 Connected speech is a technical term used for words that combine to form complex constructions. The speed and rhythm of speech can cause some segments to adopt a weaker articulation, some to drop out, some to be inserted, and some to change their character altogether. The most notable feature of connected speech in English is that it is subdivided into tone units where only few words are stressed. This has a number of interesting consequences concerning the rhythmic organization of English and triggers the following processes. For example, assimilation, a process where phonemes might change. Illusion, a process where phonemes can be omitted altogether. And weakening, a process where the central vowels of certain words can be reduced. And finally, liaison, an effect of linking. Let us start with assimilation. Assimilation is defined as a process where adjacent phonemes influence each other so that they become more alike or they assimilate. For example, in terms of voicing or in terms of their place of articulation. Here are two examples. Let's start with the assimilation of voicing. Now here in the phrase black art, you might observe the following. For example, we will find that the final voiceless vela plosive of black becomes voiced under the influence of the subsequent vowel art. And the result will be black art. Or take the next example, the assimilation of the place of articulation. In the construction in case. The final alveolar nasal might become a vela nasal under the influence of the vela plosive of case. So in case becomes in case. On the basis of the direction of the phonemic influence, the following kinds of assimilation are normally defined. Let's start with regressive assimilation. Now regressive assimilation is always optional in present day English and often found in rapid conversation. It occurs when a word final consonant, mostly an alveolar consonant, here marked as P1 or phoneme 1. So when a word final consonant assimilates to the first consonant of the next word. So the influence is in this direction, in a regressive direction. So phoneme 2 influences phoneme 1. So that eventually they become identical in terms of that place of articulation. Here is an example. 10 coins will eventually become 10 coins. Because the vela plosive c influences the alveolar nasal in terms of its place of articulation. So the alveolar nasal will eventually become a vela nasal and obtain the vela place of articulation 2. Another example would be something like this, this shirt. So let's erase this here for reasons of visibility. This shirt, where again we have this regressive influence. The post-alveolar fricative influences the alveolar fricative. As a result, both obtain the same place of articulation and become both post-alveolar. The result would be this shirt. Now the opposite direction is referred to as progressive. So here we have progressive assimilation. Progressive assimilation is again optional and present-day English and often found in rapid conversation 2. It occurs in those contexts where a syllabic N mostly follows a bilabial or vela plosive. So this time the influence is the other way around. We have a phoneme that influences its successor in terms of its place of articulation. Here is an example. Ribbon becomes ribbon. And here you clearly see that the bilabial articulation at the end of rib influences the alveolar nasal that eventually becomes bilabial too. Another example is reckon. Again I have to erase that. Now here the final vela plosive influences the alveolar nasal, the syllabic N if you wish. And the result will not be reckon but reckon. The third type of assimilation is referred to as coalescent assimilation. And here the effect is that two adjacent phonemes unite and fuse or merge into a third one. Examples will be this year which comes out as this year where the final alveolar fricative and the palatal approximate merge and result in a post-alveolar fricative this year. This effect is mostly confined to British English. Another example which occurs in American English and in other varieties too, merges the two consonants T and Y that is an alveolar plosive and a palatal approximate and the result will be a post-alveolar africate as in got you. In present day English this process of coalescent assimilation has occurred in many words historically and the pronunciation with the fused consonant is usually obligatory nowadays. An example would be a word such as assure where no one would really say assure anymore. Let's look at Elysian next. Elysian is the phonological process in which a phoneme that is present in the citation form that is in isolation is deleted under the influence of the context. In most cases Elysian occurs flanking where the position of an elided phoneme is at the edge of a word in its citation form. Flanking Elysian primarily affects alveolar plosive consonants as in last time which becomes last time or old Ted which becomes old Ted and in both constructions the final plosive of the initial item is deleted or elided. Sometimes Elysian has to be combined with assimilation so in the example can't be the final alveolar plosive is first deleted and later the alveolar nasal regressively assimilates its place of articulation with its successor which is a bilabial plosive. So can't be will eventually be can't be. Now word internal Elysian affects both vowels and consonants. The Elysian of vowels is a result of the rhythmic structure of English. Examples are words such as frightening which becomes frightening and history which is pronounced as history. Consonantal word internal Elysian follows the central principle of our three adjacent consonant rule where the internal one is dropped so in windscreen the internal plosive is elided the result would be windscreen. Let's look at weakening next. One of the most characteristic features of English phonology is the weakening of the vowels. To the central vowel schwa in unstressed syllables. This affects about four dozen monosyllabic function words that is function words consisting of one syllable only which occur very frequently more than one word in five in conversational English. These words have a strong form in stressed position with a full vowel and a weak form in unstressed position with a weakened vowel or with a syllabic consonant. The importance of weak forms can easily be illustrated. Here are two sentences let's quickly look at them. In the first one we have five weak forms. We don't read the sentence as there were rather a lot of them rather we would pronounce it as there were rather a lot of them and then we have five weak forms. In the second example we even have a contrast between a word in a stressed and an unstressed position so in why was there nobody there to meet them we have four weak forms and one strong form because here we have a contrast between unstressed there why was there nobody there and a stressed there in the same sentence. So weakening is an effect of connected speech where monosyllabic function words may be unstressed and might even delete or at least reduce their central vowel. Let's finally look at liaison. Liaison is most generally defined as the smoothing out of syllable boundaries in speech by adding a phoneme that is not heard in isolation. Let us identify the linking phonemes on the basis of one sentence. Now here it is and this is what it looks like if we transcribe the sentence in standard slow and distinct speech. The aroma of tea greeted you as you entered our office. Now however if we apply normal or even rapid speech we will use some linking phonemes that bridge the gaps between the words. For example here we would insert a palatal approximate, the aroma. After aroma we could insert an R, the aroma of tea. And then in the second line we could enter a legovila approximate as you entered and finally we wouldn't simply say our office but normally we would add another R here so the result would be something like the aroma of tea greeted you as you entered our office. Thus we have three linking phonemes in present day English. Let's look at them in more detail. The first one is the palatal approximate as in examples such as the exercise. So this is where it occurs. And of course it has to follow certain restrictions. For example it can only occur in words that end, words or syllables that end in the long E or in the diphtongal offglide E as in my exercise. The second example is the, or the second phoneme rather is the legovila approximate and it could occur in constructions such as no apple, no apple. And here you see we have either the diphtongal offglide as in no apple or we could have contexts where syllables or words end in long U. In each case these additional phonemes bridge the gap between two vowels. The most well known phoneme in this respect is the alveolar approximate where we have examples like mother and father or even India and China. So this is where the alveolar approximate would be inserted. This phenomenon is the most well known one and in fact there are two variants of our liaison in present day English. The first one is referred to as linking or the linking R. It is a process where an orthographically present post-focalic R, so an R that we can find in the orthography of a word where such an R is pronounced. If we have a case like this even non-rotic varieties of English, for example British English tend to pronounce this final R as a linking R. So we would say something like mother and father or here and there. Since American English is highly rotic, linking is a standard feature of it anyway. The second phenomenon of this kind is referred to as intrusion or the intrusive R. Now this quite interestingly is confined to the non-rotic varieties of English. Here the phoneme R is inserted even though there is no R in spelling. However it is restricted to a number of vowels that have to occur at the end of the first word. So in the first word India we have a schwa, in law we have an O or bra would be the third type of vowel. So in other words we have a central vowel schwa or the two long vowels which are pronounced in the back of the mouth. So we get something like India and China or law and order. A phenomenon as I said that is confined to non-rotic varieties of English. Let's summarize. English speech is subdivided into intonation units and within each intonation unit only few words are stressed. This triggers the following processes assimilation that is phonemic change. Illusion the omission of phonemes weakening the reduction of the vowels in monosyllabic function words and liaison a process of linking. All these phenomena are consequences of the rhythmic organization of spoken English as a stress timed language.