Week 6 Flashcards
Elision of /t/ and /d/
You will see that /t/ and /d/ are elided in phrases such as;
• the next day
• since last week
But when the next word starts with a vowel, there is no elision;
• the next afternoon
• since last April
Rule /t/ and /d/ elision
They must be in the coda of a syllable, and be preceded by another consonant with the same voicing. Also, the following word must start with any consonant except /h/.
Internal consonant cases of elision
When a person speaks in connected speech, some of the consonants are often elided.
asked /as(k)t/
fifths /fif(θ)s/
clothes /kləʊ(ð)z/
Vowel elision
Because of connected speech, vowels in some words may be elided.
/kæmrə/ or /kæmərə/
/fæmli:/ or fæməli:/
Compression
Form of elision where two syllables are compressed together, likely due to connected speech.
Some people would say /kæmərə/ contains three syllables, whereas others say it has two. In this case, there is compression: /kæmrə/.
Heterorganic
A consonant sound that is articulated in the same place of articulation as another. For example, [p], [b] and [m] are homorganic consonants of one another since they share the bilabial place of articulation.
Free allophonic variation (FAV)
Alternative allophones of a phoneme are possible in a situation.
E.g. before a pause, /p/ might be pronounced as either [p-|] or [p’].
Pitch range
The difference between the highest and the lowest pitch.
• Often wider for women.
• Women’s voices may be more breathy, more air escapes.
How to judge a person’s sex/gender and age
Pitch of their voice
Difference men and women vocal folds
Men tend to have larger vocal folds, which produce slower vibrations, sounding lower in pitch.
Voice quality
The way in which the vocal folds vibrate, to produce a breathy or creaky voice.
Why do young children have high-pitched voices?
Because of the relatively small size of the larynx and vocal folds.
Systemic variation
One variety has more or fewer phonemes than the other.
• Northern accents lack /^/ and use /ʊ/ where SSBE would use /^/.
Lexical variation
Where the sounds used for words varies between accents.
• Northern accents use the same vowel in ‘dance’ and ‘bath’ as they do in ‘trap’.
Distributional variation
Two varieties have the same phonemes in the system, but use them in different environments.
• Rhoticity
