Connected speech 2

An advanced student of mine speaks both clearly and usually correctly, but
can often sound over formal and at times stilted.

Author: 
Vanessa Steele

He has learnt his English "through the eye" and has trouble interpreting the utterances
of native speakers who do not monitor their output. His delivery is an attempt at a
precise version of every sound. With native speakers, articulatory precision is a stylistic
device, a conscious choice if we want to emphasize a point, be insistent or threatening.
In normal social interaction though, this is not usually the case and articulatory 
imprecision is the more natural and functional option.

 Aspects of connected speech

 Intrusion and linking
 Elision
 Working on connected speech
 Integrating work on connected speech
 Conclusion

Aspects of connected speech

 Speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without clear-cut borderlines between them,
and the different aspects of connected speech help to explain why written English is so
different from spoken English.

So, what is it that native speakers do when stringing words together that causes so
many problems for students?

Intrusion and linking

When two vowel sounds meet, we tend to insert an extra sound which resembles
either a / j /, / w / or / r / , to mark the transition sound between the two vowels, a
device referred to as intrusion. For example:

 Intruding / r/
The media / r /are to blame.
Law(r)and order.

 Intruding / j /
I / j / agree.
They / j /are here!

 Intruding / w/
I want to/ w/eat.
Please do/ w/it.

Word boundaries involving a consonant and a vowel are also linked, as we tend to drag
final consonants to initial vowels or vice versa. For example:

 Get on. ( geton )

 Not at all. ( notatall )

 It´s no joke. ( snow joke)

Elision

As I have mentioned, a native speaker's aim in connecting words is maximum ease and
efficiency of tongue movement when getting our message across. In minimizing our
efforts, we weaken our articulation. If articulation is weakened too much, the sound
may disappear altogether, a process known as elision. It is the vowels from unstressed
syllables which are the first to be elided in non-precise pronunciation.

 Common sound deletions

A syllable containing the unstressed "schwa" is often lost. For example,
o int(e)rest,
o sim(i)lar,
o lib(a)ry,
o diff(e)rent,
o t(o)night.

 / t / and / d /
With consonants, it is / t / and / d / which are most commonly elided, especially when
they appear in a consonant cluster. For example,
o chris(t)mas
o san(d)wich
The same process can occur across word boundaries, for example,
o mus(t) be
o the firs(t) three
o you an(d) me
o we stopp(ed) for lunch

 /h/
The / h / sound is also often deleted. For example,
o you shouldn´t (h)ave
o tell (h)im.

Working on connected speech

If your learners have not worked on these forms before, you might wish to set some
lesson time aside to work specifically on these features of connected speech. One way
of introducing them to sound deletions could be to write a few short phrases on the
board. For example:

 That´s an interesting idea.

 Are you coming out tonight?

 It´s the tallest building.

 You must tell him.

Try if possible to use language you have recently been working on in the classroom.
Then ask the class to count the number of sounds in each word, and write the numbers
 which they give you on the board above the
words, like this:

3 4 4 3

You must tell him

Now play a recording of the phrases, or read them yourself, and ask the learners to
listen again and write down how many sounds they hear. Prompt them if necessary,
asking if, for example, the "t" is really pronounced twice between "must" and "tell",
or only once.

 Drill the phrases then ask the students to practise these phrases themselves. You could
also read out the phrases, once using the elided forms, then again in a more clipped,
emphatic manner.

 Ask the learners which sounds more natural. Highlight that the features of connected
speech not only make the phrase more natural sounding but that it is also easier to
pronounce the words in this way.

Exercises like this help to show learners the differences between written and spoken
English, and they highlight the importance of listening to words rather than relying on
their written forms.

Integrating work on connected speech

It is a good idea to try and integrate work on connected speech into everyday lessons.
When studying grammar for example, don't focus solely on the form of the words, draw
attention to the way they are pronounced in natural conversation.

 Superlatives, for example, provide practice of sound deletions. You could write a few
phrases on the board:
o The Nile is the longest river in the world.
o The Vatican is the smallest country in the world.

 Ask the students to listen to the sounds while you repeat the phrases a few times and
see if they can spot the disappearance of the "t" on the superlative adjective.
 Drill the phrases, chorally and individually. Students might like to write their own
general knowledge quiz, using questions such as, "Which is the tallest building in the
world?".

 As they read their questions, make sure they elide the final "t" (unless of course, the
next word begins with a vowel).

Such exercises provide practice of both grammatical form and pronunciation, and the
repetition helps students to begin using these features of connected speech in a natural
manner.

Anything which you have recently been working on in class can be used as a basis for
pronunciation work. For example, a useful way of practising the intruding sounds /
r /, / w / and / j / is when studying phrasal verbs.

Do/ w /up
lay / j / up
Go/ w /away
Go / w / out

 Drill the verbs chorally and individually before providing a more personalized practice
activity in which students ask each other questions using the verbs you are focusing on.

Phrasal verbs can also be used to show how we tend to link final consonants and initial
vowels across word boundaries.

Get out ( getout )

Put on ( puton )
Come out ( cumout )

Conclusion

Students often find pronunciation work fun and stimulating, as well as valuable.
However, they will need time and confidence in order to assimilate the features of
connected speech and to make them their own. Research does suggest though, that by
simply drawing students' attention to these forms, you are giving them considerable
help towards making sense of the language they hear. 

Further reading

 Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill

 Pronunciation  by Dalton and Seidlholfer
 How to Teach Pronunciation by Gerald Kelly
 Teaching English Pronunciation by Joanne Kenworthy

Home » Knowing the subject » Articles

Connected speech
Teaching pronunciation used to involve little more than identifying and
practising the sounds of which a language is composed, that is to say, its
phonemes.

Recently however, there has been a shift of focus towards the other systems operating
within phonology, which may be more important in terms of overall intelligibility.

 What connected speech is

 How this affects native and non-native speakers

 Aspects of connected speech

 Working on weak forms

 Conclusion

What connected speech is

 "English people speak so fast" is a complaint I often hear from my students, and often
from those at an advanced level, where ignorance of the vocabulary used is not the
reason for their lack of comprehension.
When students see a spoken sentence in its written form, they have no trouble
comprehending. Why is this?

The reason, it seems, is that speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without clear-cut
borderlines between each word. In spoken discourse, we adapt our pronunciation to our
audience and articulate with maximal
economy of movement rather than maximal clarity. Thus, certain words are lost, and
certain phonemes linked together as we attempt to get our message across.

How this affects native and non-native speakers

As native speakers, we have various devices for dealing with indistinct utterances
caused by connected speech. We take account of the context, we assume we hear
words with which we are familiar within that context.
In real-life interaction, phonetically ambiguous pairs like " a new display" / " a nudist
play", are rarely a problem as we are actively making predictions about which syntactic
forms and lexical items are likely to occur in a given situation.

Non-native speakers, however, are rarely able to predict which lexical item may or may
not appear in a particular situation. They tend to depend almost solely on the sounds
which they hear. Learners whose instruction has focused heavily on accuracy suffer a
"devastating diminuation of phonetic information at the segmental level when they
encounter normal speech." (Brown 1990.)

Aspects of connected speech

So what is it that we do when stringing words together that causes so many problems
for students?

 Weak Forms
There are a large number of words in English which can have a "full" form and a "weak"
form. This is because English is a stressed timed language, and in trying to make the
intervals between stressed syllables equal, to give the phrase rhythm, we tend to
swallow non-essential words. Thus, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries
and articles are often lost, causing comprehension problems for students, particularly
for those whose language is syllable timed. Some examples of words which have weak
forms are;
o And
fish and chips (fish´n chips)
a chair and a table (a chair ´n a table)
o Can
She can speak Spanish better than I can (The first "can" is the weak form, the second
the full form.)
o Of
A pint of beer
That´s the last of the wine!
o Have
Have you finished? (weak)
Yes, I have. (full)
o Should
Well, you should have told me. (Both "should" and "have" are weak here)

The relevance of certain features of connected speech to students' needs is often

debated. However, this is not the case with weak forms. Learners must come to not
only recognise and cope with the weak forms they hear,
but also to use them themselves when speaking English. If they do not their language
will sound unnatural and over formalised, with too many stressed forms making it
difficult for the listener to identify the points of focus. This, the degree to which
connected speech contributes towards "naturalness" or "intelligibility", is a useful
starting point from which to measure the value to students of the different features of
connected speech.
 

Working on weak forms

Here are some ways in which we can attempt to help our students with weak forms.

 How many words do you hear?

Play a short dialogue, or a group of sentences, and ask students to listen and write
down the number of words they hear. Go over each phrase to check whether they could
identify all the words and then to see if they can accurately produce what they heard.
Contrast the weak or natural version with the full version, pointing out that the full
version is often more difficult to pronounce.

 Unnatural speech
Activities built around "unnatural speech" are an enjoyable way of working on weak
forms and rhythm. To obtain "unnatural speech", record someone reading a sentence
as if it were just a list of words. A good way of doing this is to put the words onto flash
cards, and to reveal one at a time, so the reader gives each word its full pronunciation.

When you have a few sentences, play them several times to the students, who should
 then work in pairs to try to make the speech more natural sounding. They can then
either use graphics to show the points they would change, or take turns reading out
their different versions, or record themselves using a more natural pronunciation.
Conduct a general feedback session at the end of the activity, discussing reasons for
the changes the groups have made.

 Integrating
Integrate pronunciation into vocabulary work, practising, for example, the weak form in
phrases with "of" (a loaf of bread, a cup of coffee, a can of coke).
o Integrate weak forms into grammar work. If practising "going to" for example, the
teacher can write on the board examples such as:
 Go on holiday
 Earn more money
 Buy a car
o  Ask different students to read these phrases as a sentence with "going to". Listen for
and highlight the weak form of "to" before the consonant sounds, and the "full" form of
"to" with the linking "w" sound before the vowel.

Conclusion
Pronunciation work should be seen as an integral part of what goes on in the classroom.
Try not to fall into the text book trap of dividing language up into isolated chunks. One
lesson on grammar, the next on vocabulary,
then pronunciation and so on. All language, like speech, is connected, and students will
benefit from learning the weak forms and stress patterns of new words from the start,
rather than in a remedial lesson months later.

Raising student's awareness of these forms, whenever they arise, is the first step
towards helping your learners to speak a little more naturally. Even if they do not
assimilate these forms at first, "...in many cases, the simple awareness of their
existence can help enormously in enabling students to better understand the language
they hear." (Gerald Kelly- "How to Teach Pronunciation.")

Further reading

Connected speech 2
Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill
Pronunciation by Dalton and Seidlholfer
How to Teach Pronunciation by Gerald Kelly
Teaching English Pronunciation by Joanne Kenworthy
In spoken discourse the boundaries between words are very often not clear-cut.
Words and sounds are lost and linked together in different ways to enable us to
articulate with minimal movement.

This is one of the reasons learners find spoken discourse more difficult to
understand than written discourse. At higher levels it is often not a lack of
vocabulary which prevents understanding, but lack of ability to deal with these
features of connected speech. Native speakers are more able to use top-down
processing to decide whether what they have heard is red dye or red eye.
Here are some of the more common features of connected speech:

1. Assimilation
Assimilation occurs when a phoneme (sound) in one word causes a change
in a sound in a neighbouring word. For example, try saying the following
pairs of words:

 in Bath
 last year
 Hyde Park
You’ll notice that the last sound of the first word changes in each case.
The / n /  sound becomes / m / , / t /  becomes / t ʃ /  and / d /  becomes / b / .

2. Elision
Elision is the loss of a phoneme, most commonly the last phoneme of a
word, and most commonly the / t /  and / d /  sounds. Have a look at these
examples:
 left back
  stand by
 looked back
 I must go
In each case the last phoneme of the first word is elided (lost). In the most
simple terms, the reason is that the time and effort required to change the
mouth position from the / t /  to the / b /  sound (as in the first example) or
the / t /  to the / g /  sound (as in the last example) is too great!

3. Delayed plosion
Our “red dye” and “red eye” is an example of this. To articulate “red dye”, we
must take a very short pause before the / d /  sound. The / d /  is an example
of a plosive, consonant sounds where the vocal tract stops all airflow. Other
examples are / b / ,/ d / , / g / , / p / , / t /  and / k / . This pause before the plosive
gives us the name of this feature, delayed plosion.
Another example: the right tie (delay) – the right eye (no delay)

4. Catenation
In catenation the last consonant of the first word is joined to the vowel sound
at the start of the second word. For example:

 pick it up – (learners will hear something like pi ki tup)

 what is it – (learners will hear something like wo ti zit)

5. Intrusion
 Intrusion is what you might expect from the name – an extra sound
“intrudes” into the spoken utternace. Try saying the following pairs of words:

 media event
 I always
 go away
Do you hear the / r /  sound intruding after “media”, the / j /  sound intruding
after “I” and the / w /  sound intruding after “go”?
Written by Keith Taylor

Keith is the founder of Eslbase. He has been an English teacher and teacher trainer for over 15 years.
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Assimilation: When Two Sounds

Combine
Stress
Rhythm & Thought Groups
Linking & Connected Speech
Introduction to Linking & Connected SpeechConsonant to Consonant
LinkingConsonant to Vowel LinkingDeletion: Simplifying Consonant
ClustersAssimilation: When Two Sounds Combine
Intonation
Another common phenomenon in connected speech
is assimilation: when two sounds become more similar to one
another because they are spoken consecutively. This process
makes it easier to pronounce combinations of sounds, which
helps build your fluency.
One common type of assimilation occurs in the example below.
Focus on the two words “could” and “you.”

Could you give me that book on accounting?

“Coujoogimmethatbookonaccounting?”
You probably noticed that the /d/ sound in “could” and
the /y/ sound in “yet” combined to make a /dʒ/ sound (“Coujoo”).
This is because of a type of assimilation called palatalization.
This happens with other sounds and sound combinations, too.
When a word ending in a /d/, /z/, or /dz/ sound is followed by a
word beginning with the /y/ sound, the two sounds assimilate
and palatalization occurs. Below are some rules to help you
visualize this:

/d/ + /y/ = /dʒ/ Would you like to come in?

/dz/ + /y/ = /dʒ/ Here are the records your friend wants.
/z/ + /y/ = /ʒ/ Is your train on time?
Here are some additional examples of this type of
assimilation. Listen to them, paying attention to the sounds that
palatalize.

/d/ + /y/ = /dʒ/

Would you mind?

/d/ + /y/ = /dʒ/ Had you ever been there before?

/d/ + /y/ = /dʒ/ What did you do last weekend?

/d/ + /y/ = /dʒ/ Mr. Kim wanted you to call him.

/z/ + /y/ = /ʒ/ Does your roommate cook?

/z/ + /y/ = /ʒ/ Has your plane landed?

/dz/ + /y/ = /dʒ/ He reads you a book.

/dz/ + /y/ = /dʒ/ Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Practice 1
To practice recognizing palatalization, listen to each of the
recordings below, and write down what you hear. Then, click
the answer button to see if what you wrote matches what the
speaker said.

1.
2.
3.

Click here for the answers

 
The palatalization patterns above
have voiceless counterparts, as well. When a word ending
in a /t/, /s/, or /ts/ sound is followed by a word beginning
with the /y/ sound, the two sounds assimilate.

/t/ + /y/ = /tʃ/ I’ll beat you there!

/ts/ + /y/ = /tʃ/ When she meets you, she’ll love you.
/s/ + /y/ = /ʃ/ You need to face your fears.
Here are some additional examples of these palatalization
patterns. Listen to them, paying attention to the sounds that
palatalize.
/ts/ + /y/ = /tʃ/
What’s your name?

/ts/ + /y/ = /tʃ/ It’s your lucky day.

/ts/ + /y/ = /tʃ/ I’m sorry this hurts you.

/t/ + /y/ = /tʃ/ Isn’t that your friend?

/t/ + /y/ = /tʃ/ I met you yesterday.

/s/ + /y/ = /ʃ/ I hope you pass your class.

/s/ + /y/ = /ʃ/ Don’t miss your train!

Practice 2
To practice recognizing palatalization, listen to each of the
recordings below, and write down what you hear. Then,
click the answer button to see if what you wrote matches
what the speaker said.

1.
2.
3.

Click here for the answers

 
Here are some common phrases and questions with
palatalization. Listen to each, then practice and record
yourself.
 Could you do me a favor?
How’s your family?
What did you do yesterday?
How did you do that?
I’m going to miss you.
When did you get here?
What’s your number?
What’s your class schedule?
I’ve heard a lot about you.
What (are) you doing? The “are” is sometimes dropped first,
due to reduced speech.
Practice 3
Listen to the dialogue between Jessie and Siqi talking about
their Fall class schedules. You can listen as many times as
you want. Write down exactly what they say, using the
correct spelling of all the words. Then, underline places
where palatalization occurs.

4. Jessie:

Siqi:
Jessie:
Siqi:
Jessie:
Siqi:
Jessie:

Click here for the answers

What do you do now?

First, remember to focus on the sounds at the beginning of
words, and also on word stress, to help you identify words in
streams of speech. These cues tend to be more reliable than
the ends of words, because of processes like palatalization.

Second, schedule an appointment with a Speech Consultant to

check your understanding of palatalization. Ask him or her to
help you recognize palatalization in authentic spoken English,
like in TED Talks, and monitor your speech for areas where
using palatalization would help you speak more intelligibly.

 
Home
American English Pronunciation
5 Connected Speech Secrets for Fast, Native English Pronunciation

5 Connected Speech Secrets for Fast,

Native English Pronunciation
WHAT IS CONNECTED SPEECH?
Learn how connected speech will help you to speak English faster, more fluently, and
much more like a native speaker. Unfortunately, many language learners don’t know
about this subject, but we should! First of all, let’s make sure we have a basic
understanding. What is connected speech?

Connected speech means that when we speak a language, words have some effect on
each other. We do not always pronounce words completely separately with a neat
pause in between. In fact, many words affect each other when you put them into
phrases and sentences. The end sound of one word often affects the beginning of the
next word.

CONNECTED SPEECH INCLUDES MANY SUB-TOPICS

There are many different ways that connected speech happens. Sometimes sounds are
added, or omitted, or changed, in different ways.  It is actually a big subject and we
could spend a long time talking about the several sub-topics in it!

In this lesson, you’ll learn a bit about five different kinds of connected speech:
catenation or linking, intrusion, elision, assimilation and geminates.
CATENATION OR LINKING
Catenation, or Linking is probably what most people think of first when they think of
connected speech. Linking happens when the end of one word blends into another.
When the last sound of a word is a consonant and the first sound of the next word is a
vowel, you get linking.

For example:

I want this orange –> thisorange

I want that orange –> thadorange

This afternoon –> thisafternoon

Is he busy? –> Isi busy?

Cats or dogs? –> Catserdogs?

INTRUSION
Intrusion means an additional sound “intrudes” or inserts itself between others. It is
often is a /j/ or /w/ or /r/ sound between two other vowel sounds.

For example:

He asked –> Heyasked

She answered –? Sheyanswered

Do it –> Dewit

Go out –> Gowout

Shoe on –> Shoewon

ELISION
Elision means when a sound disappears. Basically, a sound is eaten by other stronger
or similar sounds next to it. This often happens with a /t/ or /d/ sound.

For example:
Next door –> Nexdoor

Dad take –> Datake

Most common –> Moscommon

ASSIMILATION
Assimilation means two sounds blend together, forming a new sound altogether. This
often happens with /t/ and /j/ which make /ʧ/ and with /d/ and /j/ which make /ʤ /.
For example:

Don’t you — donʧu

Won’t you — wonʧu

Meet you — meeʧu

Did you — diʤu

Would you — wuʤu
GEMINATES
Finally, geminates are like twins — two same sounds back-to-back. Often when one
word ends with the same letter as the beginning of the next word, you should connect
the two words in your speech.

For example:

Social life –> socialife

Pet turtle –> Peturtle

These five points and examples may make you feel like you have a lot to study!

Try learning the International Phonetic Alphabet so that you can take notes about how
words sound together. Or, you could keep an audio journal on your smart phone
where you record how words and phrases sound with connected speech.

Here is a cool tool you can try making English sentences into IPA. Keep in mind that
sometimes real life pronunciation will be different because of variations.
If you liked this lesson, you’ll love my lesson about pronunciation and the “schwa”
sound. Click here to view it now. 
And click on our video lesson below if you’d like to hear more about connected
speech!