Transcript Advanced Spoken English

Advanced Spoken
English
Phonology Session
Linking & Elision
1
Speaking Portfolio: reminder
My feedback on task two is ready for you
on Moodle.
 Don’t forget to respond to my feedback,
especially if I ask you to re-record a few
sentences.
 We will do Task 3 this week.

Outcomes
 Understand
the concept and
significance of linking and elision
 Identify and practise different kinds
of linking
 Identify and practise elision
 Start work on next Speaking Task
3
Speech Unit
 We
don’t talk in ‘words’
 We talk in ‘pause groups’
 Also called ‘phrasal units’
 Or ‘speech units’
 Can be one word, (‘oh’) can be 3
words ‘How are you?’, can be many
words. ‘So I was talking with my
mum the other day…’
4
What happens inside
speech units / pause groups?
A speech unit is pronounced as if it
were
ONE BIG WORD
How do we achieve this?
 Intonation over the unit
 Linking : C-V, V-V, C-C
 Elision of consonants
5
Why use Linking?
Linking helps make the rhythm of speech
smooth and flowing
 When we link correctly we are better
understood – we indicate which words
belong together
 When we don’t link we may suggest that
we are upset or angry
(English speakers can express this by saying
each word separately, slowly & distinctly)

6
C-V Linking – How would you
pronounce these words?
Came in
 Dish out
 Laugh about
 Grab it
 March in
 Carves up
 Not at all
 An old dog

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C-V Linking
 When
does it happen? ___C V___
 What happens?
We ‘move’ the final consonant over to
the beginning of the next word.

-
-
For example:
An old dog
March in
=
=
“a nold dog”
“mar chin”
8
C-V Linking – Now try to
pronounce these words
Came in
 Dish out
 Laugh about
 Grab it
 March in
 Carves up
 Not at all
 An old dog

9
V-V Linking – Say these words.
 How
often
 We ought
 For better or for worse
 They are here
 Far away
 You and me
10
V-V Linking
When does it happen?
___V V___
 What happens?
- When the first word finishes with round
lips, we add /w/
- When the first word finishes with spread
lips, we add /j/
- When the first word has an unpronounced
‘r’, we pronounce the /r/
- Otherwise we can add an /r/
(Do NOT use a glottal stop between words)

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V-V Linking – Now say these
words.
 How
often
 We ought
 For better or for worse
 They are here
 Far away
 You and me
12
C-C Linking – Say these
phrases
Good boy
 Hit man
 In bed
 This shop
 Good girl
 Tin man
 Have to go
 Did you?
 Don’t you know?

(Adrian Underhill, Sound Foundations (1998), MacMillan: Oxford, p.60)
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C-C Linking (= assimilation)
 When
does it happen? ___C C___
 What happens?
Your mouth gets ready to say the
sound across the word boundary:
- The sound at the end of the first
word may change its place of
articulation to that of the next sound
- Or it may change its voicing
- The sounds may fuse into a new one
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C-C Linking – Now say these
phrases
Good boy
 Hit man
 In bed
 This shop
 Good girl
 Tin man
 Have to go
 Did you?
 Don’t you know?

(Adrian Underhill, Sound Foundations (1998), MacMillan: Oxford, p.60)
15
Elision of consonants – Try!
•
•
•
•
•
A dustbin was thrown through the
window.
We distinguish between dialects and
accents.
…well and then they said…
I’ve always wanted to tell you that.
This must be her!
16
Elision of consonants
When does it happen?
CCC
What happens?
We delete the middle consonant
(not the first or last!)
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Elision of consonants – Now try
•
•
•
•
•
A dustbin was thrown through the
window.
We distinguish between dialects and
accents.
…well and then they said…
I’ve always wanted to tell you that.
This must be her!
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We don’t link  Where
there is a pause – ie between
Pause Groups!
- Linking works inside Pause Groups,
pauses separate phrases.
 Before a word we want to emphasize
– we focus on a word by stressing it
and making it stand out from the
other words.
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Practice
 Use
the ‘Linking Worksheet’ handout.
 See if you can work out what the
words are from the pronunciation
 Which rules of linking/ assimilation/
elision have been used?
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Now it’s your time
•
You may like to read through the ‘tutorial’
notes in Connected Speech. Start with
Level 1, then level 2, then level 3.
• Practice linking using Connected Speech
(see handout to record your
notes/progress).
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Speaking Task 3
•
•
•
•
•
Practise saying the poem from VaughanRees (2010), p. 13.
Practise with the sound recording, if it
helps.
Make sure you pronounce all of the links.
Record yourself saying this text, and post
as your next speaking task.
Remember to answer the reflection
questions.
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