JOINED UP SPEECH

Joined up speech

last class we were learning about connected speech and i will start with this clear and funny example the teacher give us:

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Definition:

Linking is a way of joining the pronunciation of two words so that they are easy to say and flow together smoothly.

What is joined up speech?

It is something that happen when speaking, something that we do naturally. we do not pronounce a word, we normally do not make gaps between word when speaking we joined the words made the sound as an only word. This happen generally when we pronounce the end and beginning of some words that can change depending on the sounds at the beginning and end of those words.

This is a very important topic , for us as English students, it can give us an idea about how to speak more fluent, and also when speaking with native speakers it would be easier to understand what they are saying, because this is something that happen unconsciously, something that native speaker naturally do when they speak . So it could be good for us to take into account this topic.

first of all we need to know that there are some aspects that characterise the joined up speech:

rhythm
weak forms ( reductions)
assimilation
elision ( contractions)
linking

There are different ways in English this can happen:

• Consonant to vowel linking: this happen when the first word ends with a consonant sound and the second word begins with a vowel sound.

Example:
an aple a fresh aple a salad of aple

• Vowel to vowel linking: this happen when certain vowels come next to each other an extra sound is added to make the link smooth.

Example:
two elephans three elephnas

• Sounds disappear: When the sounds /t/ or /d/ occurs between two consonant sounds, they will often disappear completely from the pronunciation.

Examples:
I´ve failed
I need this book
I'm leaving next week

• Sounds join together: When a word ends in a consonant sound and the following word begins with the same consonant sound, we don't pronounce two sounds - both sounds are pronounced together as one.

Example:
She’s swimming
Show me what to do
She’s swimming

• Sounds change: When a word ends in a consonant sound and the following word begins with a consonant sound, depending on the particular sounds, the last sound of the first word or both the last sound and the first sound of the next word can change.

Example:
Would you like some milk?
Do you want a new car?


i found three radio programs that explain this topic very well, why it is very important, and when it is used in speaking. i hope this can help for all of us:
MP3 1
MP3 2
MP3 3

Bibliography:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/features/connected.shtml

Wha is a consonnat cluster?

In the previous class we saw whath consonant clusters are, as well as its possible combinations and reductions, too.

In my opinion the class was very clear, but as we can see consonant clusters cause problems for us whose firts language (Spanish) does not allow so many consonants together without intervening vowel sounds.

Here you are a little bbit more information about that:

What is a consonant cluster?

Definition
	A consonant cluster is a group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between them.

Examples
	Here are some examples of consonant clusters:
	\sp\ and \ts\ in the word spots \spr\ in the word spray

Discussion
	It is important to distinguish between consonant clusters and digraphs with which they are often confused. In contrast to a consonant cluster, a digraph is a group of two or more symbols which really stand for just one sound (usually a consonant). For example, in the word ship, the two letters "s" and "h" together represent the single consonant [ʃ]. Also note a combination digraph and cluster as seen in "lightning" with three terms: and ; or "length:	.
	In the word chat, the letters c and h appear contiguously but are not a consonant cluster, even though both are separate consonants in other contexts (cat; hat). In this instance, ch is a digraph because the ch sequence represents a single sound in the underlying English sound system. Consonant clusters or blends, are the names given to two or three consonants that appear together in a word. Each consonant retains its sound when blended. The term cluster refers to the written form and the term blend refers to the spoken form.

Consonant blends that appear at the beginning of a word, are referred to as InitialConsonant Blends or beginning blends, and those that appear at the end of a word are referred toas Final Consonant Blends or end blends.

Consonant clusters consist of four major categories:

· r-clusters

· s-clusters

· l-clusters

· 3 letter clusters

You can teach beginning consonant clusters as soon as children have learnt the single consonant sound-spellings.

r-blends: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr,

s-blends: sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw,

l-blends: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl.

3 letter blends: str, spr thr, chr, phr, shr. The consonant clusters thr, chr, phr, shr, are made up of a consonant digraph and a consonant.

Ending blends: ct, ft, ld, lp, lt, mp, nd, nk, nt, pt, rd, rk, sk, sp, st (teach these last)

Consonant Digraphs: consist of two consonants that when blended make one sound: sh, ch, th, wh, ph, gh, ng

Exceptions: The consonant blend sc can stand for the /sk/ sound as in scare or the /c/ can be silent as in science. Also, the consonant cluster ck represents one sound - /k/.

English consonant cluster reductions

S-cluster reduction is the dropping of /s/ from the initial consonant clusters with voiceless plosives (environments /sp/, /st/, and /sk(ʷ)/) occurring in Caribbean English. After the initial /s/ is removed, the plosive is aspirated in the new word-initial environment, resulting in pronunciations such as:

spit	→ 'pit	([ˈspɪt]	→ [ˈpʰɪt])
stomach	→ 'tomach	([ˈstɐmək]	→ [ˈtʰɐmək])
spend	→ 'pen	([ˈspɛnd]	→ [ˈpʰɛn]) (also affected by final consonant cluster reduction)
squeeze	→ 'queeze	([ˈskwiːz]	→ [ˈkʰwiz])

Final consonant cluster reduction is the nonstandard reduction of final consonant clusters in English occuring in African American Vernacular English and Caribbean English.

Examples are:

test	→ tes'	([tʰɛst]	→ [tʰɛs])
desk	→ des'	([ˈdɛsk]	→ [ˈdɛs])
hand	→ han'	([ˈhænd]	→ [ˈhæn])
send	→ sen'	([ˈsɛnd]	→ [ˈsɛn])
left	→ lef'	([ˈlɛft]	→ [ˈlɛf])
wasp	→ was'	([ˈwɑːsp]	→ [ˈwɑːs])

The plural of test and desk become tesses and desses by the same English rule that gives us plural messes from singular mess.

English consonant cluster reductions - Plum-plumb merger

The plum-plumb merger is the reduction of the final cluster /mb/ to /m/ that occurs in all dialects of present English. In early Middle English, words spelt with mb like plumb, lamb etc. had the cluster /mb/.

Consonant clusters in English

In English, the longest possible initial cluster is three terms, as in split /ˈsplɪt/; the longest possible final cluster is four terms, as in twelfths /ˈtwɛlfθs/, bursts /ˈbɜrsts/ and glimpsed /ˈɡlɪmpst/.

I hope this information could be useful for you, however here are the links I used to the previous information.

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/

www.teachingenglish.org.uk/

www.firstschoolyears.com/

www.atozphonics.com/

HOW TO PRONOUNCE COMPOUND WORDS.

A word will always have only one stress, if we hear two stresses then there are two words. The stress will always be in the vowel, never in a consonant.

COMPOUND WORDS.

A compound word is formed from two simple words in English. To pronounce them correctly is important, otherwise we could give the wrong message or even have a negative result.


*If you want to form and know what other compound words there are go in here




The stress can vary depending on which part of speech the word is:

• COMPOUND NOUNS: This nouns can be formed by noun+noun or adjective+noun. In nouns the first part of the word gets the stress,for example:

noun+noun:
bedroom /ˈbədruːm/
teapot /ˈtiːpɒt/

adjective+noun:
blackbird /ˈblækbɜːd/

·If it is an adjective+noun word the adjective is the stressed one:
greenhouse /ˈgriːnhɑʊs/
blackboard /ˈblækbɔːd/

·When it is a compound phrase of adjective+noun we will stress the noun:
green house /griːn/ /ˈhɑʊs/
black board /blæk/ /ˈbɔːd/

·If the word has three syllables then the stress will be in the first or second syllable, never in the third:
grandmother /ˈgrændˌmʌðəʳ/
newspaper /ˈnjuːspeɪpəɾ/

• COMPOUND ADJECTIVES:in the adjectives formed by two words the stress is in the second adjective ,such as: bad-tempered /bæd/ /ˈtempəʳ/
  

oldfashioned /ˌəʊldˈfæʃ.ənd/

• COMPOUND VERBS: they are not the same as phrasal verbs. This type of verbs have the stress in the second part of the word, an example of this are verbs:

to understand /ˌʌndəˈstænd/
to overFLOW /ˌəʊvəˈfləʊ/

• PHRASAL VERBS

This kind of verbs are usually formed by a verb and a preposition.
In this case the stress is on the preposition. The correct pronunciation of phrasal verbs is important because sometimes there are compound nouns which are alike them, for example:

-takeover /ˈteɪkˌəʊvəʳ/.-when a company gets control of another company.

-take over /teɪk/ /ˈəʊvəʳ/.- to become more successful or powerful than something or someone else that is involved in the same type of activity

·When the compound verb is with three words, the stress goes in the second word:
get OUT of
keep UP with

As you can see in the transcription the stress is marked according to the rule, if it is a noun, an adjective, a compound verb or a phrasal verb, etc.


*If you want to test your knowledge about where the stress goes in compound words click here

*If you want to practice your listening on compound words and distiguishing them from phrasal verbs,go to this link






references:

• http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress-rules.htm

• http://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/suprasegmentals/index.html#compound

• http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/pronunciation-phonetics/60046-stress-compounds.html

NOUNS AND VERBS STRESS

In the last class we practiced about the noun's and verb's stress, so I found some information to add to the topic, which is more practical than theorical, so I think there is not much to explain, and what I recomend is to practice the stress of the words depending on the context.

What does stress is?

Stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables, the word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.

The inicial stress derive noun is a phonological process in English, wherein verbs become nouns or adjetives when the stress is moved to the first syllable from a later one usually, but not always, the second.

The following examples will help us:

CONFLICT:
As a verb, “I hope that won't conFLICT in any way”
As a noun, “there will be no CONflict”

RECORD:
As a verb, “remember to reCORD the show”
As a noun, “I'll keep a RECord of that request”

PERMIT:
As a verb. “I won't perMIT that”
As a nun, “we already got a PERmit”

So with this examples we can realize that nouns stress on 1st syllable and verbs stress on 2nd syllable, so simple.

in the case of the word PROTEST, as a noun it has the stress on the first syllable but as a verb it's meaning depends on stress: with the stress on the second syllable it means to raise a protest; on the first it means to participate in a protest, and there are many verbs like this.

So what we all have and need to do is practice and practice the stress of the different words for being able to have a good pronunciation.

I found a good link that I spect will help you all.

http://neohumanism.org/i/in/initial_stress_derived_noun.html

Stress in Verbs and Nouns


Last Monday’s class we saw the sound stress in verbs and nouns. And we learned how to make differences in pronouncing verbs and nouns that are Homographs, which means that, are spelled the same, but pronounced differently.
There are differences between verbs and nouns in English, you know that a verb is a word action which describes and a noun names something, well sometimes we have the same spelling of words that come from Latin originally such as subject / səb-jěkt'/ that is a noun, is what you take in school, and subject, / səb-jěkt'/ for instance, if I said “I subject you to punishment” the accent is in the second syllable because is a verb and the same thing happens with other verbs as:

Noun Verb
conflict /ˈkɑn ˌflɪkt/ conflict /kən ˈflɪkt/
rebel /ˈrɛ bəl/ rebel /rə ˈbɛl/
permit /ˈpɚ ˌmɪt/ permit /pɚ ˈmɪt/
record /ˈrɛ kɚd/ record /rə ˈkɔrd/


During the class we saw many examples with the purpose of identifing how to pronounce a verb and how to pronounce a noun.

We conclude the following:

• Nouns are stress on the 1st syllable
  Example: discount /dĭs'kount'/
• Verbs are stress on the 2nd syllable
  Example: discount / dis-kount'/
• Verbs with –er ending are stress in the first syllable
  Example: cover /kuvər/
• Of course there are some exceptions like: answer / ān'sər/, reply/ rĭ-plī'/, remove/ (rĭ-mov'/, etc.
  
  
  
  Exercise for pronunciation (practice)…
  
  http://www.angelfire.com/wi3/englishcorner/pronunciation/nv01.html
  
  More examples…
  http://yoursecondlanguage.com/resources/english.nouns.verbs.accented.shtml
  
  Rules in pronunciation…
  
  http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress-rules.htm