TRABAJO FONETICA

UNIT II
CONECTED SPEECH

1. WHAT IS CONNECTED SPEECH?

Connected speech means speech produced without pauses. A consequence of connected speech is that single
segments of speech are influenced by neighboring segments and may slightly change their place or manner of
articulation or may sometimes totally disappear. Therefore, the pronunciation of an isolated word may be
different from the pronunciation of the same word in connected speech.
1.5. CONECTED SPEECH FEATURES
There are many different ways that connected speech happens. Sometimes sounds are added, or omitted, or
changed, in different ways. Here you will learn five different kinds of connected speech:

Catenation or linking: linking happens when the last sound of a word is a consonant and the first sound of the
next is a vowel, making the end of the first word blend with the beginning of the second word. For example:
I want this orange → thisorange
This afternoon → thisafternoon
Is he busy? → Isi busy?

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
Elision: refers to the disappearance of one or more sounds in connected speech. The missing sounds are said to
have been ‘elided’. Forexample:

There is much to say about that

/ðɛɘrɪz mʌʧ tuː seɪ əˈbaʊt ðæt/ → Careful speech
/ ðɘzˈmʌʧtɘˈseɪɘˈbaʊððæt/ → Connected speech
Assimilation: In assimilation, one sound becomes phonetically similar to an adjacent sound. 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
This shop → ðɪʃʃɒp
Geminates: Geminates are two equal sounds one after the other. Usually, when one word ends with the same
letter as the beginning of the next, you must connect the two words in your speech.
Social life –> socialife

Pet turtle –> Peturtle

2. WHAT IS A TONAL GROUP?
Within the phonic group, generally formed by several words, the syllables are grouped around the tonic
syllables, giving rise to the tonic groups. The tonic group is formed by a tonic syllable (l of greater musical height)
and by one or several unstressed syllables, which will be pretonic if they come before the tonic syllable and
posttonic if they come after it.
2.5. THE TONIC SYLLABLE
The tonic syllable is the one that is emphasized at the moment of pronunciation, it is the one to which we add
an additional "tone".
3. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TONAL GROUPS
The tone group therefore has one obligatory element - the tonic syllable. However, it may also contain other
optional elements: The pre-head, The head and the tail

The term head refers to the section of a tone group that extends from the first stressed syllable up to the tonic
syllable or nucleus. Any unstressed syllables before the head are known as the pre-head, while the syllables
after the tonic are the tail.

So, in the tone group //He ˈwent to the Uniˈversity of ´Lancaster // we have...

Pre-head : He
Head : went to the University of
Tonic syllable: Lan (here with a falling tone)
Tail : caster

As we said before, pre-head, head and tail are all optional elements. Potentially a tone group may consist of the
nucleus (tonic syllable) only: // \Look! //

In all of the following tone groups, one or more of the optional elements are missing:

//Don''t \look // = Prehead + tonic syllable

//\Look over ˈthere// = Tonic syllable + tail

//ˈDavid \isn't over ˈthere // = Head + tonic syllable + tail