PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH

Pramod l Suraya l Laily l Hafizah l Syafiqa

RYTHM
Rhythm - The notion of rhythm involves some noticeable event happening at regular intervals of time. English speech rhythmical. Rhythm is detectable in the regular occurrence of stressed syllables. The theory that English has stress- timed rhythm implies that stress syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular intervals.

 It is whether they are separated by unstressed syllables or not, it would not be the case in mechanical speech. Example: 1 2 3 4 5 Walk down the path to the end of the canal
The stress-timed rhythm theory states that the times from each stresses syllable to the next will tend to be the same

Rhythmical structure
Some theories of rhythm go further and produced strong- weak patterns in larger pieces of speech.

Example: the word twenty has one strong and one weak syllable, forming one foot.

Rhythmical structure diagram

s twen S = strong W = weak

w ty

s pla
S = strong W = weak

w ces

 twenty places

w
s twen w ty s pla

s
w ces

: consider the phrase twenty places where places normally carries strong stress than twenty. (rhythmically stronger)

 If we look at this phrase in the context of longer phrase twenty places further back, and build up the further back part in similar way, we would end up with more elaborate structure

w
S w s

s
w
ces

w
s
fur

s
w
ther

s
back

Twen ty

pla

 The strength of the syllable can be measured by counting up the number of s symbol occurs on it.
s s s -----------------------------------------------twen ty pla ces fur ther back

s s

s s

 The grid above may be correct for very low speech. Many English speakers feel that even though in twenty places the right hand foot is the stronger, the word twenty is stronger than places in twenty places further back when spoken in conversational style. This is because English speech tends towards a regular alternation between stronger and weaker.

 Example:
Compact (adjective) : kmpkt compact disk (noun) : kmpkt dsk

stresses are altered according to context.

ASSIMILATION
The different realization of a phoneme as a result of being near some other phoneme belonging to a neighbouring word. Every consonant and every vowel is affected by its neighbouring consonants and vowels. This adaptation of segments to each other is sometimes referred to as assimilation. Assimilation is something which varies in extent according to speaking rate and style; it is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less likely in slow, careful speech.

Example: consider a case where two words are combined, the first of which ends with a final consonant (which we will call Cf) and second of which starts with a single initial consonant (which we will call Ci); we can construct a diagram like this:

If Cf changes to become like Ci in some way, the assimilation is called regresive (the phoneme that comes first is affected by the one that comes after it); if Ci changes to become like Cf in some way, the assimilation is called progressive.

Main Differences Between Consonants

i) differences in place of articulation ii) differences in manner of articulation iii) differences in voicing.

Assimilation of Places
Assimilation of places is most clearly observable in some cases where a final consonant (Cf) with alveolar place of articulation is followed by an initial consonant (Ci) with a place of articulation that is not alveolar.

Example: the final consonant in that t is alveolar t. In rapid, casual speech the t will become p before bilabial consonant, as in: that person p psn Before a dental consonant, t will change to a dental plosive, for which the symbol is t, as in: that thing t ; get those et z

 However, the same is not true of the other alveolar consonants: s and z behave differently, the only noticeable change being that s becomes , and z becomes , when followed by or j, as in: this shoe u; those years jz.

Assimilation of Manner
Assimilation of manner is much less noticeable, and is only found in the most rapid and casual speech; generally speaking, the tendency is again for regressive assimilation and the change in the manner is most likely to be towards an easier consonant one which makes less obstruction to the airflow. It is thus possible to find cases where a final plosive becomes a fricative or nasal (e.g. that side s sad, good night n nat), but most unlikely that a final fricative or nasal would become a plosive.

 In one particular case we find progressive assimilation of manner, when a wordinitial follows a plosive or nasal at the end of a preceding word: it is very common to find that the Ci becomes identical in manner to the Cf but with dental place of articulation. For example:

Assimilation of Voice
Assimilation of voice is also found, but again only in a limited way. Only regressive assimilation of voice is found across word boundaries, and then only of one type. If Cf is a lenis (i.e. voiced) consonant and Ci is fortis (i.e. voiceless) we often find that the lenis consonant has no voicing; this is not a very noticeable case of assimilation.

 When Cf is fortis (voiceless) and Ci lenis (voiced), a context in which many languages Cf would become voiced, assimilation of voice never takes place. example: I like that black dog a lak t blk d. It is typical of many foreign learners of English to allow regressive assimilation of voicing to change the final k of like to g , the final t of that to d and the final k of black to g.

ELISION
The nature of elision may be stated quite simply: under circumstances sounds disappear. In certain circumstances a phoneme may be realized as zero, or have zero realization or be deleted. Elision is the omission of certain sounds in certain contexts. Elision is typical of rapid, casual speech. When native speakers speak, quite number of phonemes that the foreigner might expect to hear are not actually pronounced.

 Loss of weak vowel after p,t,k In words like potato, tomato, perhaps, today, the vowel in the first syllable may dissappear. The aspiration of the initial plosive takes up the whole of the middle portion of the syllable.

/pte.t/ , /tm.t/ , /phps/ , /tde/

 Weak vowel + n, l, r become syllabic consonant

tonight (tnat) police (plis) correct (krekt)

 Avoidance of complex consonants clusters

No normal English speaker would ever pronounce all the consonants between the last two words of the following George the Sixths Throne /dd skss rn/ Something like sksrn or sksrn is more likely pronounced for the last two words

 In clusters of three plosives or two plosives plus a fricative, the middle plossive may dissappear, so that the following pronunciation results:
acts /ks/ looked back /lk bk/ scripts /skrps/

 Loss of final v in of before consonants, for example:

Lots of them /lts m/ Waste of money /west mni/

 It is difficult to know whether contractions of grammatical words should be regarded as examples of elision or not. The best known cases are: had, would: spelt d, pronounced d (after vowels), d (after consonants) is, has: spelt s, pronounces s (after fortis consonants), z (after lenis consonants) will: spelt ll have: spelt ve, pronounced v (after vowels), v (after consonants)

LINKING r
The most familiar case is the use of linking 'r' : the phoneme r does not occur in syllablefinal position in the BBC accent but when the spelling of a word suggests a final r and a word beginning with a vowel follows, the usual pronunciation is to pronuounce with r.

Intrusive 'r'
It is a sound inserted between two vowels where no '-r-' is written.

THE END