Weakening/Reduction

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 722.

Adjustments on the syllable level

Compression.Sometimes a sequence of sounds in English has two possible pronunciations: either as two separate syllables, or compressed into a single syllable, e.g. the word lenient [‘li:nIənt] two pronunciations are possible: a slower one [‘li:nIənt], and a faster one [‘li:njənt] [Wells 1995:152].

Diagram [‘daiəgræm] – two pronunciations are possible: a slower one [‘daiəgræm], and a faster one [‘daəgræm].

NOTE: These compressions are commonly used in RP but not in GenAm.

In some circumstances a strong vowel becomes weak:

• in related words:anatomic [ֽ ænæ'tɔmik] – anatomy [ə'nætəmi];

• in affixes:president ['prezidənt] – preside [pri'zaid];

• variant pronunciations:Monday ['m٨ndei] – ['m٨ndi];

• in function words:from [frɔm] – [frəm].

Weakform wordsare alternate forms of words so reduced in their articulation that they consist of a different set of phonemes. The essential importance of weakforms lies in the fact that their use, which is universal for all forms of mother tongue English worldwide, makes a very large contribution to the characteristic rhythm of English. Failure to use them, which is so common among EFL speakers, can result in bizzarely abnormal effects even if every single other feature is completely idiomatic. Such for example would be the speaking with no use of weakforms in all of the following sentences:

The speaker asked for [fə] questions. VS. The speaker asked four[fɔ:] questions.

He is going to [tu:] fast instead of [tə] VS. He is going too [tu:] fast.

Most often the weakform differs from the strongformby containing a weak vowel resultant from reduction or by elision of one or more of its phonemes.