20. Modifications of consonants in connected speech.
Till now we have looked at sounds individually but in everyday speech sounds are very seldom pronounced as separate units. Speech is performed in larger units: words, phrases and texts. There are very big differences between pronouncing a word in isolation and a word in connected speech. There is a problem of defining the phonetic status of sounds in connected speech. As a result there are some processes of phonetic changes in connected speech:
assimilation;
accommodation;
vowel reduction;
elision.
Assimilation is the adaptive modification of a consonant by neighboring sound:
eighth - at three
alveolar [t] becomes dental [Ɵ]
Accommodation is the adaptation of sounds combinations of vowel-consonants type and consonant-vowel type:
never - man (consonant-vowel type)
nasal pronunciation of vowels
больно - конь - думать
Labialization of consonants is before labialized vowels.
Vowel reduction is a quantitative or qualitative weakening of vowels in unstressed positions:
board - blackboard
man - postman
Elision is a complete loss of sounds, both vowels and consonants. In informal speech we can lose many sounds. The process cannot be neglected in defining the phonemic status of speech sounds. These phenomena represent the economy of energy from the part of the speaker. Usually the listener doesn’t even notice this because these changes don’t influence the meaning. The target of listener is usually to understand the meaning but sometimes the meaning can also be influenced, for example [z] can represent has, is, does, plural, possessive, third person singular. Now let us consider which qualitative characteristics of consonants can be changed in connected speech. Consonants can be modified according to the place of articulation: assimilation takes place when a sound changes its character in order to look like a neighboring sound and the characteristic which is involved in this is almost always a place of articulation:
eighth - at the - said that
[t] [d] alveolar + [Ɵ] [ð] interdental = dental [t] [d]
Partial regressive assimilation
tree - true - dry - dream
[t] [d] alveolar + post alveolar [r] = post alveolar [t] [d]
Partial regressive assimilation
horseshoe - this shop
[s] [z] alveolar + [ʃ] post alveolar = post alveolar [s] [z]
Complete regressive assimilation
graduate - congratulate - did you - could you
[t] + [j]; [d] + [j] = affricates [ʧ] [ʤ]
Partial regressive assimilation
symphony
[m] bilabial + [f] labiodentals = [m] labiodentals
Partial regressive assimilation
Manner of articulation is also changed as a result of assimilation.