8 Lesson n°8
8.1 Energy assimilations
… In English, EA:
- is frequent in unstressed contexts: “it was spectacular”, “of course”, “if she chooses to wait”, “the waiter’s forgotten us”…
8.1.1 Correction of the homework
| Word | Stress Pattern | IPA (RP) | Received Pronunciation | General American |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| it was spectacular | // | /ɪt wɒz spek.’tæk.jʊl.ə/ | itwasspectacular |
|
| of course | // | /ɒv kɔːs/ | ofcourse |
|
| if she chooses to wait | // | /ɪf ʃiː ’tʃuːz.ɪz tuː weɪt/ | ifshechoosestowait |
|
| the waiter’s forgotten us | // | /ðiː NA fə.’gɒt.ən ʌs/ | thewaiter’sforgottenus |
|
| Helen could have talked to him | // | /’hel.ən kʊd hæv NA tuː hɪm/ | Helencouldhavetalkedtohim |
|
| as she sometimes did | // | /æz ʃiː ’sʌm.taɪmz dɪd/ | asshesometimesdid |
|
only goes from lenis to fortis, never the other way round (“back door” or “not bad”)
is rare in stressed syllables, cf:
- “have to”, “used to”, where EA has now become compulsory.
word-internal EAs with free variations: “absurd”, “obsession”, “absorb”…
| Word | Stress Pattern | IPA (RP) | Received Pronunciation | General American |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| absorb | /01/ | /əb.’sɔːb/ | /əb.’sɔːb/ | |
| obsession | /010/ | /əb.’seʃ.ən/ | /əb.’seʃ.ən/ | |
| absurd | /01/ | /əb.’sɜːd/ | /əb.’s3r ːd/ |
Energy assimilation is also the process which explains the pronunciation of certain infamous morphosyntactic suffixes…
8.1.1.1 Morphosyntactic suffixes
8.1.1.1.1 <-(e)d>
Explain the pronunciations of:
- “tagged”, “tacked”, “buzzed”, “cursed”, “played”, “chafed”, “loved”.
| Word | Stress Pattern | IPA (RP) | Received Pronunciation | General American |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tagged | /1/ | /tægd/ | /tægd/ |
|
| tacked | /1/ | /tækt/ | /tækt/ |
|
| buzzed | /1/ | /bʌzd/ | /bʌzd/ |
|
| cursed | /1/ | /kɜːst/ | /kɜ˞ːst/ | |
| played | /2/ | /ˌpleɪd/ | /pleɪd/ |
|
| chafed | /1/ | /tʃeɪft/ | /tʃeɪft/ |
|
| loved | /1/ | /lʌvd/ | /lʌvd/ |
|
Can the suffix be pronounced differently? How and where?
8.1.1.1.2 <-(e)s>
Explain the pronunciations of:
- “shoves”, “freckles”, “books”, “shrimps”, “bags”, “stubs”, “whiffs”
| Word | Stress Pattern | IPA (RP) | Received Pronunciation | General American |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| shoves | /1/ | /ʃʌvz/ | /ʃʌvz/ |
|
| freckles | /10/ | /’frek.əlz/ | /’frek.əlz/ |
|
| books | /1/ | /bʊks/ | /bʊks/ |
|
| shrimps | /1/ | /ʃrɪmps/ | shrimps |
|
| bags | /1/ | /bægz/ | /bægz/ |
|
| stubs | /1/ | /stʌbz/ | /stʌbz/ | |
| whiffs | /1/ | /wɪfs/ | whiffs |
|
Can the suffix be pronounced differently? How and where?
8.1.2 Elision
Sometimes in connected speech, phonemes are elided, i.e. deleted, to make articulation easier.
Examples: “tasteless”, “mind-bogling”
Historically, elision is a very common phenomenon:
- “cupboard”, “talk”, “comb”, “gnome”, “whistle”…
| Word | Stress Pattern | IPA (RP) | Received Pronunciation | General American |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cupboard | /10/ | /’kʌb.əd/ | /’kʌb.əd/ | |
| talk | /1/ | /tɔːk/ | /tɔːk/ | |
| comb | /1/ | /kəʊm/ | /koʊm/ | |
| gnome | /1/ | /nəʊm/ | /noʊmz/ | |
| whistle | /10/ | /’wɪs.əl/ | /’wɪs.əl/ |
8.1.3 Liaison
The converse of elision is liaison.
Regardless of the rhoticity of a given accent of English, a linking /r/ is often added as a link across word boundaries (also called sandhi r).
“sooner” vs. “sooner or later”
“sure” vs. “sure enough”
“the sofa in the catalogue”
“my idea of heaven”
“we saw a film”
“via Australia”
| Word | Stress Pattern | IPA (RP) | Received Pronunciation | General American |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sure enough | // | /ʃɔː ə.’nʌf/ | sureenough |
|
| the sofa in the catalogue | // | /ðiː ’səʊf.ə ɪn ðiː ’kæt.ə.lɒg/ | thesofainthecatalogue |
|
| my idea of heaven | // | /maɪ aɪ.’dɪə ɒv ’hev.ən/ | myideaofheaven |
|
| we saw a film | // | /wiː sɔː eɪ fɪlm/ | wesawafilm |
|
| via Australia | // | /’vaɪ.ə ɒ.’streɪl.i.ə/ | viaAustralia |
|
(All this chapter was inspired by Collins and Mees (2013))