ASSIMILATION

is the phenomenon of changing the realisation of a phoneme in connected speech as a result of it being influenced by neighbouring phonemes.

• Progressive: the preceding sound affects the following sound (x→y);

• Regressive: the following sound affects the preceding sound (x←y);

• Reciprocal: both neighboring sounds affect each other (x⇆y).

1. Assimilation of English consonants affecting their manner of articulation:

a. stops (plosives):

• affrication of English syllable-initial stops when they take the position before sonorants: the gradual release of closure is accompanied by plosion immediately followed by friction (/tr/, /dr/, /pl/, /pj/, /tw/, /tj/, /kl/, /kr/, kw/, /kj/),

• nasal release: in a stop + /n/ or /m/ cluster the stop assimilates to the nasal release - the soft palate is lowered and the air escapes through the nose (/kɒtn/, /gʊd naɪt/)

• lateral release: in a stop + /l/ cluster the stop assimilates to the lateral release - the air escapes along one or both sides of the tongue (/lɪtl/, /ni:dləs/),

• no release: in a stop + stop cluster there is no release phase of the first plosive or the closure phase of the second, and the hold phase of the first is prolonged into the hold phase of the second (/næpkɪn/, /help pi:pl/);

b. English/r/: - retroflex, post-alveolar (ray, parade),

- devoiced fricative obstruent (trip, cream),

- alveolar flap (through, three);

2. Assimilation of English consonants affecting their place of articulation:

alveolars: /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/:

• dentalised alveolars: English alveolars, when in the position before dentals /θ/, /ð/, assimilate to their place of articulation and become dental (tenth, wealth),

• labialised alveolars: alveolars, when followed by /w/ and /u:/, assimilate to the following sound, taking on lip rounding (twice, do),

• retracted alveolars: alveolars, when followed by post-alveolars /r/, /∫/, /t∫/,/dʒ/, are pronounced in the post-alveolar region,

3. Assimilation of English consonants affecting the work of the vocal cords:

• progressive voicing (dogs /dɒgz/, leads /li:dz/),

• progressive devoicing (voiceless stops followed by sonorants: /twenty/, /tru:/).

4. Absence of assimilation:

• clusters of alveolar and labio-dental fricatives with dental fricatives (/s-θ/, /z-ð/, /s-ð/, /z-θ/, /ð-z/, /θ-s/, /v-ð/, /f-θ/ and alveolar fricatives with affricates /s-tʃ/, /z-dʒ/: no assimilation affecting the place or manner of articulation;

• clusters of voiced and voiceless or voiceless and voiced consonants: no assimilation affecting the work of the vocal cords (/æbsənt/, /dɪsdeɪn/).

ASSIMILATION IN FAST CONNECTED SPEECH

• complete assimilation: alveolars /n/, /d/, /t/ can completely assimilate their place of articulation to the following sounds /m/, /p/, /b/ or /ŋ/, /k/, /g/ (/ten boɪz→tem boɪz/, /ten gз:lz→teŋ gз:lz/).

ELISION

• consonants /t/, /d/ can be left out within a word (sandwich, friendship).

ELISION IN FAST CONNECTED SPEECH

1. Leaving out consonant /t/ before a word beginning with a consonant except /h/(it kept still, she's left-handed); when the final consonant cluster is /skt/, /k/ is left out before a vowel and /h/ (I asked Ann) and both /k/ and /t/ are left out before a consonant (He risked losing);

2. Leaving out consonant /d/ before a word beginning with a consonant except /h/, /l/, /w/, /r/, /s/ (an old car);

3. Leaving out consonant /h/ at the beginning of unstressed pronouns, auxiliary verbs and question words (ask him, John has left, the person who did it…);

4. Leaving out /l/ after /ɔ:/ (almost, always);

5. Leaving out /d/ in and and /v/ in of (before a consonant)(red and blue, Adam and Eve, a bottle of water).

ELLIPSIS AND `NEAR ELLIPSIS'

Ellipsis - the omission from a clause of a word or phrase which is obvious from the context.

`Near ellipsis' - the omission from a clause of a word or phrase which is obvious from the context but leaving behind a very short sound from the omitted words.

	full form	ellipsis	near ellipsis
Leaving out personal subject+be/have:	I'm not sure.	Not sure.	`m not sure.
leaving out it before is/has	It's broken.	Broken.	`ts broken.
leaving out be	Is that Ken?	That Ken?	`s that Ken?
leaving out an auxiliary verb or be+subject	Have you seen my keys?	Seen my keys?	v'y (/vj/) seen my keys?
leaving out be and have between the question word and subject in wh-questions (does is never left out completely after a wh-word)	What are you doing?	What you doing?	What're you doing?
		Where does she live?	not possible	Where's she live?

WEAK FORMS OF FUNCTION WORDS

Notion (content) words (have lexical meaning): nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs (do not have weak forms).

Function words (have little or do not have lexical meaning and serve to express grammatical relations between notion words in a sentence): prepositions, articles, particles, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, pronouns (have strong and weak forms).

The strong form of function words is used:

• when function words occur at the end of a sentence (except he, him, his, her, them, us): What are you waiting for? /wɒt ə ju weɪtɪŋ fɔ:/

I've seen him. /aɪ v si:n ɪm/

• when a function word is being contrasted with another word: The letter's from him, not to him. /ðə letəz frɒm ɪm nɒt tu: ɪm/

• when a function word is given stress for the purpose of emphasis: You must go there. /ju mʌst gəʊ ðeə/

• when a function word is being quoted: You shouldn't put `and' at the end of a sentence. /ju ʃʊdnt pʊt ænd ət ði end əv ə sentəns/

In the rest of the cases weak forms of function words are used.

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