Slur

Slur may refer to:

See also

Relaxed pronunciation

Relaxed pronunciation (also called condensed pronunciation or word slurs) is a phenomenon that happens when the syllables of common words are slurred together. It is almost always present in normal speech, in all natural languages but not in some constructed languages, such as Loglan or Lojban, which are designed so that all words are parsable.

Some shortened forms of words and phrases, such as contractions or weak forms can be considered to derive from relaxed pronunciations, but a phrase with a relaxed pronunciation is not the same as a contraction. In English, where contractions are common, they are considered part of the standard language and accordingly used in many contexts (except on very formal speech or in formal/legal writing); however, relaxed pronunciation is markedly informal in register. This is also sometimes reflected in writing: contractions have a standard written form, but relaxed pronunciations may not, outside of eye dialect.

Certain relaxed pronunciations occur only in specific grammatical contexts, the exact understanding of which can be complicated. See trace (linguistics) for some further info.

Slur (music)

A slur is a symbol in Western musical notation indicating that the notes it embraces are to be played without separation, i.e. with legato articulation. A slur is denoted with a curved line generally placed over the notes if the stems point downward, and under them if the stems point upwards:

Notation

The slur is not to be confused with two other similar musical symbols. The tie is a curved line that links two notes of the same pitch to show that their durations are to be added together. The phrase mark is a curved line that extends over a passage which is visually indistinguishable from the slur, and indicates that the passage is to be interpreted as a single phrase.

When two instruments written on the same staff both have slurred phrases with the same note values (e.g., clarinets playing in thirds) it is customary to have two sets of slurs, though in some scores just one set is used and it is understood to apply to both of the instruments.

Performance