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LECTURE - 11 - Aspects of Connected Speech

The document discusses various aspects of connected speech including rhythm, stress, feet, assimilation, elision, linking, and juncture. It provides examples and explanations of each concept, such as how assimilation can involve place, manner, or voicing of sounds and how elision refers to the omission of sounds in certain contexts like between two consonants.

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Manoj Varrier
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196 views25 pages

LECTURE - 11 - Aspects of Connected Speech

The document discusses various aspects of connected speech including rhythm, stress, feet, assimilation, elision, linking, and juncture. It provides examples and explanations of each concept, such as how assimilation can involve place, manner, or voicing of sounds and how elision refers to the omission of sounds in certain contexts like between two consonants.

Uploaded by

Manoj Varrier
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ASPECTS OF

CONNECTED SPEECH
Tale of a machine
Scientists tried to develop a machine that
would produce speech from a vocabulary
of pre-recorded words
Result: negative (limited, at best)
Reason: ?
-differences between human
speech and mechanical speech
RHYTHM
Noticeable event happening at regular
intervals of time (heart-beat, flashing light,
piece of music)
Rhythm in speech: regular occurrence of
stressed syllables (still, regularity is relative)
English speech is rhythmical
Stress-timed rhythm: stressed syllables tend
to occur at relatively regular intervals
whether they are separated by unstressed
syllables or not (not characteristic for
mechanical speech)
Stress-timed rhythm theory
The time from each stressed syllable to
the next will tend to be the same,
irrespective of the number of intervening
unstressed syllables
Syllable-timed rhythm theory
All syllables, whether stressed or
unstressed, tend to occur at regular
intervals and the time between stressed
syllables will be shorter or longer in
proportion to the number of unstressed
syllables
Japanese, Hungarian, Spanish are
examples of such languages
Foot
A unit of rhythm
Begins with a stressed syllable and
includes all following unstressed syllables
up to, but not including the following
stressed syllable
Tree diagram

s w s w
twen ty pla ces

w s

s w s w
twen ty pla ces
Longer phrase

w s

w s w s

s w s w s w s
twent ty pla ces fur ther back
How strong is a syllable?
Strength of a syllable can be measured by
counting up the number of times the
symbol s occurs above it
metrical grids are correct for very slow
speech (right-hand foot rule is applied)
English tends towards a regular alteration
of strong and weak syllables and tends to
adjust stress levels to make this possible
(stress-shift): e.g. compact /km'pkt/
BUT compact disc /'kmpkt 'dsk/
How rhythmically do we speak?
Very rhythmically styles of public speech
Arhythmically if hesitant or nervous
One always speaks with some degree of
rhythmicality, but the difference is in
degree
In a stress-timed language all the feet are
supposed to be of roughly the same
duration
Assimilation
A feature of natural connected speech
only
Sounds belonging to one word can cause
changes in sounds (phonemes) belonging
to neighbouring words
More likely to be found in rapid, casual
speech
The cases most often described are
assimilations affecting consonants
Assimilation at word boundary

- - - Cf Ci - - -
word
boundary

Assimilation can be either regressive or

progressive
3 types of assimilation:
1) assimilation of place of articulation

2) assimilation of manner of articulation

3) assimilation of voicing
Assimilation of place
The most common form involves the movement of
place of articulation of the alveolar stops /t/, /d/ and
/n/ to a position closer to that of the following sound.
For instance, in the phrase ten cars, the /n/ will
usually be articulated in a velar position, so that the
tongue will be ready to produce the following velar
sound /k/.
Similarly, in ten boys the /n/ will be produced in a
bilabial position, /tem b/ to prepare for the
articulation of the bilabial /b/.

This phenomenon is easy to find also in Italian:


think of the different pronunciations of the n in Gian
Paolo, Gian Franco and Gian Carlo.
BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/)
/n/ //

e.g. ten cars


/d/ /g/

e.g. good girl //


/t/ /k/

e.g. that kid


BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/)
/n/ /m/

e.g. ten men /tem men/


/d/ /b/

e.g. bad boys


/t/ /p/

e.g. hot mushrooms / that person/


meat pie/ light blue
t + bilabial = p
t + dental = dental plosive (e.g. that thing / get those / cut through)
t + velar = k (e.g. that case / bright colour / quite good)
d + similar contexts = b, d, g
n + similar contexts = m, n,
s and z + , j become and (e.g. this shoe, those years)
Assimilation of manner
The change is most likely to be towards an
easier consonant one that makes less
obstruction to the airflow
Final plosive becomes a fricative or nasal
(that side, good night)
A plosive / nasal + word-initial // : in the,
get them, read these (consonant
becomes identical in manner to the cons.
final, but with dental place of articulation)
Assimilation of voicing
The vibration of the vocal folds is not something
that can be switched on and off very swiftly, as a
result groups of consonants tend to be either all
voiced or all voiceless. Consider the different
endings of dogs /dgz/ and cats /kts/, of the
past forms of the regular verbs such as kissed
/kst/ and sneezed /sni:zd/.
Only regressive assim. of voicing is found:
cons.final voiced + cons.initial voiceless devoices
cons.final: e.g. get them /get tm/
Progressive assim. of voicing with suffixes s/z
Elision is very simply the omission of certain sounds in
certain contexts. The most important occurrences of this
phenomenon regard:

1 Alveolar consonants /t/ and /d/ when sandwiched


between two consonants (CONS t/d CONS), e.g.

The next day.

The last car

Hold the dog!

Send Frank a card.


Cases of elision
1) Loss of weak vowel after p/t/k: potato, tomato,
perhaps, etc.
2) Weak vowel + n/l/r = syllabic n / l / r : tonight,
police, correct, etc.
3) Avoidance of complex cons. clusters:
George the Sixths throne
4) 2/3 plosives + a fricative : the middle plosive
disappears: acts, looked back, scripts, etc.
5) Loss of final /v/ in of before consonants: lots of
them, waste of money, etc.
Elision = disappearance of sounds
This can also take place within
affricates /t/ and /d/ when preceded by
a consonant, e.g.
lunchtime
strange days

A phoneme may have zero realisation or


be deleted.
Are contractions a case of elision?
Had, would : d
Is, has : s
Will : ll
Have : ve
Not : nt
Are : re
Linking (Liaison)
Words in English can be linked in special
ways: linking r and intrusive r
Linking r: here are vs. here
four eggs vs. four
law and order vs. law
Intrusive r: Formula A
media event
These are special cases of juncture.
Juncture
Refers to the relationship between one sound
and the sound/s that immediately precede it or
follow it
E.g. my turn vs. might earn
Example of close juncture: m + ai
External open juncture: m, n are in such posit.
Internal open juncture: how are the two above
mentioned examples differentiated?
Answer: due to aspiration or non-aspir. of /t/
thanks to its position at word boundary

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