Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the
sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the
following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start
to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been
completed. Assimilation means that sounds belonging to one word can cause
changes in sounds belonging to neighbouring words. This happens mostly in
casual rapid speech and less likely in slow careful speech.
Assimilation of place can be seen when a final consonant with
alveolar place of articulation is followed by an initial consonant with a place
of articulation that is not alveolar. regressive
meat pie = /mi:p pai/ light blue
= /laip blu"/
Assimilation of manner is much less noticeable and change is most
likely to be towards a consonant that is easier to pronounce.
good night = /gun nait/ get them /gettem/
Assimilation of voice occurs when lenis consonant has no voicing.
dog kennel /dok kenl/
This also happens in Czech when we
do not voice the final lenis. (Hlavní postavou je Hertog, který...)
In some cases, the assimilation is fixed, for example in progressive
assimilation with the suffixes -s, -z in 3rd person singular or plural form of
noun. The suffix is pronounced as /s/
if the preceding consonant is voiceless fortis
(cats, jumps) or as /z/ if the preceding consonant is voiced lenis (dogs, runs).
Assimilation in Czech
In Czech, the realization of
consonants is influenced by the surrounding. A phoneme can change radically
without any change in the meaning of the word.
Assimilation of voice (spodoba znělosti) is very common in Czech. There is no change in
ortography of the word, the principle of this is etymological. Voiced and voiceless consonants (obstruenty)
form couples
p and b
t and d
k and g
f and v
s and z
ts, in Czech c,
and dz
tʃ, in Czech č,
and dʒ
ʃ, in Czech š,
and ʒ, in Czech ž
ɟ voiced and palatal, in Czech ď, and c unvoiced and palatal, in Czech ť
x unvoiced and velar, in Czech ch,
and ɦ voiced and glothal, in Czech h
Merging of consonants appears when two similar consonants appear next to each other in two
morphemes, mainly because of prefixes and suffixes. On the other hand, germination, double pronounciation, appears when distinction is needed. In standard
Czech pronunciation, assimilation and blending two words together and omission
of consonants is considered inappropriate.
cenný is pronounced as [t͡sɛniː]
and not [t͡sɛnniː]
but nejjasnější is
pronounced as [nɛjjasɲɛjʃiː]
because of nejasnější [nɛjasɲɛjʃiː]
Connected speech
Connected speech is a continuous sequence of sounds forming conversations
in spoken language. The words that are modified by those rules will sound
differently in connected speech than in citation
form (canonical form or isolation form). Connected speech makes the
articulation less demanding for the speaker, resulting in economy of articulatory
effort so the study of connected speech analyses how words change when caught
up in the great rush of everyday conversation.
Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant or
a whole syllable) producing a result that is easier for the speaker to
pronounce. The elided form may become a standard alternative for the full form,
if used often enough. The opposite of elision is epenthesis, whereby sounds are
inserted into a word to ease pronunciation.
loss
of weak vowel after p t k g potato
/p_teitəu/ tonight /tnait/
avoidance
of complex consonant clusters fifth
/fif0/ -> /fi0/
loss
of final "v" in "of" before consonants waste
of money /weist ə mani/
Since English words in connected
speech are not pronounced separately but linked together, the problem that
remains is hiatus
= interruption between two vowels next to each other, and liaison /li'eizon/ means
eliminating this hiatus. This is achieved by:
the
pronunciation of a normally silent consonant at the end of a word immediately
before another word is commencing with a vowel
the
glottal stop
linking
R
intrusive
R
Linking is a relationship between one sound and the sounds that immediately
precedes or follows it.
The most common linking is by the
use of linking R.
The phoneme r does not occur in syllable-final position in the Received Pronunciation
but when a word's spelling suggests a final r and a word beginning with a vowel
follows, the usual pronunciation for RP speakers is to pronounce with r.
Americans pronounce R in every case.
car /ka:/ car is blue /ka:r iz
blu:/
R can be used in a similar way to
link words ending with a vowel even when there is no R in the spelling of the
words. This is called R intrusion and it is considered to be nonstandard
pronunciation used to make pronouncing easier.
comma /ˈkɒmə/ put a comma in /ˈpʊt
ə ˈkɒmər ɪn/
Yod coalescence - English has long had a tendency to convert
/tj/ into /tʃ/, /dj/ into /dʒ/. Jones pronounced "actual" as /ˈæktjuəl/,
now obsolete as we say /ˈæktʃl/. Words perpetual and to graduate have formal
extremely careful forms /pəˈpetjuəl, ˈgrædjueɪt/ but everyday forms are /pəˈpetʃuəl,
ˈgrædʒueɪt/. Yod continued to widen its scope, extending now to stressed
syllables. This makes Tuesday, conservatively /ˈtjuːz-/, begin /ˈtʃuːz-/. Tune
and duke become /tʃuːn, dʒuːk/.
T glottalling - In various environments the consonant /t/
tends to be pronounced as a glottal plosive [ʔ] rather than as the traditional
alveolar [t]. This is by now normal before a following consonant in words such
as in football [ˈfʊʔbɔːl], quite good [ˌkwaɪʔ ˈgʊd]. Later in the twentieth
century, environments for the glottal stop extended to word-final position even
when the next word does not begin with a vowel, as in quite easy [ˌkwaɪʔ
ˈiːzi], take it off [ˌteɪk ɪʔ ˈɒf].
Czech prosody
Stress in Czech is fixed on the first syllable of a voiced unit, which usually
is a word. There are a few exceptions. Prepositions form a unit with other
parts of speech and bear the stress of that part of speech. Also some words
(mi, ti, se, jsem) do not bear any stress and cannot stand in the beginning of
a sentence. Longer words have secondary stress. In Czech, there is no reduction
of voiceless syllables. The function of stress is not lexical, it serves to
distinguish the beginnings of words.
/ˈPraha/ but /ˈdo Prahy/
/ˈNapsal jsem ti ten ˈdopis/
/ˈnej.krás.ˌněj.ší./
Intonation does not have a lexical function in Czech, it
is not a tonic language. Tone and melody have no influence on the meaning of
words. The changes signalise units of speech, this modifies the meaning of this
speech.
On to neudělal. ↘ falling intonation is kadence
On to neudělal? ↗ rising intonation is antikadence
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