English Phonetics: Elision, Liaison, Gemination, and More
ELISION
It is the omission of a sound under certain conditions in colloquial speech. Under certain circumstances sounds disappear. Elision is typical of rapid, casual speech.
- A syllable containing the unstressed ‘schwa’. similar
- With / t / and / d /, especially when they appear in a consonant cluster (CCC).
- With the / h / in connected rapid speech or in auxiliaries of past modals verbs.
- In clusters of three or even fours elements.
SYLLABICATION
It is the elision of a vowel sound (generally ) of an unstressed syllable, resulting in a cluster of two consonants, the second of which is marked with a [ ˌ ] to show that a vowel has been elided.
LIAISON
It is the act of joining sounds together. Consonant Sound + Vowel Sound
Linking r
When a word ends in an ‘r’, we do not pronounce this letter! There is only one exception to this, and that is when the following word begins with a vowel sound.
Intrusive r
It takes place between two words, where the first word ends in a vowel sound and the second word begins in a vowel sound.
Intrusive | j |
| ɔɪ aɪ eɪ iː ɪ | + vowel = | ɔɪ aɪ eɪ iː ɪ | + | j | + vowel
GEMINATION
It is the elision of one or two bounding sounds which are alike. Then we apply Liaison. X Sound + X Sound = One X Sound
CLUSTER
It is a group of two (CC) or more (CCC, CCCC) consonants together in one syllable.
SMOOTHING
It is the monophthongization of a diphthong. It occurs in unstressed syllables, in stressed syllables in final position, or when there is a glottal stop.
PHONETICS
The study of the specific characteristics of the sounds used in any language, and the way in which these take place in the different levels.
PHONOLOGY
The systematic study of sounds in a particular language.
PHONEMES
Smallest meaningful units from the point of view of sound. They change the meaning when we make a substitution.
ALLOPHONES
Secondary members of the same family of phonemes and different realizations of a phoneme. They do not change the meaning when we make a substitution.
MINIMAL PAIRS
A pair of speech elements differing in only one respect and thus serving to identify minimum units such as phonemes and morphemes. Ex: see/tea, toy/soy, sail/tail.
HOMOPHONE
A word that is pronounced the same as another word but has a different meaning or spelling, or both. Ex: break/brake, serial/cereal, buy/by
HOMOGRAPH
A word that is spelled the same as another word but has a different meaning. Ex: letter (letra/carta), right (i’m right/ turn right).
ARTICULATORS
Organs or physiological structures that produce speech sounds. Lips, teeth, the alveolar ridge, the hard palate, the soft palate, and the various parts of the tongue all work to help produce sounds.
AIR, LUNGS AND RIB CAGE
The normal way for this airflow to be produced is for some of the air in the lungs to be pushed out; when air is made to move out of the lungs, we say that there is an egressive pulmonic airstream.
THE FOUR DIFFERENT STATES OF THE GLOTTIS
VOICELESS SOUND Wide apart so air passes normally
FRICATIVES Narrow opening
VIBRATION – VOICED SOUND Vocal folds touching so little air escapes
GLOTTALING Tightly closed
BASIC VOWEL PATTERN
(consonant) + vowel + consonant: Monosyllabic words that are formed by one vowel letter sandwiched by one or more consonants generally take a short vowel sound.
SILENT -e: When a silent e is added at the end of a one-syllable word that ends in a single consonant, the vowel letter in the middle tends to say its own name. Ex: hat/hate, pet/Pete, hop/hope.
PLOSIVE
A PLOSIVE consonant shows an articulation of complete oral closure. It’s made up of three stages: (1) a closing stage, where the active articulator approaches a passive articulator (or where both active articulators move towards each other), thus blocking the air passage; (2) a compression stage, where the airstream coming from the lungs builds up pressure behind the oral closure; and (3) the release stage, in which the abrupt separation of the articulators lets the pent up air escape with a burst noise called plosion. There are 6 Plosive sounds: /p, t, k, b, d, g/. Plosives are also called Stops.
FRICATIVES
Fricatives have a looser constriction in the mouth, which allows friction to be produced at the point of contact. A FRICATIVE consonant consists of an articulation of narrow stricture that produces turbulence as the air coming from the lungs fights its way out of the oral cavity. The active articulator comes close to the passive articulator and forms a narrow channel. There are thus four pairs of fricatives. Each pair has a voiceless fricative: /f, θ, s, ʃ/ and a voiced counterpart: /v, ð, z, ʒ/. The ninth fricative is /h/, which is voiceless at the beginning of a word, but is usually voiced in the middle of a word.
AFFRICATE
An affricate consonant is a close-knit sequence of plosive and fricative produced by a single organ of speech (articulator). It consists of three stages: (1) a closing stage, (2) a compression stage, and (3) a slow fricative release stage. It’s this last one that differentiates an affricate from a plosive. The release is not abrupt this time: the organs separate so as to let the compressed air out, but they are quite close to each other so that this narrow passage forces the airstream to cause friction. In English, there are just two: /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.
APPROXIMANTS
There now remain just four approximants. An approximant is a consonant in which the constriction made by an organ of speech (articulator) is not great enough to produce any friction at all. The air escapes freely through this wide stricture. The four approximants are /l, r, j, w/.