LEO I

PRE-TASK 2

Answer the following questions in a concise way and using you own words.

1. Explain and exemplify clear l and dark l. Mention the environment in which each is needed.

Clear l and dark l are allophones of the phoneme /l/. To make the sound there is full contact
between the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge, allowing air to escape through the sides.
The different sounds are produced by changing the position of the tongue during the
pronunciation: if the front of the tongue is raised, the sound is clear l, whereas raising the back
of the tongue produces dark l. Regarding the context of each realization, clear l is always
followed by vowels or /j/ sounds, while dark l appears before consonants, or at the final
position. Examples:

 Clear l: classic /klæsɪk/ - long /lɒŋ/ - volume /vɒljuːm/

 Dark l: old /əʊld/ - wealthy /welθɪ/ - medal /medəl/

2. Compare and contrast linking r and intrusive r. Exemplify.

Linking r and intrusive r, known together as sandhi r, are rules of pronunciation of the sound /r/
in non-rhotic accents such as RP English. They both occur after non-high vowel sounds. The high
pure vowels or diphthongs that end in a high vowel sound are /iː/, /ɪ/, /i/, /ʊ/, /uː/, /u/, /eɪ/,
/ɔɪ/, /əʊ/, /aɪ/, and /aʊ/.

Linking r is the pronunciation of /r/ in a word that ends in a non-high vowel + ‘r’ or ‘re’, and is
followed by a vowel as the first sound in the next word.

Intrusive r occurs when the speaker pronounces /r/ after a non-high vowel, even though there
is no ‘r’ in the spelling.

Examples:

 Linking r: wonder if /wʌndər ɪf/ - there are /ðər ə/ - never answer /nɛvər ɑːnsə/
 Intrusive r: Emma and Jack /emər ənd ʤæk/ - idea of /aɪdɪər ɒv/ - draw anything / drɔːr
ɛnɪθɪŋ/

3. Compare and contrast schwa elision and syllabicity.

Schwa elision occurs when /ə/ is dropped. For this to happen, /ə/ must follow a non
approximant consonant, and be followed by /n/, /r/, or /l/, and an unstressed syllable in the
same word.

Syllabicity is also the elimination of /ə/ when followed by consonants in certain sequences, but
this turns the consonant sound into the nucleus of the syllable. The most likely consonants to
become syllabic are /n/ and /l/, and the sequence must be within the same syllable. There may
be syllabicity when /ən/ follows an obstruent consonant (plosive, fricative, or affricate), and
 when it follows more than one consonant if non of them are nasal. It is not frequent if it comes
before the stressed syllable. For /əl/, there is syllabicity when it follows one or more
consonants, as long as none of them are approximants /w/, /j/, or /r/.

4. What is yod coalescence? Explain.

Coalescence is a form of assimilation in connected speech where two sounds merge into a new
one that shares characteristics from the original ones. Yod coalescence requires /t/ or /d/ as
final sounds of the first word, and /j/ as the first sound of the second one. The result of this
assimilation turns /t j/ into /tʃ/ and /d j/ into /dʒ.