library
Pierced-ear earrings > pierced earrings
Probably
February
Licdo. Julio Reyes

15. Speech Phenomena
Coalescence - Asimilation
Speech sounds rarely have clear-cut boundaries that mark
them off from their neighbors. It sometimes happens that
adjacent phonemes slide together (coalesce) so that they
seem to happen simultaneously.
An example is what is sometimes called yod-
coalescence, where a sound preceding a j (“yod”)
becomes palatalized: thus the “s” at the end of ‘this’ can
merge with the “j” of ‘year’ (content word) to give a
pronunciation ðiʃʃiə or ðiʃiə.
Licdo. Julio Reyes

16. Speech Phenomena
Geminate
When two identical sounds are pronounced next to each
other (e.g. the sequence of two n sounds in English
‘unknown’ _nnəυn) they are referred to as geminate. The
problem with the notion of gemination is that there is often
no way of discerning a physical boundary between the two
paired sounds.
Licdo. Julio Reyes

17. Speech Phenomena
Metathesis
From the Greek, "to transpose“.
"The order of sounds can be changed”. Metathesis is what
takes place when two sounds or syllables switch places in
a word. This happens all the time in spoken language.
Tax and Task are variant developments of a single form,
with the [ks] represented by x metathesized in the second
word to [sk]. . . .
"The /sp-/-/ps-/ metathesis in English can occur in the
onset of an unstressed syllable as in spaghetti--psketti.“
Nuclear pronounced as /nukular/ and asterisk pronounced
as /asteriks/).
Licdo. Julio Reyes

18. Licdo. Julio Reyes