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CONNECTED SPEECH by Understanding These Features This CONNECTED SPEECH By understanding these features this will help with - Listening to native speakers - Own conversation skills In natural conversation, you’ll hear that each word is not spoken in a stilted and overly formal manner instead Words flow together to make the speech sound fluent and natural. When this happens, the Way we pronounce the end and beginning of some words can change depending on the sounds at the beginning and end of those words. These changes are described as features of connected speech. We’ll divide these differences into 4 sections: 1. Sounds linking 2. Sounds disappearing 3. Sounds joining together 4. Sounds changing. Lets start with the linking Sounds Linking is a way of joining the pronunciation of two words so that they are easy to say and flow together smoothly. In English there are different ways that this happens The first way this happens is possibly the …most common sound in English and is called the SCHWA sound. If you get this sound correct than this a really good way of making your pronunciation more accurate and natural. So what is the SCHWA sound -Lets listen to this sound – “er” So what is Schwa? Any vowel letter can be pronounced as Schwa, and the pronunciation of a vowel letter can change depending on whether the syllable in which it occurs is stressed or not. So for example: The word man the ‘a’ has its full sound Now say postman – the letter a now changes to the schwa sound -listen again MAN POSTMAN So how does this work in connected speech? A common feature is the way ‘and’ is spoken in connected speech. Often this word is pronounced ‘n’ in phrases such as fish n chips So we don’t say fish and chips we say fish n chips. To is often pronounced ‘t’ in connected speech. So we will say: “I’m going ‘t’ the shop” instead of I’m going to the shop Its quite contracted so we barely hear it – listen again I’m going t the shop” Another common form is OF For example, listen to the phrase “ A Cup Of Tea” – I’ll say it slowly first A Cup Of Tea and now at a more natural pace – A Cupvtea What’s happening? Well, When a word ending in a consonant sound is followed by a word beginning in a vowel sound we get a smooth transition from one to another Cup of becomes cupev – A Cupvtea Another example is ‘because of” becauseev So let’s move on to more areas of Linking in connected speech: Linking isn’t confined to the weak vowels, it can also happen with strong vowels as well. Here’s an example: “Don’t forget to switch of the light before you go out.” When you listen to it, you may think that you’re hearing a word CHOFF. Listen again “Don’t forget to switch of the light before you go out” Of course there’s no such word, and what your hearing is switch off linked together to get choff Other examples of this is: Fry Degg – instead of fried egg I Scream - instead of ice cream Consonant to vowel linking is very common, but if we listen to that last sentence again ““Don’t forget to switch of the light before you go out.” We can hear another form of linking: “Don’t forget to switch of the light before you go out.” Focus on the ‘go out’ part of the section. When a word ending in a vowel sound is followed by a word beginning in a vowel sound, we need to add another sound to make the transition between the words smooth. So between the go and the out there is a linking sound of w (win) – go out, listen again Go out goWout. Another example of this W sound is found in Do IT “DowIT and No Entry So when a word ends in O or U we hear this W sound. There is also a linking Y sound (yes) that can be heard in some transitions. For example – I am. Iyam And ‘See It” - seeyit When a word ends in I or ee or i we can hear Y sound Don’t try to deliberately emphasize these linking sounds as you wont sound natural. This will come with practice and listening and speaking in your British accent. The Linking R sound: There is another type of linking which we’ll just take a quick look at now. And this is with linking ‘r’. In Received Pronunciation, we don’t pronounce the final r in a word. Such as: car or there. However, if the next word begins with a vowel then we do pronounce the ‘r’ – e.g. ‘there is’ Lets listen to some examples: We don’t pronounce the R when we say: Door Star Four But if the next word begins with a vowel then we say the R Listen: The car is here Four eggs Ok, we’re now going to move onto another part of connected speech called Sounds Twinning (gemination). This is what happens when there are 2 consonant sounds the same, One at the end of a word, one at the beginning of the next. For example: I’m a bit tired We have a lot to do Tell me what to say She’s slept for three hours I’ve finished Listen to these again and we see what’s going on. Lets start with the first sentence I’m a bit tired – the word BIT ends with the letter T, and the word TIRED begins with the letter T. When this happens we don’t pronounce them both – BIT TIRED ( hear the T sounds) We don’t hear both the T’s we – we join the words and just hear the one T sound. “Bit tired” Lets listen to those other sentences: We have a lot to do – listen to lot & to Tell me what to say – listen to what and to She’s slept for three hours – listen to she’s & slept I’ve finished – listen ve & finished Its probably more important to be aware of this twinning aspect when you are listening to native speakers speak. It will help you understand what is being said and to help you work out the grammar. However, it is less important to necessarily practice and deliberately try to do this in your own speech. The whole point of these techniques is to sound natural and fluent, and if you purposefully emphasize these linking strategies than your speech will sound unnatural and stilted. As you develop your British accent you will naturally pick up and employ these techniques without really realising your doing it! Another feature of connected speech is something called Elision. Let listen to a few examples and try to work out what it is: I’m going next week Worst That was the worst job I ever had! worst - worst job Just Just one person came to the party! Just – just one Can't I can't swim can't – can't swim Can you hear what’s going on in those sentences (repeat the sentences) When you have the sounds of /t/ or /d/ between 2 consonants sounds, they will often disappear completely from the pronunciation So – I’m going nex(t) week That was the wors(t) job I ever had Jus(t) one person came to the party I can’t swim You can also hear this in individual words like Postman when you say it at a usual pace you don’t hear the ‘t’ And Westminster You can slow down your speech to hear it – postman, Westminster. But at a usual spoken pace the t sound disappears Changing Sounds. Some words can also change. Listen to these words: Good ….. girl. She's a good girl. Good ….. girl - Good girl So what’s happening here? The sound at the end of the first word is taking on the quality of the sound at the beginning of the second. So the /d/ at the end of good, becomes like the /g/ at the start of girl. It doesn’t disappear, it actually sounds like a /g/. so it sounds like goog girl This type of speech is called Assimilation. Here’s some other examples: We can go now (gang go) We can buy it (cam buy) 4 different ways of hearing the word CAN Can – strong form Cn - weak form Gang ( n sound starts to resemble the g of go Cam ( n sound before a b starts to resemble a m sound) Other examples: Green Park. I walked through Green Park. Green Park Green Park On Monday. He arrives on Monday. On Monday On Monday Fine by. It's fine by me! Fine by fine by What’s happening? In Green Park – the n sound at the end of green is followed by the p sound of park so the n sound starts to sound more like a m sound –so it sounds Greem Park On Monday – n sound at end of on is followed by M sound of Monday, the N sound starts to change to M sound so sounds like om Monday. Fine by- the n sound at the end of Fine is followed by b sound in by so the n sound starts to sound like a M –fime by The reason for this feature of connected speech – it’s called assimilation, by the way, ...is to do with the place in the mouth where we make sounds.
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