The document discusses reductions in spoken English, where sounds are reduced or eliminated in function words like "a", "and", and "that". It provides examples of reductions from commercials and songs, and lists resources on common reduced forms, rules for reductions, and audio samples. Exercises and a quiz on reductions are also mentioned.

1. Spoken English Reductions: Whaddayasay? IELC Seminar Fall 2010 Candice J. Quinones

2. Wassup? Budweiser Commercial How ya doin ’

3. What is a reduction? A reduction occurs in a native English speaker’s speech when they reduce or eliminate certain sounds. There are several common types of reductions (reduced forms of words and phrases).

4. Rules for Reductions Reductions almost always occur with function words, but virtually never with content words. Function words are non-stressed words in a thought group or sentence. Commonly reduced function words: a, an, the, and, are, as, because, can, for, from, had, has, have, of, or, that, than, to, and was. Exercises: See handout

5. Resources A list of reduced forms and purposes http://jalt.org/pansig/2006/HTML/Brown.htm Another list of reduced forms and patterns http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/ReducedForms.html Some rules for reductions http://english-learners.com/2009/10/common-reduced-forms-in-american-english.html Sound samples of reductions http://lingualarts.com/reduced.htm Interview with Nina Weinstein

6. Quiz Audio Quiz http://evaeaston.com/red-quiz01.html

7. Reductions in Music Vanessa Carlton- “A Thousand Miles” Karaoke -Vanessa Carlton “A Thousand Miles” Alicia Keys – “No One ” Karaoke - Alicia Keys “No One” Micheal Jackson – “Beat It” Karaoke - MJ “Beat It”