Modification of consonants in connected speech.

The complete articulation of a speech sound – a vowel or a consonant – when said by itself in isolation consists of three stages:

1. The on-glide stage, during which the articulating organs move to the position necessary for the articulation of the sound.

2. The hold stage, during which the articulating organs are kept in the position for a certain period of time.

3. The off-glide stage, when the articulating organs return to the position of rest.

Such isolation of sounds from the flow of speech is, however, to a great degree simplification of real process. Speech sounds are used only in combination with other sounds in connected speech. The articulatory organs are moving continuously and the sounds mostly merge one into another. In the transition from one articulation to another speech organs accommodate and the three stages of articulation are not preserved: the off-glede of the preceding sound serves as the on-glide of the following sound and these transitional stages between the holds tend to complete reduction.

In connected speech the sounds are subjected mainlt to two types of influence: the reciprocal influence of neighbouring sounds (this proces is called combinative changes) and the influence of larger speech units, first of all – by stress (positional changes). With the majority of changes in the connected speech being combinative.

Combinative changes mean that the sounds are modified by the other sounds near to them in the phonetic sequence. They lose the clearness of their articulation and gain some new articulatory features. As a result of mutual interaction of speech sounds there is a number of phonetic processes such as ASSIMILATION, ACCOMODATION, ELISION and others.

ASSIMILATION is the process of alteration of speech sounds as a result of which one of the sounds becomes fully or partially similar to the adjoining sound. The nature of this process is determined by th eobjective physical and physiological conditions. It exists in every language, but its laws and forms depend on the historically formed articulatory tendencies and on specific phonetic structures. Assimilation can affect the place of obstruction, the active organ of speech, the work of the vocal cords, the position of the lips, the position of the soft palate etc.

According to the direction of assimilation it can be PROGRESSIVE (when the preceding sound while remaining unchanged itself, changes some articulatory features of the following sound: calls [z], pens [z], desks [s], books [s], sandwich [sænwidς]), REGRESSIVE (when the following sound influences the articulation of the preceding sound: width, in them – here the alveolar [d] and [m] become dental before the interdental [ө] and [ð]) and RECIPROCAL or DOUBLE (means complex mutual influenceof the adjacent sounds: tree – the sonorant [r] is partly devoiced under the influence of the voiceless [t] and the alveolar [t] becomes post-alveolar before the post alveolar [r].

According to the degree of completeness, assimilation can be COMPLETE (in this case the two adjoining sounds become alike or merge into one, it always takes place when the sounds differ only in one articulatory feature: cupboard ['k٨bəd]; and at the word junction in fluent speech: less shy ['le∫∫aı], in Russian без сил, голос женщины) and INCOMPLETE (when the likeness of the adjoining sounds is partial as the assimilated sound retains its major articulatory features: sweet, place, try – the sonorants [w, l, r] are partly devoiced when preceded by the voiceless fortis [p, t, k, s, f, ө] and devoiced consonant is marked with a point under its sign).

Degree of stability. Many asimilatory phenomena of older stages of the development of the language have become onbigatory in modern English. They may or may not be reflected in spelling. The changes which have taken place within a word over a period of time are called HISTORICAL: orchard = ort+yard ['ﺮ:tjəd >'ﺮ:t∫əd]. In modern language obligatory assimilations are treated as special allophonic variants, for example, a dental allophone of the alveolat [t] should be used when follow by (inter) dental [ө] or [ð]: eighth [eıtө]. Besidea there are a lot of wodely spread NON-OBLIGATORY cases of assimilation traced mainly at word boundaries: ten minutes ['tem'mınıts] – thei are characteristic of careless speech should be avoided by public speakers.

According to the quality of the adjacent sounds there can be four special cases of contact assimilation:

• influence of a consonant on the adjacent consonant

• influence of a vowel on the adjacent vowel

• influence of a consonant on the adjacent vowel

• influence of a vowel on the adjacent consonant

We are going to discuss only the variants of the first case here, because in modern English it’s mainly consonants that are assimilated and its between consonants that the most striking changes occur. There changes can be of the following types:

1. Modification of the place of obstruction and the active organ of speech. The following three important cases should be noticed:

1. The alveolar [t, d, n, l, s, z] are replaced by the dental variants when immediately followed by the interdental [ө] or [ð]. Within a word – eighth, breadth, tenth; at the word boundaries – put that, read this.

2. The post-alveolar [t, d] are heard before the post-alveolar sonorant [r]. Trip, true, trunk, dream, dry; at rest, would read.

3. The bilabial nasal [m] or the alveolar nasal [n] become labio-dental before labio-dental fricatives [f, v]: triumph, comfort, infant; ten forks.

2. Changes in the work of the vocal cords (VOICING or DEVOICING). Progressive voicing or devoicing is common in English, but very rare in Russian:

1. The sonorants [m, n, l, w, r, j] are partially devoiced when preceded by voiceless consonants [p, t, k, s, f, ө, ∫]: small, sneer, place, sweep,spread, stupid, tune; at word boundaries it occirs when the adjacend words form a phrasal word or a rythmic group – at last, at rest.

2. Contracted forms of the verbs ‘is’ and ‘has’ may retain voice or be devoiced depending on the preceding consonant: That’s right. Bob’s gone out.

3. The possessive suffix -‘s or -s’, the plural suffix -(e)s of nouns and the third person singular present indefinite of verbs depends on the quality of the preceding consonant. [Z] is pronounced after all voiced consonants exept [z, ς] and after all vowels: girls, rooms, laws. [S] after all voiceless consonants exept [s, ∫]: Jack’s, books, writes. Plus as a separate syllable [ıd] after [s, z, ∫, ς]: George’s, dishes, washes.

4. The suffix -ed of regular verbs can ve voiced or devoiced. [D] is pronounced after all voiced consonants exept [d] and after all vowels: lived, played, [t] – after all voiceless consonants exept [t]: worked, and as a separate syllable [ıd] after [t, d]: expected, intended.

Regressive voicing or devoicing in English is found only in a few cases of historical assimilation within a compound word when the semantic independence of the first component is lost: five pence ['faıfpəns] not [faıv], gooseberry ['gu:zbrı] not [gu:s]. Or in closely connected words: I have to [ai ¸hæftu], she has to [∫ı¸hæstu], I used to [aı¸ju:sttu]. While in Russian voicing and devoicing is mainly regressive.

3. Changes in the lip position. Consonants followed by the sonorant [w] change their lip-position and become lip-rounded: twinkle, quite, swan,language.

4. Changes in the position of the soft palate. Nasal consonants may influence the adjacent plosives, but its’ not typical for English: handsome ['hænnsəm], handmade ['hænnmeıd], she wouldn’t do it [wυnnt], good morning [gυmmﺮ:nıŋ].

5. Changes in the manner of the release of plosive consonants. English plosives don’t always have the thirs stage consisting of a sudden oral release of air. The main variants are:

1. Incomplete plosion – in the clusters of two plosives [pp, pb, bb, bp,tt, td…] where the position of the organs of speech is the same for both consonants, there is no separation of the organs of speech between the two plosions. The hold stage is prolonged from the beginning of the first consonant until the release of the second. The effect is that of a single plosive pronounced with a very long hold and the first plosive has no plosion at all: accomodation, attraction, bookcase; lamp post, good chance.

Or: in a cluster of two plosives or a plosive and an affricate the closure of the organs of speech for the second sound is made before the release of the first, so the first plosive is incomplete and there’s only one plosion for the tow sounds: object, lecture; good girl, hot bottle. It doesn’t happen in Russien, though: акт is pronounced with the three stages of both plosives.

2. Nasal plosion – when a plosive is followed by the syllabic [n] or [m] it has no release of its own, and the so-called ‘nasal plosion’ is produced. After the nornal plosive the release is produced not by the removal of the oral closure, which is retained, but by the lowering of the soft palate – it allows the compressed air to escape through the nasal cavity, getting ready to form the nasal consonant: shipmate, subnormal, buttom; stop moaning, escape noisily.

3. Lateral plosion – in the sequences of a plosive immediately followed by [l] the closure produced for the plosive is not released till after [l]. The release is made by a sudden lowering of the sides of the tongue and the aie escapes along the sides of the tongue: please, cattle, black, candle.

THE REDUCTION OF CONSONANT CLUSTERS (ELISION) was established long ago:

1. the initial [w, k, g] may be dropped: know, write, gnat.

2. the medial [t] or [d] in a cluster of three consosnants are dropped: listen, soften, Wednesday.

3. the final [b] is dropped ina cluster [mb]: lamb, dumb.

In cases of recent formation the elided forms are typical only of rapid colloquial speech: last time [no t], next day [no t], old man [no d], musnt’t [no t], strict teacher [ no t].