CONNECTES SPEECH

WEAK FORMS

When we talk about weak forms in the phonetics of English this regards a series of words which have one pronunciation (strong) when isolated, and another (weak) when not stressed within a phrase, e.g.     

                        

a car -   /ˈeɪ ˈkɑ:/         

Ibought a car -  /aɪ ˈbɔ:t ə ˈkɑ:/

Weak forms are usually distinguished by a change in vowel quality from a border position on the vowel quadrilateral to a central position. The vowel in a weak form is usually the schwa (ə). Weak forms are pronounced more quickly and at lower volume in comparison to the stressed syllables. They are also not central to changes in intonation.

ASSIMILATION OF PLACE OF ARTICULATION

The most common form involves the movement of place of articulation of the alveolar stops /t/, /d/ and /n/ to a position closer to that of the following sound. For instance, in the phrase ten cars, the /n/ will usually be articulated in a velar position, /ˈteŋ ˈkɑ:z/ so that the organs of speech are ready to produce the following velar sound /k/. Similarly, in ten boys the /n/ will be produced in a bilabial position, /ˈtem ˈbɔɪz/ to prepare for the articulation of the bilabial /b/.

This phenomenon is easy to find also in Italian: think of the different pronunciations of the ‘n’ in Gian Paolo, Gian Franco and Gian Carlo.

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BEFORE A VELAR (/k/, /g/)
Phoneme	Realised as	Example
/n/	/ŋ/	bank /bæŋk/
/d/	/g/	good girl /gʊg ˈgɜ:l/
/t/	/k/	that kid /ðæk ˈkɪd/

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BEFORE A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/)
Phoneme	Realised as	Example
/n/	/m/	ten men /tem 'men/
/d/	/b/	bad boys /bæb ˈbɔɪz/
/t/	/p/	hot mushrooms /ˈhɒp ˈmʌʃru:mz/