Patterns of simplification of phonemes in speech.

One of the most striking differences between slow collo­quial pronunciation and informal speech lies in the way the structure of syllables and words is simplified and altered in informal speech.

Phonemes group together forming different types of syllables. There are certain constrains on the structure of syllables and on the sequence of consonants that can occur initially in monosyllabic words:

(1) no member of any column of consonants may cluster with its approximant; so we may find 'twist', 'dwell' but no *tl, *dl, *bd at the beginning of the word;

(2) /m/ or /n/ may only cluster with / ə / as in 'smear', 'sneer';

(3) /s/ may precede any member of row 1 except /tς/. (See table 1)

In polysyllabic words it is possible to find any sequence of consonants, take for example, the word 'butler' - /b tlə/. This word can be divided into distributional syllables: /b + tlə /. (At the phonological level of description syllable is believed to be the unit of distribution of phonemes). But of course it also can be realized by some speakers as the sequence of 'phonetic syllables - /b t+l ə / where phonetic syllables are in a very direct relationship with the distributional syl­lable. (The syllable may be called phonetic if we describe phonetic performance though they may differ markedly from the distributional syllables).

Even in slow formal speech we may find that individuals differ in the way they divide up the phonetic syllables of polysyllabic words. We know very little about the principles by which people divide words into phonetic syllables. Many seem to prefer the sequence /conso­nant + vowel/ + /consonant + vowel/, etc. Such preference gives rise to phonetic consonant sequence, which are prohibited with­in the distributional syllable. We may suggest that people make the phonetic syllable break coincide with a morpheme boundary. It seems quite plausible with such words as 'ice­-cream'. However, the tendency to produce consonant-vowel sequence may be more important.

This brief discussion of syllables is quite necessary as we are to explain the existing difference in pronunciation models of words in explicit speech and in normal informal speech. For example, consider the word 'extraordinary'- /ək/+/strə/+/o/+/di/+/nə/+/ri/. Commonly, we pronounce this word with four syllables - /ik/+/stro/+/din/+/ri/. The reason why words tend to be pronounced with less syllables lies in the fact that in normal informal speech when the speaker is concentrating on what he is saying, and not on how he is say­ing it, he will tend to articulate in the most efficient man­ner. As it is, he speaks in a way which allows the hearers to understand the message, making the meaningful elements of the message more prominent and playing down the rest.

To begin with, we feel obliged to state the fact that all the forms of simplification we are going to discuss might be condemned as vulgar if they occurred in stressed syllables in an utterance. We think a student shouldn't be required to produce the forms we examine here. They should only recognize them to make their interpretation process more efficient. The achieved higher level of pronunciation (normal informal style) must be regarded as a result of extremely high, developed skills and habits of English pronunciation which is based on adequate practice of speaking and reading English.

Consonants and vowels are combined to form words and ut­terances within a rhythmic structure. Every consonant and every vowel will be affected by its neighboring consonants and vowels and by the rhythmic structure in which it occurs. This is the main reason for the very wide variety of allophones of each phoneme.

The context (or environment in which a phoneme occurs) determines the type of allophone which rea­lizes the given phoneme in a given context. Thus, a phoneme /k/ followed by /i/ realizes through /k/ pronounced further forward on the palate, than say, the allophone of /k/ before a phoneme /u/. The adaptation of phonemes to each other is a universal fact of a language. English has certain types of adaptation: assimilation, accommodation, elision, which occurs wherever the appropriate circumstances come together in the stream of speech.

We speak about accommodationwhen consonants and vowels are joined. The above described example with the phoneme /k/ before front or back vowels illustrates this phenomenon.

In order to perceive the process of assimilationlet us consider the following examples:

'Great 'Britain - /greit 'britən/ - /grei?p britən/

'commonwealth - /komənwelθ/ - /koməmwelθ/

times share - /taimz ςeə / - /taimz ςeə /

this year - /ðis jiə / - / ðiς jiə/

The great majority of assimilations involve /t, d/ and /n/. The other types are comparatively rare. It is important to realize that what is involved in assimilation is not simply the replacement of the phoneme that occurs in the slow collo­quial speech, by another phoneme. Sometimes the timing of an on-set of a phoneme results in an audible glottal stop /? /. Notice that such examples as /ðiς jiə/ can occur only when the word ‘year^’ is not stressed.

Assimilation process usually effects the final consonant phoneme. As to the initial consonants - they play too much important a role in conveying a message and in identifying a word to be assimilated to any other consonant.

Consonants /t,d,n/ are widely involved in other simpli­fying processes of which an elision (missing out of a con­sonant, a vowel, or both) is just one to mention here. As with assimilation the most common place to find consonant elision is at the end of a syllable. Let us consider some examples:

first three - /f ə : st θri:/ - / f ə : s θri:/

last year - /last jiə/ - /las jiə/

In word final position /d/ elides even more readily than /t/.

hurled twenty - /h ə: ld 'twenti/- / h ə: l 'twenti /

The elision of /t/ and /d/ is by far the most common elision process. Consonants /v, ð l, r, n,k/ much less regu­larly elide , but their elision is nonetheless by no means a rare event. Consider the following examples:

five p.m. news - /faiv pi əm nju:z/-/fai:pi ə mnju:z/

of course - / əv kos/ -/ə: kos/.

The elided consonant may cause hew lengthening of the preceding vowel.

Vowel elision, a very frequent process too, very often occurs together with other processes involving assimilation and elision of consonants. Here are some examples:

fanatics - /f ə nætiks/ - /fnætiks/

minister - /ministə / - /minstə /

different- /difərənt/ - /difrənt/

after all -/aftə rol/ - /aftrol/

The next set of examples show the complexity of assimilation/elision process, which occurs only when the word is unstressed.

actually - /æktςuəli/ - /ækςli/

going to be - /goui ŋ t ə bi/ - /gənə bi/

We may note that not all accents of English simplify in the same way. The word ‘minister’ may have different variants of simplification ranging from /misə/ to /mstə/ and even /stə/. Many of the phonetic forms that an English speaker actually produces in informal speech might appear to him quite un-English when pronounced in slow colloquial. The whole idea is that they are not 'ideal¹ explicit forms but sequences occur­ring in the stream of normal informal speech in non-prominent parts of the utterance.

The process of simplification in vowels may effect the quality of their pronunciation. This process has been observed encroaching now for some years. This fact is mentioned by A. Gimson (1962) as a feature of ‘Advanced Received Pronunciation^’ but it is very common now and occurs very frequently. Here are some examples to consider:

where - /we ə / - /w ə: /

really - /ri ə li/ - /r ə: li/

now that - /naυð ə t/ -/naðət/

gold -/goυld/ - /g ə: ld/

In the above examples the quality of the initial element of the diphthong is retained and the second element is obscu­red or lost. It is important, however, to state the fact that, though it occurs very often, the reduction of vowels in unstressed po­sition, especially, in non-grammatical words is not obligatory.

Finally, we should mention once again that all above des­cribed examples of phonetic processes that effect vowels and consonants in the stream of speech occur only in non-promi­nent, unstressed positions of the words the vowels and conso­nants constitute, and never in prominent parts of utterances.

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