Connected Speech

Do you relate to this?

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Do you fell that certain people speak
a language at greater speed that
comprehension is difficult?

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When students see a spoken sentence
in its written form, they have no
trouble comprehending. Why is this?

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What is Connected Speech?
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When there is a higher level of
proficiency in a language the speaker
speaks naturally and does not say a
word, stop, and then say the next word.
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Some two word groups are joined
together to help with the rhythm.
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The pronunciation of the end and the
beginning of the words may change
too. These changes are all part of
‘connected speech’.
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Speech is a continuous stream of
sounds, without clear-cut borderlines
between each word.
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In spoken discourse, we adapt our
pronunciation to our audience and
articulate with maximal economy of
movement rather than maximal clarity.
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Thus, certain words are lost, and
certain phonemes linked together as
we attempt to get our message across.
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Try this out...
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" a new display"

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" a nudist play"

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Native vs Non-Native
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Native speakers, have various innate ways for dealing
with indistinct utterances caused by connected
speech. They take into account of the context, they
assume that they hear words with which we are
familiar within that context.
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In real-life interaction, phonetically ambiguous pairs
like " a new display" / " a nudist play", are rarely a
problem as they are actively making predictions about
which syntactic forms and lexical items are likely to
occur in a given situation.
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Non-native speakers, however, are rarely able to
predict which lexical item. They may or may not appear
in a particular situation. They tend to depend almost
solely on the sounds which they hear.
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Weak Forms
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There are a large number of words in English
which can have a "full" form and a "weak" form.
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This is because English is a stressed timed
language, and in trying to make the intervals
between stressed syllables equal, to give the
phrase rhythm, we tend to swallow non-
essential words.
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Thus, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions,
auxiliaries and articles are often lost, causing
comprehension problems for students,
particularly for those whose language is
syllable timed.
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Some Examples
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And
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fish and chips (fish´n chips)
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a chair and a table (a chair ´n a table)
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Can
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She can speak Spanish better than I can (The first "can" is the weak form, the
second the full form.)
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Of
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A pint of beer
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That´s the last of the wine!
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Have
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Have you finished? (weak)
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Yes, I have. (full)
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Should
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Well, you should have told me. (Both "should" and "have" are weak here)
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Linking words
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Linking consonant to vowel: connect
the final consonant in the first word to
the vowel that starts the next word.
This will make it sound like the second
word starts with a consonant.
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For example:
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I want this orange –> thi sorange
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This afternoon –> thi safternoon
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Cats or dogs? –> Ca tsor dogs?
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I want that orange –> tha dorange
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Intrusion (adding an extra sound)

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Linking vowel to vowel: when the first
word finishes in a vowel sound and the
next word starts with a vowel sound,
connect the 2 words and add an extra
sound.
For example:
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Extra /w/
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Do it –> Do wit
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Go out –> Go wout
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True or false? –> True wor false?
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How are you? –> How ware you?
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Extra /j/
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I agree –> I jagree
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He asked –> He jasked
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She answered –>She janswered
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Tea or coffee? –> Tea jor coffee?

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Elision (deleting a sound)

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If the first word finishes in a
consonant sound and the next word
starts with a consonant sound, the
first sound disappears. This often
happens with a /t/ or /d/ sound.
For example:
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Next door –> Nexdoor
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Dad take –> Datake
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Most common –> Moscommon
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Used to –> Useto
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Assimilation (joining sounds to make
a new sound)
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Sometimes when two consonant
sounds are joined, it is very difficult to
pronounce the new sound. A new
sound is made instead. This often
happens with /t/ and /j/ which make
/ʧ/. Note: ʧ = ch. It also happens
with /d/ and /j/ which make /ʤ/.

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For example:
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Don’t you — donʧu
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Meet you — meeʧu
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Did you — diʤu
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Would you — wuʤu

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Geminates (twin sounds)

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These are like twins — two of the same
consonant sounds back-to-back. When the
same letter ends a word and starts the
next word, you should connect the two
words in your speech. In this connection,
you will say only one sound of that letter.
For example:
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Social life –> socialife
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Pet turtle –> Peturtle
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I want to –> I wanto

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Watch Pygmalion

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