Connected Speech

Question 1

What is rhythm?

Answer 1

Some noticeable event occurring at regular intervals

Question 2

What is English sometimes referred to in respect to rhythm?

Answer 2

Stress timed

Question 3

How often do stressed syllables occur?

Answer 3

At relatively regular intervals

Question 4

What does syllable timed mean?

Answer 4

That syllables tend to occur at regular time intervals

Question 5

What is a foot?

Answer 5

A unit of rhythm, which begins with a stressed syllable and includes all following syllables up to (but not including) the next stressed syllable.

Question 6

What do tree diagrams show?

Answer 6

The relationship between strong and weak elements and the different levels of stress

Question 7

Metrical grids: what does English speech tend towards?

Answer 7

A rhythmic alternation of strong and weak syllables

Question 8

What is stress shift?

Answer 8

Occurs to maintain a s-w patterns, altered according to context e.g thir’teen but ‘thirteenth ‘place

Question 9

Does the rhythm of English speech vary?

Answer 9

Varies on a continuum between stress-timing and arhythmicality

Question 10

Is stress-timing real?

Answer 10

Studies of natural speech have shown that so-called stress-timed languages do not differ considerably from so-called syllable-timed languages. Could be psychological due to e.g. nursery rhymes

Question 11

What is assimilation?

Answer 11

When a phoneme is realised differently due to context - “sounds become more similar”

Question 12

When is assimilation likely to occur?

Answer 12

More likely to be found in rapid, casual speech, and in English usually affects more consonants at word boundaries

Question 13

What is regressive assimilation?

Answer 13

Cf may change to be more like Ci in some way

Question 14

What is progressive assimilation?

Answer 14

Ci may change to be more like Cf

Question 15

What three ways can consonants change in assimilation?

Answer 15

Place of articulation, manner of articulation, voicing

Question 16

What is assimilation of place?

Answer 16

Place of articulation changes - alveolar consonants are highly susceptible to regressive assimilation
e.g. light blue /laɪt blu:/ -> /laɪp blu:/

Question 17

What is assimilation of manner (regressive)?

Answer 17

A final plosive may be realised as a fricative or nasal, usually regressive
e.g. that side /ðæt saɪd/ -> /ðæs saɪd/

Question 18

What is assimilation of manner (progressive)?

Answer 18

With words beginning with /ð/, we sometimes get progressive assimilation
e.g. in the /ɪn ðə/ -> /ɪnnə/

Question 19

What is assimilation of voice (phoneme theory)?

Answer 19

Only regressive, if Cf is lenis and Ci is fortis, the lenis consonant has little voicing
e.g. of course /əv kɔ:s/ -> /əf kɔ:rs/

Question 20

What is coalescence?

Answer 20

When two neighbouring sounds merge into a single sound that has properties of the two original sounds (Betancourt y Galiffa, 2009)

Question 21

When may coalescence occur?

Answer 21

When an alveolar consonant is followed by a palatal consonant (e.g. /j/)
e.g. tuesday /’tju:zdei/ -> /tʃu:zdeɪ/

Question 22

What is elision?

Answer 22

Under certain circumstances, sounds disappear, the sound is said to have zero realisation
e.g. 1) loss of weak vowels after /p t k/ potato = /p’teɪtəʊ/
2) alveolar consonants tend to disappear where it’s the same voicing as the preceding consonant
= scripts /skrɪpts/ -> /skrɪps/

Question 23

What is linking/ sandhi /r/?

Answer 23

Words that historically finish in /r/ (as evidenced by [r] in the spelling), may be pronounced with [r] when closely followed by a morpheme beginning with a vowel sound (e.g. tuner amp). This is the case even though ‘tuner’ would not normally be pronounced with an [r]

Question 24

What is intrusive [r]?

Answer 24

Where words like ‘saw’ or ‘idea’ come before a vowel and [r] sound is inserted, even though [r] was never historically a part of the word

Question 25

What is the definition of juncture?

Answer 25

The relationship between one sound and the surrounding sounds

Question 26

What is close juncture?

Answer 26

Movement from sound to sound with no pauses or delay

e.g. train, blame, bright

Question 27

What is open juncture?

Answer 27

Movement between sounds which is not continuous
e.g. new deal -> nude eel
night rate -> nitrate