PRONUNCIATION OF

SPEECH SOUNDS IN
CONNECTED SPEECH.
SOUND ALTERNATIONS
 The stages of articulation of a speech-sound.
 The types of junction of speech sounds.
 Assimilation, types of assimilation.
 Accommodation.
 Elision.
 Reduction of vowels, types of reduction.
 Linking.
 The stages of articulation of a speech-sound.

Every speech-sound pronounced in isolation has three

stages of articulation:

1) the on-glide, or the initial stage;

2) the retention stage, or the medial stage;

3) the off-glide (release), or the final stage.

The on-glide, or the beginning of a sound, is a stage during which
the organs of speech move away from a neutral position to
take up the position necessary for the pronunciation of a
consonant or a vowel.

The retention stage, or the middle of a sound, is the stage

during which the organs of speech are kept for some time
either in the same position necessary to pronounce the sound
(in the case of non-complex sounds) or move from one position
to another (within complex sounds such as diphthongoids,
diphthongs and affricates).

The off-glide, or the end of a sound, is the stage during which

the organs of speech move away to a neutral position.
The types of junction of speech sounds:

1) merging of stages;

2) interpenetration of stages.

In English we may speak of joining:

a consonant to a following vowel (C + V), as in the word [mi:] me;
a vowel to a following consonant (V + C), as in the word [ɔn] on;
two consonants (C + C), as in the word [blǝu] blow;
two vowels (V + V), as in the word [ri:'ælıtı] reality.
 Merging of stages

The end of the preceding sound penetrates into the

beginning of the following sound. The end of the first
sound and the beginning of the second are articulated
almost simultaneously.
 Interpenetration of stages

The end of the first sound penetrates not only into the
beginning but also into the middle part of the second sound
[ækt] act
[begd] begged.

Two adjacent dental sounds with different manner of production

of noise are linked by interpenetration of stages

[ın ðǝ] in the

[mɅnθ] month
[æt ðǝ] at the
Interpenetration of stages
 Assimilation

Two adjacent consonants within a word or at a word

boundary often influence each other in such a way that
the articulation of one sound becomes similar to or even
identical with the articulation of the other one. This
phenomenon is called assimilation.
Assimilation may be of three degrees:

complete – the articulation of the assimilated consonant

fully coincides with that of the assimilating one.
e.g. horse-shoe [hɔ:ʃ ʃu:] – horse [hɔ:s] and [ʃu:]

partial – the assimilated consonant retains its main phonemic

features and becomes only partly similar in some feature
of its articulation to the assimilating sound
e.g. twice [twais], please [pli:z], try [trai]

intermediate – the assimilated consonant changes into a

different sound, but does not coincide with the
assimilating consonant.
e.g. gooseberry ['gu:zberı], where [s] in goose [gu:s] is
replaced by [z] under the influence of [b] in berry
Assimilation may be of three types as far as its direction is
concerned: progressive, regressive and double

In progressive assimilation the assimilated sound is

influenced by the preceding consonant.
This can be represented by the formula A→ B, where A is
the assimilating consonant, and B – the assimilated
consonant.
In What’s this? [wɔts ðıs] [z] is replaced by [s] under the
influence of [t].
In regressive assimilation the preceding consonant is
influenced by the one following it (A←B).
For example, the voiced consonant [z] in news [nju:z] is
replaced by the voiceless consonant [s] in the compound
newspaper [nju:speipǝ] under the influence of the voiceless
sound [p].
In reciprocal, or double, assimilation two adjacent
consonants influence each other.
For example, twenty ['twentı], quick [kwık] the sonorant
[w] is assimilated to the voiceless plosive consonants [t] and
[k] respectively by becoming partly devoiced. In their turn,
[t] and [k] are assimilated to [w] and are represented by
their labialized variants.
 Historical assimilation

e.g. reciprocal assimilation which took place in the

combinations [sj], [zj], [tj] changed them into [ʃ], [Ʒ],
[tʃ] respectively
e.g. occasion [ǝ'keiƷǝn] from [ǝ'kæzjon]
picture ['pıktʃǝ] from [pıktjur]
nation ['neiʃn] from ['næsjon]

The existence of two pronunciations of the word issue

['ısju:] and ['ıʃju:] shows that assimilations of this type
are still going on in the English language.
 Accommodation

While by assimilation we mean a modification in the

articulation of a consonant under the influence of a
neighbouring consonant, the modification in the
articulation of a vowel under the influence of an adjacent
consonant under the influence of an adjacent vowel is
called adaptation, or accommodation.
In ME there are three main types of accommodation.

 An unrounded variant of a consonant phoneme is replaced by its

rounded variant under the influence of a following rounded vowel
phoneme, as at the beginning of the following words: [ti:] tea –
[tu:] too. This type of accommodation presents labialization of
consonants. Some other examples pool, moon, who, cool.

 A fully back variant of a back vowel phoneme is replaced by its

slightly advanced (fronted) variant under the influence of the
preceding mediolingual phoneme [j]: ['mju:zik] music.

 A vowel phoneme is represented by its slightly more open variant

before the dark [l] under the influence of the latter’s back
secondary focus. Thus the vowel sound in bell, tell is slightly
more open than the vowel in bed, ten ([bel] – [bed], [tel] –
[ten]).
The position of the soft palate is also involved in the
accommodation.
Nasalization in vowels under the influence of the
neighbouring sonants [m] and [n]
e.g. and, morning, men, come in
Palatalization of consonants is such a phenomenon when the
front of the tongue is raised to the hard palate additionally
to the main articulation of the phoneme.

Only such consonants as [ʃ], [Ʒ], [tʃ], [dƷ] are palatal ones.

English consonants are always hard before [i:].

In the Ukrainian language palatalization is an important
feature of consonant phonemes, which stand before front
vowels: e.g. літо [л’іто], міст [м’іст].
 Elision
In rapid colloquial speech certain words may lose some of their
sounds (vowels and consonants). This phenomenon is called
elision.
 Loss of [h] in personal and possessive pronouns he, his, her,
him and the forms of the auxiliary verb have, has, had is
widespread, e.g. What has he done? [wɔt ǝz ı dɅn].

 [l] tends to be lost when preceded by [ɔ:], e.g. always

['ɔ:wız], ['ɔ:redı], all right [ɔ: 'rait].

 Alveolar plosives are often elided in case the cluster is

followed by another consonant, e.g. next day [nekst dei] –
[neks dei], just one [dƷɅst wɅn] – [dƷɅs wɅn]. If a vowel
follows, the consonant remains, e.g. first of all, passed in
time.
 Whole syllables may be elided in rapid speech: library ['laibri],
literary ['litri].
 Reduction of vowels, types of reduction

The modifications of vowels in a speech chain are traced in the following

directions: they are either quantitative or qualitative or both. These changes of
vowels in a speech continuum are determined by a number of factors such as the
position of the vowel in the word, accentual structure, tempo of speech, rhythm,
etc.

The change of quality and quantity of vowels in connected speech is called

reduction.
1. Quantitative reduction is a change of the length of a vowel in
an unstressed position
e.g. [ʃı:] – [ʃı·] – [ʃı]

2. Qualitative reduction is the change of the quality of a vowel in

an unstressed position
e.g. [ʹfo:] – [fǝ]
[kæn] – [kǝn]

3. Zero (complete) reduction is the falling out of an unstressed

vowel,
e.g. [kæn] – [kn]
[æm] – [m]
In English there are certain words which have two forms of
pronunciation:
 strong (full) form, when they are stressed
 weak (reduced) form, when they are unstressed
These words include articles, prepositions, auxiliary and
modal verbs, some pronouns, conjunctions, particles
e.g. He will be ʹback at \five.ǁ [hı· wıl bı· ʹbæk ǝt \faıv].
 STRONG FORMS WEAK FORMS
The [ðı:] [ə] – (before
consonants)
[ı] – (before vowels)
A [eı] – (before [ə] – (before
An consonants) consonants)
At [æn] – (before vowels) [ən], [n] – (before
For [æt] vowels)
From [fo:] [ət]
Of [from] [fə]
To [ov] [frəm]
Can [tu:] [əv]
Must [kæn] [tə] – (before
Shall [m^st] consonants)
Do (auxiliary) [ςæl] [kən], [kn]
Does (auxiliary) [du:] [məst], [məs]
Have (auxiliary) [d^z] [ςəl], [ςl]
Has (auxiliary) [hæv] [dυ], [də]
Had (auxiliary) [hæz] [dəz]
Be [hæd] [həv]
Am [bı:] [həz]
Are [æm] [həd]
Was [a:] [bı]
Were [woz] [əm]
You [wε:] [ ə]
He [ju:] [wəz]
She [hı:] [wə]
We [ςı:] [jυ]
Some [wı:] [hı]
And [s^m] [ςı]
But [ænd] [wı]
Or [b^t] [səm]
As [o:] [ənd]
To [æz] [bət]
[tu:] [o]
[əz]
[tə] – (before
consonants)
[tυ] – (before vowels)
Words that preserve their strong form in an unstressed position

To be (is, are) (as notional verbs) [ız], [a:]

To do (do, does) (as notional verbs) [du:], [d^z]

To have (have, has, had) (as notional verbs ) [hæv], [hæz], [hæd]

When, then (adverbs) [wen], [ðen]

On, off, in [on], [of], [ın]

Will (modal verb) [wıl]

That (demonstrative pronoun) [ðæt]

Some (indefinite pronoun) [s^m]

 Linking

Words in connected speech link together to make speech run more smoothly.
Usually it is the case of linking r when a word with a final r is followed by a word which
begins with a vowel.
e.g. Over a quarter of a year has passed linking r appears in
Over a and quarter of but not in year has.

Other frequent instances of linking r may be:

thanks for everything [fǝr]
my father and mother ['fa:ðǝr]
the weather ought to improve ['weðǝr]
here and there [hıǝr]
I don’t care if they do ['kɛǝr]
the door opened ['dɔ:r]
 Many native speakers use r in a similar way to link words with
a vowel even when there is no “justification” from the
spelling.
This is called intrusive r as in the examples:

India(r) and Pakistan

Media(r) interest
Law(r) and order
Flaw(r) in the argument