Level 3 Connected speech 1 Introduction 58 2 Overview 58 3 Sounds and simplifications in connected speech 60 4 Rhythm in connected speech 69 5 Intonation 4 1 Introduction Justas at Level 2 we found that a word is not just the sum of its individual sounds, so at Level 3 we find that connected speech is not just the sum of its individual words. Continuous connected speech consists of a flow of sounds which are modified by a system of simplifications through which phonemes are connected, grouped and modified. Stream of speech pronunciation brings together the three branches of practical phonology: sounds, stress and intonation. After the following overview these three areas are examined to the degree of detail that I have found is of benefit to practical classroom work. 2 Overview _ Sounds in connected speech ‘The modifications to dictionary pronunciation (Level 2) once isolated words are embedded in connected speech are fairly systematic and include assimilation (the changing of sounds), elision (the omission of sounds), vowel reduction, liaison, linking and intrusive sounds, re all of ure in » and juncture. We will explore all of these features in Section 3 below. ~~ 7 Stress, accent and prominence in connected speech Stress.is an umbrella term used to cover both accent (or word stress), and prominence (or sentence stress). The former belongs to the word, while the latter is chosen by the speaker to highlight the intended meaning. Connected speech contains both word accents (in a sense regardless of the speaker) and prominence (because of the speaker). And what happens then is that individual word accent is likely to be subordinated to the speaker’s choice of prominence, and these prominences form the major part of the rhythm of the whole utterance. Spoken English has a characteristic tendency to be rhythmical. We will explore this further'in Section 4 below.2 Overview Intonation and rhythm Intonation and rhythm together help to focus attention on the information structure of a discourse and to indicate ‘what goes with what’ in an utterance. Within the context of a particular discourse, the intonation contours chosen by the speaker may indicate attitudes, mark syntactic boundaries, highlight the relationship between the utterances, and indicate the common ground assumed between speaker and hearer. Unfortunately, analyses of intonation have so far tended to yield descriptions which are too cumbersome for language learners. We will look at what help existing theories of intonation can offer us in the classroom, and at what we can do where theory does not help. ‘Connected speech learner targets ‘The degree of simplification of sounds depends largely on the speed and context of the utterance, as well as on the characteristics of the speaker. So a slower and more careful delivery may remain closer to dictionary pronunciation, while a faster and less careful delivery will contain a greater degree of simplification. In an idealized form these two speeds of delivery are respectively called careful colloguial speech and rapid colloquial speech, and these can serve as two useful models or landmarks to aim for in the study of connected speech pronunciation. * Both forms can contain all types of simplification, the difference being largely a matter of degree “Careful colloquial speech This style contains all types of simplification to a moderate degree. Words remain closer to their dictionary pronunciation than with rapid colloquial speech. This “style is likely to be used in a more formal setting, the speaker shaping utterances more carefully, deliberately and slowly. An internationally available example of careful colloquial RP is that of newscasters and announcers on the BBC World Service. Tsuggest that this type of pronunciation is useful as a target for learners to aim at in their speaking skill, as it is clear, easy to listen to and widely understood. (There are of course many situations throughout the world where it is more useful to use the local brand of English as the learning model.) « Rapid colloquial speech This contains more extensive simplifications, and individual words may be further from their dictionary pronunciation form than with careful colloquial speech. This style is used in less formal settings as when native speakers are talking informally to one another. Compared with careful colloquial speech, this style may be characterized by faster delivery and less care and attention to precise articulation on the part of the speaker. I suggest that this style of pronunciation is, useful as a target for learners to aim at in their listening skill,3 Sounds and simplifications in connected speech In this section we will explore the kinds of change that can occur between Level 2 and Level 3 pronunciations. We'll cover the following: e assimilation; elision; © vowel reduction; e strong and weak forms; e liaison; e contractions; juncture. Assimilation Assimilation occurs when a phoneme changes its quality due to the influence of a neighbouring sound. It changes to become more like the neighbouring sound, or even identical to it. . Discovery activity 60 Assimilation Here are examples of the main kinds of assimilation in English. See if you can identify them. Say the following phrases first as isolated words and then several times as connected speech. Do you change any of the sounds at the word boundaries? ten pin bowling in bed good boy hit man tin man good girl this shop these shops have to go how d'you do don't you know Commentary sam Alveolar consonants /\/, /d/ and /n/ at the end of a word often assimilate to the place of articulation of the consonant at the beginning of the next Word. Before Ip/, fo/ and /m/, for example, they can become bilabial: ten pin bowling /ten pin boulin/ — \/tem pim boulin/ in bed /in bed/ /um bed/ good boy Jeud boi /gub bot! hitman /oit mazn/ Anup maen/ tin man Am macn/ /um maen/ /d/ can change to /g/: good girl Jeud gs:l/ /gug ga:l/3 Sounds and simplifications in connected speech Js/can change to /f/and /2/ can change to /s/ when /f/ begins the next syllable this shop /ors fop/ Perf Sop/ these shops Bizz Jops/ Poics fops/ Voicing can change too. Here /v/ becomes an unvoiced /f/ under the influence of the following unvoiced /V: have to go Inaev to gau/ Ihact ta gaul a and ff can fuse, oF coalesce, to make a less plosive sound, the affricate /dy/: how@youdo hav djudu/ hau dsu du ‘And similarly // and /j/ can coalesce to give the unvoiced affricate /t{/: don’tyouknow — /dount junouf —/daunt{2 nau/ Assimilation is the natural result of the various speech organs ‘cutting comers’ as they perform their complex sequence of movements, and this occurs mostly at word boundaries and affects mainly consonant sounds. Although assimilation follows fairly regular patterns, the most common of which are set out above, itis different in different languages. Learners cannot therefore simply apply their mother tongue assimilations to English. Learners who do not assimilate at all may sound finicky, over-precise, too careful, and where their mother tongue assimilation patterns intrude they may be difficult for English listeners to follow. Lack of appropriate assimilation in the stream of speech can inhibit the use of English rhythm and intonation patterns, leading to a loss of both fluency and clarity of meaning. Elision occurs when a sound which would be present in a word spoken in isolation is omitted in connected speech. Discovery activity 61 Elision ed It is mainly A/ and /d/ that are elided in English, particularly when they are between two other consonants. Experiment yourself with the possible omissions in these phrases: Omission of / next please —_/neks plicz/ I don't know — /ai dow nau/ post the letter /pous do leto/ Omission of /d/ old man Fook mnacn/ youandme — /ju: on mi/ sandwich /oacnwit{/ stand there ——_/staen Bea/| have given the elided versions in phonemic spelling above. But now say each phrase again without eliding any of the sounds. How different does it feel? What impression do you get? Commentary BB m Like assimilation, elision is a natural result of the speech organs ‘cutting corners’ inconnected speech, mainly at word boundaries. It applies particularly to consonant sounds, and as with assimilation, speakers who do not elide may sound over- meticulous and rather crisp in their articulation. It may also be more difficult for them to use intonation and rhythm patterns with fluency. When learners become aware that a number of phonemes they might expect to hear are not actually produced, and when they discover that they can make these sounds disappear in their own speech, they begin to gain an insight which helps them when they listen to rapid connected English. Elision and assimilation together Learners of English often remark on the way English speakers seem to ‘swallow’ the sounds. Usually what they are observing is the combined action of assimilation, elision and vowel reduction. Vowel reduction Unaccented vowels in the stream of speech are characterized by a reduction in Jength, and a change in quality towards a less distinct, more central vowel sound. Most monophthongs reduce towards /o/. This process is sometimes called centralization since the /a/ sound is produced with the lips and jaw relaxed and the tongue ina central, neutral position. However, the two monophthongs /i:/ and /u:/ are often only partially centralized, /i:/ reducing towards /i/ and /u:/reducing ~ towards /u/. Discovery activity 62 Vowel reduction Say these two sentences rapidly, stressing the underlined syllables and unstressing the others: You and me | wish you would tell me What happens to the vowels in you and me in the second sentence?Commentary @ 8 In the second sentence the vowels in these two words are reduced, ie shorter and less clear. / ‘ju: on ‘mi:/ becomes /at ‘wif ju wud ‘tel mi/. This highlights the connection between unstress and vowel reduction. If you say both of the sentences as a sequence of words in isolation, you restore each sound to its full value but make it difficult to indicate your meaning since you cannot then stress the sentence properly. TOR] PRR Fig. 36: Direction of reduction for monophthongs Diphthongs are also likely to be reduced when unaccented in connected speech ‘The length of the glide is reduced, in fact the glide quality itself may even disappear resulting in a ‘greyish’ neutral diphthong in which the firstand second elements are dissolved into one composite monophthong. Discovery activity 63 Say these words rapidly, stressing the underlined syllables and unstressing the others: 1 Go gohas this diphthong: /ou/. Go out How does the diphthong in go sound now? 2 Goout Here out contains this diphthong: /au/. Go outside What sound does out contain here? 3 Why why contains this diphthong: /ai/. Why not What sound does why contain here? Commentary & @ If you say the pairs of sentences at speed and with unstress as well as stress, you should find that in the second sentence of each pair the diphthong in question is shorter and less clear than in the first sentence. In fact it may cease to be a diphthong altogether by dropping its second element and becoming a neutralized version of its first element. Discovery activities 60 and 61 illustrate the link between elision and assimilation and stress and unstress. Activities 62 and 63 illustrate the close link between vowel reduction and the smooth distribution of stress and unstress. Since stressing and unstressing is an important way for the speaker to indicate meaning it follows that these simplifications in the stream of speech are important aspects of expressing and communicating meaning. ®@Strong and weak forms Vowel reduction affects the frequent monosyllabic grammar words of English, and many of them have two or more accepted pronunciations, one when stressed or spoken in isolation, the strong form, and one when reduced in their more usual unstressed position, the weak form. Learners’ dictionaries list both the strong and weak forms for such words, which have the following characteristics: e they have only one syllable; e they actas function words; | ¢ they usually occur in their weak forms unless the speaker wishes to emphasize them to underline the message; : © the weak forms occur in speech only and are not (usually) shown in writing; they are high frequency words, though few in number (about fifty). Discovery activity 64 Strong and weak forms Make two sentences for each of the following function words, one that contains the strong, prominent form, the other the weak, reduced form. Notice the difference in pronunciation and emphasis between the two forms. Compare your version with the forms given here: Strong Weak form — form and = /end/ —/an/ of lov] avi you = fjuy jul me = /miy —/mi/ she ffiv = ifs would /wud/ —/wad/ /ad/ does /daz/ — /daz/ have —fhaev/ — fhav/ /ov/ must /mast/_ /mast/ /mos/ Commentary . In general, the greater the speed of delivery, the greater the reduction of unstressed vowels, Since reduction is a feature of unstress, and since stress and unstress exist only relative to each other, you can see that vowel reduction plays an essential role in producing the rhythmical nature of stream-of-speech English, Phoneme quality is inextricably linked with rhythm in connected speech. ‘The appropriate use of weak forms is essential to smooth and rhythmical speaking, to clarity of prominent and non-prominent syllables, and so to clarity of meaning. Weak forms are just as much a part of careful colloquial speech as they are of rapid colloquial speech. Working on the production of weak forms gives Jearners insight into the speech of native speakers, and helps to improve their listening skill and confidence. @Contractions In the stream of speech a weak form can occur together with another word in such a way that it undergoes another reduction and the two words are pronounced as one, often occupying only a single syllable. This is which has the following characteristics: ® two single-syllable words usually combine into one syllable; . @ anelision (omission) of sounds occurs; an omission of one or two letters also occurs in the written form; their place marked by an apostrophe. This is a special case of elision in that it is indicated in the written form contraction, Common instances of contraction are personal pronoun + auxiliary verb and verb + not. For example: I'm, I’ve, I’ll, I'd, they’re, they’ve, they'll, they’d, etc. can’t, couldn’t, don’t, hasn’t, wasn’t, etc. wouldn’t’ve, can’t’ve, etc. Liaison Liaison refers to the smooth linking or joining together of words in connected speech. Of course two words can have a silence between them, but liaison is concerned with the way sounds are fused together at word boundaries. Discovery activity 65 Liaison Say each of the following phrases and notice how you join the words together: in English my uncle far away go away Now say each one without joining the words together. Notice the difference. Commentary Sam Fully liaised speech is characterized by a seamless, continuous quality, where final consonants are linked to following initial vowel sounds, and initial consonants to preceding final vowel sounds. Once again liaison is an essential ingredient of both rhythm and intonation. Poorly linked speech is typically rather jerky, perhaps staccato, and the resulung Jack of flow makes it more difficult for the speaker to take advantage of the stress system and so for the listener to focus on the content of the message Some systematic forms of liaison are described under the following headings e linking /r/; © intrusive /r/; © intrusive /w/and /j/. iLinking /r/ In RP the letter'r in the spelling of a word is not pronounced unless itis followed by a vowel sound. But in connected speech the final spelling'r of a word may be pronounced or not, depending on whether the first sound of the next word is a consonant or a vowel. Discovery activity 66 Linking /r/ Say the following phrases and decide whether the ‘r’ at the end of the first word is sounded on not: her English her Spanish car seat car engine brother and sister Commentary BEB In the second and third phrases the ‘r’ is not sounded as the following sound is a consonant. In the first, fourth and fifth phrases the ‘r’ is a linking /r/ joining the first word to the second which begins with a vowel. Note that the term linking /r/ can be applied only when the letter ‘r’ occurs in the written form. The notion of linking /r/ is redundant in rhotic varieties of English that typically pronounce all ‘r’s occurring in the spelling form. Learner dictionaries show linking /r/ in brackets as part of the pronunciation. & Intrusive /r/ This refers to the /r/ sound an English speaker may insert between two words where the first ends in /o/ or /o:/ and the following word begins with a vowel sound. Discovery activity 67 Intrusive /r/ See if you make use of intrusive /r/. Say these two phrases and notice how you join the first to the second word. America and Canada law and order Commentary @ Some speakers would say /amertka r an kaenada/, or /lo: ran o:da/. Use of this intrusive /r/ is frequent though by no means obligatory. The only difference between linking and intrusive /r/ is that linking /1/ is reflected in the written form while intrusive /r/ is not. Intrusive /r/ does not exist in rhotic accents (where ‘r’ in the spelling is always pronounced). @Intrusive /w/ and /j/ These are also used to link certain vowel-vowel combinations at word junctions, The intrusive sound may not be distinctly heard especially where the overall vowel sequence is fairly relaxed. Nevertheless you will find it noticeable in all sorts of recorded material, and it has great value as a learning device when helping learners towards a smooth linking of words in continuous speech. Discovery activity 68 Intrusive /w/ Say these phrases and notice how you join the words together: you are g0 off Sue always wants to eat Commentary Ba You probably find that you insert /v/: /ju: w ax; /gau w off; /su: w o:lwerz wonts to w i:t/. Intrusive /w/ follows a final /u;/ or a diphthong ending in /u/ where the next word begins with a vowel sound. This is because /u:/ and /u/ have lip rounding and form the starting point for the bilabial semi-vowel /w/. & Discovery activity 69 Intrusive /j/ Say these phrases and notice how you join the words together: heis they are she always takes my arm Commentary You probably find that you insert /j/: /hi: j 12/; /Oet j ax/; /fiz j o:lwerz teks mat j am/. Intrusive /j/ follows a final /i:/ or a diphthong ending in /1/, where the next word begins with a vowel sound. This is because /i:/ and /t/ form the starting point for the semi-vowel /j/. Discovery activity 70 ‘Four features of liaison together Here is a sentence whose smooth articulation requires all four of the liaison features mentioned above. Can you identify them? «You are obviously unhappy about the idea of it. Try to say this sentence as one continuous and seamless stream of sound. Commentary # & B ‘This is one possible version: /jy w a; r obviaslt j anhaepr j abavt Ot j audio rv i. It has one each of linking /r/, intrusive /r/, linking /w/ and three occurrences of linking /j/.Juncture Juncture is the label given to a number of features which may occur at the boundary between two words in connected speech such that, even though the two words may be fully linked together, the boundary between them is nevertheless unambiguous and clear. Discovery activity 71 Juncture This is a very interesting activity. Say the following pairs of phrases. Can you distinguish between them? And if you can, then how? Try them both whispered and aloud to yourself, and also with another person: mice pies my spies grey tapes great apes send the maid send them aid car pit carpet it’s an aim it’s aname grade ‘A’ grey day ice cream I scream ice train eye strain the way to cut it the waiter cut it I'm ‘A’ I may ) WY Sf Commentary 9a The articulatory features that are likely to enable you to distinguish the phrase in column one from that in column two are: e the shortening or lengthening of vowel sounds on either side of the juncture; e the delayed or advanced articulation of consonant sounds on either side; ¢ variations in the degree of syllable stress on either side of the juncture; e other allophonic variations in the phonemes on either side of the boundary. @ Conclusion There are a number of differences in the way words are pronounced in isolation and in the stream of speech between Level 2 and Level 3 pronunciation. I have used the term ‘simplifications’ as a collective name for the differences and you can see that the building blocks of connected speech comprise a system that is on the whole regular and predictable. The English phonemic set affects native speakers in such a way that they generally find it more convenient to include these simplifications. Our aim can be to help our learners also to find that these simplifications are convenient.