 Which of the following would qualify

for ambisyllabicity?
 Circle the word(s), state your
rationale, and give the tree
diagram(s).
action, many, liquid, penalty

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 1

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 2
PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
1. Rhythm
2. Assimilation
3. Elision
4. Linking

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 3

PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
1. Rhythm
 noticeable event happening at regular
intervals of time
 the relatively equal beat between
stressed syllables
 English has stress-timed rhythm
 stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively
regular intervals of time whether they are separated
by unstressed syllables or not
e.g.:
Walk down the path to the end of the canal

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 4

 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
1. Rhythm
 The stress-timed rhythm theory
The times from each stressed syllable to the next
will tend to be the same, irrespective of the number of
intervening unstressed syllables.
 Unit of rhythm, the foot,
 begins with a stressed syllable
and
 includes all following unstressed syllables up to (but
not including) the following stressed syllable.

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 5

 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
1. Rhythm
 Stress group
 A stressed syllable, together with any
unstressed syllables which may follow it
form a stress group.
 The fundamental rule of English rhythm is
that each stress group within a word group
is given the same amount of time
e.g.:
When did you hear the story about John and
the girl upstairs?
12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 6
PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
1. Rhythm
 Diagram of rhythmical structure of a
syllable

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 7

 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
1. Rhythm
 Rhythm unit (Foot)
 A unit with a stressed syllable as its centre
and any unstressed syllables which may
come before and after it is
 The rules:
1.Any unstressed syllable at the beginning of a
word group must go together with the following
stress group
2.If the unstressed syllable is part of the same
word as the stressed syllable, they belong to the
same foot.
12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 8
 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
1. Rhythm
 Rhythm unit (Foot)
 A unit with a stressed syllable as its centre
and any unstressed syllables which may come
before and after it is
 The rules:
3. If the unstressed syllable is closely connected
grammatically to othe stressed word, although not
a part of that word, they belong to the same rhythm
unit.
4. Whenever you are in doubt as to which rhythm unit
unstressed syllables belong to, put them after a
stressed syllable, rather than before it

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 9

PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
2. Assimilation
 the process which takes place when
one sound adapts itself to become
similar to a neighbouring sound in one
or more aspects
OR
 the influence of one phoneme upon
another neighbouring phoneme, so
that they become more alike

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 10

PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
2. Assimilation
 occur
 across word boundaries
or
 between words,
or
 across morpheme boundaries
or
 Within a morpheme or a word

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 11

PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
2. Assimilation
 Example:
Good morning

Good boy

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 12

PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
2. Assimilation
 Assimilating structure:

 Types of assimilation
1. Regressive
2. Progressive

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 13

 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
2. Assimilation
 Types of assimilation
1. Regressive:
When the following sound assimilates the
preceding sound and the direction of
assimilation is backward
e.g.: illegal, impossible, irregular
2. Progressive
When the preceding sound assimilates the
following sound and the direction of assimilation
is forward
e.g.: plural form –s can be pronounced /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/
12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 14
 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
2. Assimilation
 Degrees of assimilation
1. Complete
When the articulation of the assimilated
consonant fully coincides with that of the
assimilating one.
2. Partial
When the assimilated consonant retains
its main phonemic features and becomes
only partly similar in some features of
articulation to the assimilating sound
3. Intermediate
 when the assimilated consonant
changes into a different sound, but
does not coincide with the assimilating
consonant
12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 15
PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
2. Assimilation
 Rules of assimilation
 Place of articulation
 Manner of articulation
 Voicing

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 16

 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
2. Assimilation
 Rules of assimilation
 Place of articulation
 Manner of articulation
 Voicing

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 17

PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
3. Accommodation
 Definition:
 The modification in the articulation of a vowel
under the influence of an adjacent
consonant, or, vice versa, the modification in
the articulation of a consonant under the
influence of an adjacent vowel
 the accommodated sound does not change its
main phonemic features and is pronounced as
a variant of the same phoneme slightly
modified under the influence of a
neighbouring sound

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 18

 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
3. Accommodation
 Types:
 An unrounded variant of a consonant phoneme
is replaced by its rounded variant under the
influence of a following rounded vowel
phoneme, as the beginning of the following
words
 A fully back variant of a back vowel phoneme is
replaced by its slightly advanced (fronted)
variant under the influence of the phoneme /j/
 bell, tell more open than bed, ten because of /l/
after /e/
12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 19
 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
4. Elision
 The nature of elision may be stated quite
simply: under certain circumstances
sounds disappear.
or
 In certain circumstances a phoneme may
be realised as zero, or have zero
realisation or be deleted
typical of rapid, casual speech
12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 20
 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
4. Elision
 Example:
1. Loss of weak vowel after p, t, k.
2. Weak vowel + n, l, r becomes syllabic
consonant.
3. Avoidance of complex consonant clusters
4. Loss of final v in 'of' before consonants
5. Contractions of grammatical words

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 21

 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
5. Linking
 In real connected speech words are
linked together in a number of ways.
 Linking r
 the phoneme r does not occur in syllable-
final position in the BBC accent,
but
 when the spelling of a word suggests a final
r, and a word beginning with a vowel
follows, the usual pronunciation is to
pronounce with r
12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 22
 PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH
5. Linking
 Example:
 Many RP speakers use /r/ in a similar
way to link words ending with a vowel
even when there is no “justification”
from the spelling, which is called
intrusive /r/ as in:
 Sometimes we should be careful when
we link words together

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 23

PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 24

PHONOLOGY:
ASPECTS OF CONNECTED SPEECH

12/28/2018 Phonetics&Phonology (2018-19) 25