Aspects of Connected Speech PDF

Aspects of connected speech Aspects of connected speech Assimilation.1 Rhythm 2 Elision.3 Linking.4  Aspects of connected speech Assimilation.1 Assimilation is the process by which two neighboring sounds come to resemble or be identical with...

Aspects of connected speech Aspects of connected speech Assimilation.1 Rhythm 2 Elision.3 Linking.4  Aspects of connected speech Assimilation.1 Assimilation is the process by which two neighboring sounds come to resemble or be identical with each other within one word or between words. Assimilation is a phonetic process because it does not change the meanings of words. It is made for facilitation. In good boy/gud boi/, for example, it is very difficult to move the tongue from the alveolar position for the production of The alveolar consonant /d/ to its normal position in the mouth to bring the two lips together to./produce the bilabial /b/, Accordingly, the /d/is changed to /b/ to become/gub boi :There are some types of assimilation :Assimilation of voice happens when two consonants are different in voice.1 a. From voiced to voiceless /∂news + paper /nju:z + peip∂ → /nju:s peip b. From voiceless to voiced North + ern → northern /noð∂:n Assimilation of place happens when there is a difference in articulation between two consonant.2 :sounds /good girl /gug g∂:l Regressive assimilation*.3.appears to extend backwards in time Progressive assimilation*.4 influence appears to extend forwards in time Regressive assimilation* The phoneme that comes first is affected by the one that comes after it Examples bright color / braik kalə Light blue / laip blue Rhythm.2 The notion of rhythm is related to the musicality of the word or its beat. It involves some noticeable events occurring at regular intervals of time. That is why, rhythm has got something to do with the time spent for the production of syllables. As for the levels of linguistic analysis, rhythm has got a unit of analysis. This unit is called the foot. Foot is the unit of analyzing rhythm. It starts with the first stressed syllable including all the unstressed syllables.up to and not including the second stressed syllable (stress is the power by which a syllable is uttered) Here two theories explaining the nature of rhythm: a. Stress-timed rhythm Stress-timed rhythm states that stressed syllables are produced at the same time intervals or take the same time in production. English and Arabic are examples of stress-timed-rhythm languages. In the following sentence, 'He is' takes the same time in production as that of 'here' because 'he' is stressed, 'is' is unstressed and 'here' is stressed : He is here. /hi: iz hi∂/ b. Syllable-timed rhythm Syllable-timed rhythm perceives that syllables whether stressed or unstressed take the same time in production. In our previous example, all 'he', 'is' and 'here' are supposed to take the same time in production, according to this theory though English is not a.syllable-timed-rhythm language. Examples of such languages are Chinese, Japanese and some South African languages Rhythm is an event happening at regular intervals of time. The rhythm of speech is the regular occurrence of stressed syllable at regular internals of time Elision.3 Elision is the disappearance of some sounds. It is said that in certain circumstances, certain sounds disappear. It is characteristic of languages that have variation of stress and it is attributed to the tendency of native speakers to eliminate redundancy in communication. However, this aspect is not phonemic because it.does not change the meanings of words :Type examples of elision are :The pronunciation of double consonants as one consonant )1 /Last time /las taim :/The omission of some vowels like the schwa and/o )2 /Potatoes /pteit∂ s :/The disappearance of the /v/ in /ov )3 /∂/ This book is made of paper :After /p/, /t/ and /d/ initially, the vowel schwa is deleted.4 /Police /pli:s Historical elision is that type of elision, which is fulfilled throughoutthe different historical development.5 :stages of languages /:know /nou/ knight /nait/ write /rait/ gnaw /no Contextual elision is characteristic of conversational styles. It can involve the elision of a vowel or.6 :consonant /:Suppose /spouz/ can't do /ka:ndu :Haplology refers to the omission of longer segments rather than one segment.7 /Library /laibri/ probably /probli Elision is the case of a sound realized as zero in casual, rapid speech. There can be vowel elision.and consonant elision :Example /vowel: tonight /tnait /consonant: eight tins /eitins Linking.4 Linking is one type of juncture. It refers top the relationship between one word and the word that./precedes or follows it. The most well-known type of linking is linking /r Linking /r/ occurs when a word ending with a final /r/, in which it is not pronounced because it occurs finally in a word, is followed by another word, which starts with a vowel. In this case, the final /r/ is pronounced and it is called linking /r/ because it links this word, in which it occurs, with the other word, which starts with :a vowel /Father in law /fa:ð∂rin lo.Linking is the phenomenon where words or sounds are linked together /Linking /r/and intrusive /r Four eggs [ fɔ:regz ] Your eyes [ jɔ:raɪz] For ever [ fɔ:revə ] Media events [ mi:dɪərɪvents ] Australia and Africa [ astreɪlɪərənæfrɪkə ]  Intonation Intonation What is intonation? No definition is completely satisfactory, but any attempt at a definition must recognise that the pitch of the voice plays the most important part. It is very important to make the point that we are not interested in all aspects of a speaker’s pitch; the only things that should interest us are those which carry some linguistic information. If a speaker tries to talk while riding fast on a horse, his or her pitch will make a lot of sudden rises and falls as a result of the irregular movement; this is something which is outside the speaker’s.control and therefore cannot be linguistically significant Form and function in intonation Two common one-syllable utterances are ‘yes’ and ‘no’. The first thing to notice is that we have a choice of saying these with the pitch remaining at a constant level, or with the pitch changing from one level to another. The word we use for the overall behaviour of the pitch in these examples is tone; a one-syllable word can be said with either a level tone or a moving tone. If you try saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ with a level tone (rather as though you were trying to sing them on a steady note) you may find the result does not sound natural, and indeed English speakers do not use level tones on one-syllable utterances very frequently. Moving tones are more common. If English speakers want to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in a definite, final manner they will probably use a falling tone - one which descends from a higher to a lower pitch. If they want to say‘yes?’ or ‘no?’ in a questioning manner they may say it with a.rising tone - a movement from a lower pitch to a higher one Notice that already, in talking about different tones, some idea of function has been introduced; speakers are said to select from a choice of tones according to how they want the utterance to be heard, and it is implied that the listener will hear one-syllable utterances said with different tones as sounding different in some way. During the development of modern phonetics in the twentieth century it was for a long time hoped that scientific study of intonation would make it possible to state what the function of each different aspect of intonation was, and that foreign learners could then be taught rules to enable them to use intonation in the. way that native speakers use it Tone and tone languages In the preceding section we mentioned three simple possibilities for the intonation used in pronouncing the one-word utterances ‘yes’ and ‘no’. These were: level, fall and rise. It will often be necessary to use symbols to represent tones, and for this we will use marks placed before the syllable in the following way (phonemic transcription will not be used in these examples - words are given in :spelling) Level _yes _no Falling \yes\no Rising /yes /no Some functions of English tones Fall \yes \ no T his is the tone about which least needs to be said, an d which is usually regarded as m o re o r less “neutral”. If some one is asked a question and replies \yes or \ no it will be understood that the question is now answered and that there is no thing more to be said. The fall could be said to.” give an impression o f “finality Rise/yes/no Rise/yes/no In a variety of ways, this to n e conveys an impression that some thing more is to follow. A typical : occurrence in a dialogue between two speakers whom we shall call A and B might be the following.A (wishing to attract B’s attention): Excuse m e B: /y e s Another quite common occurrence )’?B’s reply is, perhaps, equivalent to ‘what do you want( :would be ?A: Do you know John Smith One possible reply from B would be /yes, inviting A to continue with what she intends to say about John Smith after establishing that B knows him. To reply instead \yes would give a feeling of “finality”, of “end of the conversation”; if A did have something to say about John Smith, the.response with a fall would make it difficult for A to continue