 Diphthongs.
Processes of connected speech.
 R – coloring / Rhotacization
 Am E /З/ „sir, herd, fur”
 The vowel does not fit the vowel chart, because it cannot be described in terms of the
features high-low, front-back or rounded/unrounded. It involves another feature called
rhotacization.
 Rhotacized vowels
 Rhotacized vowels are often called retroflex vowels.
 In saying the vowel is rhotacized, we are describing the auditory quality of the vowel – we
say what it sounds like.
 Most speakers have the tip of the tongue raised, as in a retroflex consonant, but others
keep the tip down and produce a high bunched tongue position. Both gestures produce
a very similar auditory effect.
 Rhotic accents
 Accents that permit [r] after a vowel are called rhotic accents.
 Rhotic accents occur in:
◦ most of the North America. (except for some areas in New England and parts
of the South in the US)
◦ the West Country (south-west part of UK)
◦ Scotland.
They were prevalend in GB in Shakespeare’s times.
Standard BBC English is not rhotic and has a diphthong ending in shwa, „here, there”
Diphthongs...
...are sounds which consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another
A vowel which remains constant and does not glide is called a pure vowel
Classification of diphthongs
- movement of the tongue
 There are 8 diphthongs in English. It’s the easiest to remember them is in terms of three
groups:
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 CENTRING DIPHTHONGS –
glide from more peripheral vowels towards the shwa /∂/
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 CLOSING DIPHTHONGS
glide from /∂/ towards a closer vowel e.g. /I/
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 CLOSING DIPHTHONGS – gliding from /∂/ towards /υ – as in „good”/
 Classification of diphthongs
– prominence of the vowel
 In the 8 diphthongs above the most prominent part is the first vowel. The second vowel is
very brief and transitory; sometimes it’s even difficult to determine its exact quality, e.g. /eI/
- a glide towards /I/
 [ju] as in „cue – the most prominent vowel is the second one – many books in phonetics
don’t consider it as a diphthong, but as a sequence of /j+u/
◦ „pew, beauty, cue, spew, skew, also (BrE): tune, dune, Sue, Zeus, new, lieu, stew” –
a lot of consonant clusters occur only before /u/; there is no /pje, kje/ etc.
(Ladefoged 77)
 TRIPHTHONG
- a glide from one vowel to another and to the third
- five closing diphthongs + shwa
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ASSIMILATION
...is one of fast / connected speech processes
Sounds belonging to one word can cause changes to sounds belonging to another word
Assuming we know how a phoneme is produced in isolation, when we find the phoneme
realized differently as a result of being near some other phoneme belonging to a neighboring
word, we call this an instance of assimilation.
Assimilation varies in extent according to speaking rate and style; it’s more likely to occur in
rapid, casual speech than in slow, careful speech. Sometimes the difference is barely
noticable, sometimes it’s big.
ASSIMILATION
... affects mostly consonants;
_ _ _ _ Cf | Ci _ _ _ _ _
If Cf changes to become like Ci in some way, the assimilation is called regressive/progressive
(direction of influence)
If Ci changes to become like Cf in some way, the assimilation is called regressive/progressive
In what ways can a consonant change?
Differences in place of articulation
Differences in manner of articulation
Differences in voicing
In parallel with this, we distinguish:
◦ Assimilation of place
◦ Assimilation of manner,
◦ Assimilation of voicing
 Assimilation of place
 alveolar Cf followed by non-alveolar Ci e.g. /t/ becomes /p/ before a bilabial
consonant
 „that person”
/ðæt pЗ:s∂n/
 „light blue”
/ðæp pЗ:s∂n/
/laIt blu:/
 „meat pie”
/laIp blu:/
/mi:t paI/
/mi:p paI/
 ? regressive or progressive?
 Assimilation of place
 Alveolar /t/ will change into dental /t/ before a dental consonant
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◦ „that thing” / ðæt Өiŋ/
◦ „cut through” /kΛt Өru:/
Alveolar /t/ will change into velar /k/ before a velar consonant
◦ „that case” / ðæk keIs/
◦ „bright colour” /braIk kΛl∂/
In similar contexts /d/
/b,d, g/, and /n/ /m, n, ŋ/ but fricative alveolars behave
differently:
◦ Assimilation of place
Alveolar fricatives become palato-alveolar fricatives before palatal sounds /j, ∫/
/s/
/∫/
◦ „this shoe” /ðI ∫ ∫u:/
/z/
/”ż” as in Gigi/
◦ „those years” /ðoυż jI∂z/
◦ ? Regressive or progressive ?
The consonants that undergo assimilation do not dissappear
Assimilation of manner
much less noticable, only found in the most rapid speech
a tendency for regressive assimilation
the change is usually for the „easier” consonant – one which makes less obstruction to
the air flow
Assimilation of manner
A plosive,
a fricative or nasal
◦ „that side” / ðæs saId/
◦ „good night” /gυn naIt/
◦ ?regressive or progressive?
A word-initial /ð/ follows a plosive or nasal at the end of the preceding word, it
becomes identical in manner to the Cf, but with dental place of articulation
◦ „in the” /In n∂/
◦ „get them” /get tem/
◦ „read these” /ri:d di:z/
◦ ? regressive or progressive?
◦ Assimilation of voice
Only regressive assimilation is found across word boundaries
If Cf is lenis („voiced”) and Ci is fortis („voiceless”), the lenis consonant has no voicing,
e.g. „please stop” /z? s/ (It is not very noticable, as initial or final voiced consonants have little or no
voicing anyway. )
When Cf is fortis (voiceless) and Ci lenis (voiced) assimilation of voice NEVER takes
place, e.g. „that black dog” (/k/ doesn’t change to /g/)
Across-morpheme and within-morpheme assimilation
Across morpheme: progressive assimilation of voice for –s suffixes
◦ „cats” /kæts/; „dogs” /dogz/
Within the morpheme: a place of articulation of a nasal is determined by the place of
articulation of the following consonant, e.g. „ bump, tenth, bank, hunt” /bΛmp, tenӨ,
bæŋk, hΛnt/ - it’s become a fixed phonological rule
ELISION
... under certain circumstances sounds disappear; a phoneme may „be realized as zero”,
or „have zero realization”, or be deleted.
Elision is typical of rapid, casual speech
 Gradation – a process of change in phoneme realizations by changing the speed and
casualness of speech
 ELISION - examples
 Loss of a weak (unstressed) vowel after /p,t,k/ - aspiration takes up the whole of the
middle of the syllable, e.g. „potato, tomato, perhaps, today” (transcription?)
 Loss of a weak vowel followed by n, l, or r, which becomes syllabic, e.g. „tonight, police,
correct”
◦ Avoidance of complex consonant clusters, e.g. :George the Sixth’s throne”
 In clusters of three plosives or two plosives + fricative, the middle plosive disappears, e.g.
acts /æks/, scripts /skrIps/
 Loss of final „v” in „of ”/∂v/ before consonants, e.g. „lots of /∂/ them” „waste of /∂/
money”
 Contractions of grammatical forms (often not regarded as elision, as realized in spelling)
e.g.:
 „would:” he’d /d/; Tom’d /∂d/
 „is”: she’s /z/; duck’s /s/
 „will”: she’ll /l/; duck’ll /l/ (! also after Cs)
 „have”: we’ve /v/; Tom’ve /∂v/
 „are”: (∂ after vowels, ∂r after consonants + changes in preceding vowel): you’re /jυ∂/,
those are /ð∂υz ∂r/
 LINKING AND INSERTION
 linking „r” – the phoneme /r/ cannot occur in syllable-final position in RP, but when
spelling suggests a final /r/ and a word beginning with a vowel follows, speakers usually
pronounce /r/, e.g. :
◦ „here” /hI∂/ but „here are” /hI∂r ∂/
◦ „four” /fo: / but „four eggs /fo:r egz/
 intrusive /r/ without the spelling justification:
◦ „formula A” /fo; mj∂l∂r eI/
◦ „media event” /mi:dI∂r ivent/
Bibliography:
1. Peter Ladefoged: A course in phonetics
2. Peter Roach: English phonetics and phonology
(both in our library)