TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Foreign Languages

PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY - 001199

Chapter 9:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED
SPEECH

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 BRIEFING
9.1. Rhythm
9.2. Assimilation
9.3. Elision
9.4. Linking

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 9.1. RHYTHM
• There are basically two types of sentence rhythm
in languages:
"stress-timed rhythm" and "syllables-timed
rhythm."

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 9.1. RHYTHM

- English has stress-timed rhythm.

- Stressed syllables will occur at relatively
regular intervals whether they are
separated by unstressed syllables or not.
- The time from each stressed syllable to
the next will be the same.

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9.1. RHYTHM

• 1) Walk down the path to the end of the

canal.
• 2) Run all the way to the house next door.

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Example 1:
- Syllable 1, 2 are not separated by any unstressed
syllables.
- Syllable 2, 3 are separated by 1 unstressed syllable.
- Syllable 3, 4 are separated by 2 unstressed syllables.
- Syllable 4, 5 are separated by 3 unstressed syllables.

Walk down the path to the end of the canal.

Rhythm: 1 2 3 4 5
Stressed Walk down path to end of -nal
syllables the ca-
the the
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 9.1. RHYTHM
• The foot begins with a stressed syllable and
includes all the following unstressed
syllables up to (but not including) the
following stressed syllable.

2) Run all the way to the house next door.

Run all the way to the house next door.
1 2 3 4
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Divide these sentences into
feet.
• Give me a burger with cheese.
• Let me help you find your keys.
• Find a space and park your car.
• I'll have her call you back.
• He’s the man who you should see.

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 Written exercises (p.118)

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 Written exercises (p.118)
• Exercise 1:

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 9.2. ASSIMMILATION

- Assimilation is concerned with one sound

becoming phonetically similar to a
neighbouring sound.
- Sounds that belong to one word can cause
changes in sounds belonging to other words.
- Assimilation is more likely to be found in rapid,
casual speech.

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 9.2. ASSIMMILATION (cont.)

In terms of direction of assimilation:

progressive regressive

coalescent.

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 9.2. ASSIMMILATION

• Cf changes to become like Ci -> regressive

assimilation
• Ci changes to become like Cf-> progressive
assimilation
• Cf and Ci combine to become another C ->
coalescent assimilation
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 9.2. ASSIMMILATION (cont.)
Regressive assimilation:
- The assimilated sound precedes and is
affected by the following conditioning
sound.

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 9.2. ASSIMMILATION (cont.)
Progressive assimilation:
- The conditioning sound precedes and affects the
following sound.
- This is often seen in the inflectional endings -s and –ed
- If preceded by a voiced sound, they become voiced; if
preceded by a voiceless one, they become voiceless.

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 9.2. ASSIMMILATION (cont.)
Coalescent assimilation:
where two neighboring sounds influence each
other to assimilate to a new different sound.

Don’t you Would you

alveolar + palatal /dəʊnt ju/ /wʊd ju/

Alveopalatal / dəʊntʃu/ /wʊdʒu/

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 6.2. ASSIMMILATION
(cont.)

• Assimilation of place of articulation

• Assimilation of manner of articulation
• Assimilation of voicing

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 6.2. ASSIMMILATION
(cont.)
• Assimilation of place of articulation
• English word-final alveolar consonants such as
/t, d, n/ is followed by a word whose initial
consonant begins with a bilabial, a velar or a
dental
=> the word-final alveolar consonant is likely to
change its place of articulation to match that at
the beginning of the second word.

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 Assimilation of place of articulation
• /t/ will become /p/ before a bilabial consonant.
• /d/ will become /b/ before a bilabial
consonant.
• /n/ will become /m/ before a bilabial
consonant.
‘that’ ‘Boy’ ‘That boy’
/ðat/ /bɔɪ/ /ðap bɔɪ/
Good Boy Good boy
/gʊd/ /bɔɪ/ /gʊb bɔɪ/
Green Paper Green paper
/griːn/ /ˈpeɪpə/ /griːm peɪpə/
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 6.2. ASSIMMILATION
(cont.)
Assimilation of place of articulation
• /t/ will become /k/ before a velar consonant.
• /d/ will become /g/ before a velar consonant.
• /n/ will become /ŋ/ before a velar consonant.

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 6.2. ASSIMMILATION
(cont.)
• /t/, /d/, /n/ will become dental plosive before a
dental consonant.

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 6.2. ASSIMMILATION
(cont.)
• / s / changes to /ʃ/ before /ʃ/ or / j / followed by
a rounded vowel sound

• / z / changes to /ʒ/ before /ʃ/ or / j / followed by

a rounded vowel sound

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 6.2. ASSIMMILATION (cont.)

• Assimilation of manner of articulation

• In the most rapid and casual speech
• Regressive assimilation
• A final plosive becomes a fricative or nasal.

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 6.2. ASSIMMILATION (cont.)

• Assimilation of voicing
• Cf is a lenis (voiced) consonant and Ci is fortis
(voiceless) -> lenis consonant has no voicing.

• Cf is fortis (voiceless) and Ci is lenis (voiced) -

> Cf would become voiced.

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 6.3. ELISION

- The omission of a phoneme in speech

- The most frequently elided consonants are
/t/ and /d/.
- Examples:
last year [lɑ:s jɪə]
thousand points [θaʊzən pᴐɪnts]
Moved back [mu:v bæk]
Liked meat [laɪk mi:t]
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 6.3. ELISION
- The loss of weak vowel after “p, t, k”
Examples:
Potato Today

- Weak vowel + “n, l, r” -> syllabic consonant

- Loss of final “v” in “of” before consonants

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 6.4. LINKING
Consonant-to-
The connecting of final vowel links
sound of one word or
syllable to the initial Vowel-to-vowel
links
sound of the next
word.
Consonant-to-
consonant
links
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 6.4. LINKING

Linking r

Intrusive r

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 Home Assignment

• [1]: 119-160
• [4]: 44-54
• [5]: 264-276

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