— Sr RB D) SPEECH OF CONNECTE! ASTECRTICULATORY PROCESSES An overview: Coarticulation she Consonants with two simultaneous places of articul ee rne,., culated, the articulators mu: 4 ere! Secondary articulation There are also consonants of an approximantic nature, in which case both articulations can be similar, such as labialized labials, palatalized velars, etc. Some common coarticulations: : aon é Labialization also known as lip rounding’, rounding the lips while producing the obstruction, as in [k"] and English [ w ]. e.g. ‘queen! : F Palatalization, raising the body of the tongue toward the hard palate while producing the obstruction, as in Russian [ 1! ] or palatalisation in English- [1'] e.g. intial sound in the word ‘lewd’ Velarization, raising the back of the tongue toward the soft palate (velum), as in the English dark el [+], [¥ ] e.g. final sound in the word ‘dull’ 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. | "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 tro comprehending. Why is this? oa The reason, it seems, is that speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without a i 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. From Vanessa Steele 88C British Council Teaching English So, what is it that native speakers do when stringi eee: - inging words together that causes so many 30A. Assimilation I. Definition A coarticulatory process by which a sound segment is influenced and changes to become more like its neighboring sound. IL. Types: 3 types of assimilation 1, Progressive assimilation: A>; B te The change of a sound segment is brought about by the preceding sound, e.g. books[buk 7] [buk 5] In the sound sequence [ b Uk z}, the voiced alveolar [ z] is devoiced by the preceding voiceless [ k] and becomes voiceless [s]. Regressive assimilation : A.<— B BY The change of a sound segment is brought about by the following sound a, Labialization (Assimilation of place of articulation): ¢ [t le [p,b, m] [PY eg. [Oeet+— pen] —_(carefull/ slow speech) [deep pen} (Casual/ rapid speech) In the sound sequence [Ozet pen], the alveolar {t ] is labialized by the following bilabial [p] and becomes bilabial [p] [d]}<— [p, b, ml, e.g. [g U d;«— bar] (careful/ slow speech) por [gu bY bar] (Casual/rapid speech) * [n+ [p, b, ml, eg. [g 4m men] |(careful speech) [mf [gan¥ men] (Casual/ rapid speech) b. Velarization (Assimilation of place of articulation): [t]<— [k, gl, eg. (O2et;<— g ail] (careful/ slow speech) tk” [dek” gal] (Casual/ rapid speech) Inthe sound sequence [Ozet g sil], the alveolar [ t] is velarized by the following velar [a] and becomes velar [k ]. *[d [k, gle. [9 Ud;« g ail] (careful/ slow speech) ig] [gug’ gail] (Casual/ rapid speech) 31e[nke [kghes [ba k] (careful/ slow speech) (ot [ben] Caswall rapid speech) C. Nasalization (Assimilation of manner of articulation): [d]— [nm]eg [gud 4— nait] _ (careful/ slow speech) iw ui [gun’ nat] (Casual/ rapid speech) In the sound sequence [g u d_nazt] the stop [d] is nasalized by the following nasal [ n J and becomes nasal [ n J. *lvl— [mhes. [ot mi] (careful/ slow speech) [my [orm mi: ] (Casual/ rapid speech) 3. Mutual assimilation/ Coalescence (Assimilation of place of articulation): A + B Y Cc Two sounds coalesce or combine to make another sound. a)[t]+[j] makes [tf], eg. [w ont +ju:] if In the sound sequence [w p n t{ju:] the alveolar [t ] coalesces or combines with the palatal [ j ] to make the palato-alveolar [ tf ] b) [d] +[j ] makes [d3, eg. [ni:d + ju:] )) [8] +[j] makes [¥), eg.[m 4)) [2] +[j ] makes [3], eg. flu:z + ju:] ¥ G1 Mutual Assimilation of [ t] & [j] 32Practice with assimilation Ten men[ ten men J Downbeat [ daunbi:t ] Fine grade [ famngreid ] Incredible [inkredible ] Red paint [ red pemt ] Admit [ admit ] Bad guys [ bed garz] Eight boys [ ext bowz ] Tune [tju:n] Endure [ mdju:o ] Factual [ feektju: 1] Educate [ edju:kert ] Costume [ kstju:m ] Tune [ tju:n J Mildew [ mildju: ] Adduce [ odju:s J Amplitude [ amplitju:t ] Reduce [ridju:s ] Education [edju:kerJn ] reconstitute [rrknstrtju:t ] Further reading (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) ‘Assimilation is a regular and frequent sound change process by which a phoneme changes to match an adjacent phoneme in a word. A common example of assimilation is vowels being ‘nasalized’ before nasal consonants as it is difficult to change the shape of the mouth sufficiently quickly. If the phoneme changes to match the preceding phoneme, it is progressive assimilation (also left- to-right, perseveratory, or preservative assimilation). If the phoneme changes to match the following phoneme, it is regressive assimilation (also right-to-left or anticipatory assimilation). If there is a mutual influence between the two phonemes, it is reciprocal assimilation. In the latter case the two phonemes can fuse completely and give a birth to a different one. This is called a coalescence.Assimilation may result in the neighbouring segments becoming identical, yielding a geminate consonant; this is complete assimilation. In other cases, only some features of phonemes assimilate, e.g. voicing or place of articulation; this is partial assimilation. Examples Complete assimilation: The word assimilation itself (from Latin ad + simile) illegible (in + legible) 33