Part three. Joining sounds in connected speech.

When phonemes are joined together within single words and at the junction of words in phrases and sentences, they have a tendency to react one upon the other in such a way that the articulation of one phoneme influences the articulation of a neighboring phoneme making it similar to itself. This process is called assimilation.

In assimilation the phoneme whose articulation is modified under the influence of a neighboring phoneme is called the assimilated phoneme; the phoneme which influences the articulation of a neighboring phoneme is called the assimilating phoneme.

The term assimilation may also be extended to include cases when two adjacent phonemes so influence each other as to give place to a single new phoneme different from either of them.

Although assimilation is common to all languages, it does not act in the same way in all languages. In modern English it is mostly consonant phonemes that are affected by assimilation.

1. Verbs ending in /ed/

• the sound in the flection is assimilated under the influence of a vowel or voiced consonant, thus becomes [d]

• the sound in the flection is assimilated under the influence of an unvoiced consonant, thus becomes [t]

• after [t], [d] it sounds as [id]

2. [S] / [z] sounds in plurals, 3d person singular, possessive case

• the sound in the flection is assimilated under the influence of a vowel or voiced consonant, thus becomes [z]

• the sound in the flection is assimilated under the influence of an unvoiced consonant, thus becomes [s]

3. When two sounds come together as a result of the juxtaposition of two words, there is one single, elongated articulation of the consonant, so called prolongated pronunciation (the native speakers do not pronounce the consonant twice). In case the second word in a phrase is stressed, the second sound is pronounced with a little prominence, thus, it is louder:

[s] - let’s stay [`letsstei]

[ʃ] - English ship [`ingliʃʃip]

[g] - big garden [big`ga:dn]

[k] – black cup [blæk`kʌp]

Notice! When [tʃ], [dʒ] come together, both sounds are pronounced.

4. Linking sounds.

The ability to speak English smoothly depends on linking, connecting sounds of the final sound of one word to the initial sound of the next. The amount of linking that occurs is not entirely predictable, however occurs in the following environments:

a) linking [w]: the sound [w] links words ending in [u:] or [u], e.g. who, you, how, go when the next word begins with a vowel:

Who is? [hu`wis]

You are [ju`wa:]

Go away [gəu`wai]

b) linking [j]: the sound [j] links words ending in [i:] or [i], e.g. she, he, I, me, my, say, they when the next word begins with a vowel:

I agree [aijə`gri:]

He is here [hijis`hiər]

The way out [ði weijaut]

c) linking [r]: the sound [r] links words ending and beginning with vowels, e.g.:

far away [fa: a`wei]  in connected speech [fa:ra`wei]

vanilla ice cream [və`niləraiskri:m]

the idea of it [ði ai`diərəv it]

d) loss of [h] in linking: the sound [h] in rapid spoken English often disappears in the weak forms of: he, him, his, her, has, hand, have

	strong stress	weak stress
he him his her has had have	[hi:] [him] [hiz] [hε:] [hæz] [hæd] [hæv]	[hi] or [i] [im] [iz] [ə] [əz] [əd] [əv]

e) joining [s] and [z] sounds: when two different, but similar sounds occur in close concession, the second one is more strongly, e.g.

Yes, `Zena.

This parcel contains `six mice.