2. Modification of consonants in connected speech.

It is an open secret that any language is not a set of separately functioning units, it performs its function in the form of closely connected units. These very units function together, constituting words and longer utterances.

So we have looked at the sounds in isolation and now we should be concerned with the functioning of consonants not only within a word but also in a block of a connected speech.

I do believe that I won’t open you a secret saying that all the sounds undergo certain changes in the flow of speech. These changes are rather regular and predictable. Modifications of consonants may be observed not only within a word but also at word boundaries.

From the course of practical phonetics you are certain to know about the intercourse between vowels and consonants and bout the results of this intercourse. The processes that the sounds undergo are termed – assimilation, accommodation, vowel reduction and elision (sometimes termed deletion)

Consonants in the connected speech may influence each other in such a way that the articulation of one consonant may become similar or may be adapted to the articulation of another. This process is called assimilation (уподобление).

During the process of assimilation he consonant that undergoes the changes is called the assimilated; the consonant that influences the sound is called the assimilating.

Assimilation may affect al the features of articulation of a consonant or only some of them. Thus we may speak about the assimilation:

• affecting the point of articulation (alveolar sounds are replaced by their dental variants.

• Affecting active organs of speech and point of articulation (when the sound [n] is replaced by [ŋ], or when bilabial variant of [m] is replaced by its labio-dental variant if followed by [f/v]

• Affecting the manor of a noise production ( when [t] and [v] occur before [m] they assimilate with the latter: gim mi, lem mi)

• Affecting the work of vocal cords (a voiceless consonant may be replaced by a voiced one, like in the word [gu:zberi] and vice versa like in the combination uju:st tu (used to)

• Affecting the lip position (when [k], [g], [t],[s] become a little rounded under the influence of w – [twais], [kwik], etc)

• Affecting the position of a soft palate (the sound [n] is replaced by [ŋ].

Assimilation maybe of three degrees: complete, partial and intermediate.

complete	Partial	intermediate
The articulation of the assimilated consonant coincides completely with the assimilating: 1. horse + shoe = horseshoe ho:s + ∫u = ho:∫∫u does + she = dΛ∫∫i dΛz ∫i:	Assimilated consonant retains its main phonemic features and becomes only partly similar in some feature of articulation with the assimilating: 1. alveolar sounds turn into dental before ∂,θ: don’t think, a little thicker this thought, that thing 2. voiced [w, l, r] become partly devoiced if they are preceded by [t or p] twais, pli:z, trai 3. sounds become a little rounded if they are followed by [w] twais, dweliŋ, sw٤ə, etc.	The assimilated sound changes completely but doesn’t coincide with the assimilating: 1. [s] is replaced by [z] under the influence of [b]: gu:z + beri = guzberi 2. [n] is replaced by [ŋ] if it si followed by [k]or [g] baŋk, koŋgres 3. in rapid colloquial speech [s], [z], [t] and [d] is replaced by [з] and [∫] if followed by [j]: how’s your father – hauз jo: fa:∂ə can’t you do it – ka:nt∫ə 'du: it

Assimilation may be of three directions: progressive, regressive and reciprocal or double.

In progressive assimilation the assimilated consonant is influence by the preceding consonant, which may be represented as A → B, where A is the assimilating sound and B is assimilated.

In regressive assimilation the preceding consonant is influenced by the one following it (A ← B)

In reciprocal or double assimilation two adjacent consonants influence each other (A↔B).

If the present-day pronunciation of a word is the result of the assimilation that took place at an earlier stage of the developing of a language then we deal with the historical assimilation. The examples to it are nowadays words, such as nature (from natjur), question (from kwestjon) and others.

In the compounds like horseshoe, gooseberry, combinations as does she and used to we observe a contextual assimilation. In the case of contextual assimilation a word has a pronunciation different from that which it has in isolation.

We were speaking about the influence of a consonant onto a consonant. But we can’t but mention the influence of a vowel into a consonant. This process is called accommodation.

Accommodation or adaptation is the process of mutual influence of vowel and consonants on each other.

In the process of accommodation the accommodated sound doesn’t change its main phonemic features but is pronounce as a variant of the same phoneme slightly modified under the influence of a neighboring sound.

In English there are three main type of accommodation.

1. an unrounded variant of a consonant is replaced by its rounded variant under the influence of a neighboring vowel sound. Compare: [ti:], [les], [nΛn] and [tu:], [lu:s], [nu:n]

2. a back vowel is replaced by its back-advanced variant under the influence of [j]. Compare: [bu:ti] and [bju:ti], [mu:n] and [mju:zik]

3. a vowel phoneme is replaced by its slightly more open variant if it is followed by a dark [l]. thus a vowel sound in the words bell and tell is more open than in the words bed and ten.

In rapid colloquial speech certain notional words may loose some of their sounds (vowels and consonants). The phenomenon is called elision. It may be observed both within word and word boundaries, e.g.

[məustli] and [məusli], [əunetiks] and [fnetiks], [o:l rait] and [o: rait], [nekst dei]

and [neks dei]