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Week 4 - Connected Speech Processes and The Principles of English Spelling
Week 4 - Connected Speech Processes and The Principles of English Spelling
1.1 Assimilation
Sounds that belong to one word can cause changes in sounds belonging to other
words. When a word’s pronunciation is affected by sounds in a neighbouring word,
we call this process assimilation. We find that sounds in the affected word become
more like sounds in the neighbouring word. The two sounds can become more alike
in terms of voice, place or manner. Assimilation occurs when speech is rapid and
casual. Changes in sound that occur in rapid speech are said to be due to gradation.
Direction of change
If a phoneme is affected by one than comes later in the sentence, the assimilation is
termed regressive. If a phoneme is affected by one that came earlier in the utterance,
the assimilation is termed progressive.
Phoneme 1 Phoneme 2
progressive
regressive
Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey - Roehampton
Understanding English Variation, Week 4
Example:
big cat >
It is never the case that a word final voiceless consonant becomes voiced because of a
word initial voiced consonant (although this does happen in many languages).
Examples:
Cats voiceless final consonant and suffix
Dogs voiced final consonant and suffix
The same is true when an <s> is added to a noun to make a possessive suffix or to a
verb to make the third person singular suffix.
Examples:
Possessive
Jack’s voiceless final consonant and suffix
John’s voiced final consonant and suffix
Examples:
That person : : final alveolar changes to bilabial
That thing final alveolar changes to dental
Good night : final alveolar changes to velar
Within words
Within codas, if a nasal comes before a plosive or a fricative, its place of articulation
is determined by that of the other consonant. This process is fixed in English as there
are very few exceptions.
Examples:
Bump bilabial nasal and plosive
Bank velar nasal and plosive
Hunt alveolar nasal and plosive
Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey - Roehampton
Understanding English Variation, Week 4
Examples:
Good night > n a final plosive becomes a
nasal (regressive)
That side > a final plosive becomes a
fricative (regressive)
Read these : : > : : an initial fricative
becomes a plosive (progressive), this only happens when a word final nasal or
plosive is followed by a word initial
1.1.4 Coalescence
Coalescence is a special type of assimilation process. In coalescence, the process of
assimilation is bi-directional and two segments combine to produce one. In English
this often happens when an alveolar plosive is followed by a palatal approximant (j)
and they combine to form a palato-alveolar affricate.
Example:
Did you : > :
Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey - Roehampton
Understanding English Variation, Week 4
1.2 Elision
Elision is the loss of a phoneme. In technical language we say that the phoneme is
deleted or is realised as zero. Elision occurs more in fast casual speech, thus elision is
a process of gradation. There are many examples of elision in English, a few are
given below.
Example:
1.3 r sandhi
Sandhi is a process where a sound is modified when words are joined together Some
linguists distinguish two types of r sandhi,, linking and intrusive r.
1.3.1 Linking r
You will remember that for speakers of non-rhotic accents r is not pronounced after
vowels. So the pronunciations of ‘car’ is : and of ‘more’ is : However, in these
accents, when words that are spelled ending with an <r> or an <re> come before a
word beginning with a vowel, the r is usually pronounced. This is linking r. In rhotic
accents the r is also pronounced when the words are in isolation so cannot be termed
linking.
Examples:
Far away : >
More ice : > :
1.3.2 Intrusive r
Intrusive r also involves the pronunciation of an r sound, but this time there is no
justification from the spelling as the word’s spelling does not end in <r> or <re>.
Again this relates to non-rhotic accents; rhotic accents do not have intrusive r.
When Caxton brought his printing press to London, spelling gradually became
stabilised and the London dialect was used as standard. Some other continental
conventions were introduced however, and sometimes printers would miss letters out
of words so they would fit on the line.
Silent letters are a similar case. Letters such as <k> in ‘knee’ and <e> in ‘time’ were
pronounced at the time spelling was standardised but were lost from pronunciation
later on.
Rachael-Anne Knight, 2003, University of Surrey - Roehampton
Understanding English Variation, Week 4
2.3.1 Etymology
In the 16th century many scholars decided that spelling should be altered to reflect the
roots of words. So, for example, a <b> was added to ‘debt’ to reflect its origins in the
Latin word ‘debitum’.
2.3.2 Borrowings
In the 16th and 17th centuries, many non-English words were introduced into the
language from French, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Often the
spelling was left unchanged from the foreign spelling. The problem continues today
as we still borrow extensively (think about ‘quesadillas’).
There is, however, regularity to some extent as the length of the vowel is usually
indicated by either:
Consonant doubling indicates a short preceding vowel cp. ‘coma’ and
‘comma’
or
A final <e> after a consonant marks the previous vowel as long cp. ‘win’ and
‘wine’