reductions in english speech
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
1. Reasons for choosing the themetopic:
English learners may have many troubles in listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. Most of them have been
discussed quite clearly in many courses, studies, and English
teachers’ lectures. However, from my own troubles, I see it is
possible that the systems of listening facilities still have a few
about reductions in spoken English. As a freshman, I feel
confused in front of dealing with a fast English tape or, of
course, English speakers as well. This topic is chosen for my
scientific research in the hope that it will, to some extents,
help others like me overcome this kind of challengeSo it is not
reasonable to pay less attention to the troubles, most of us
don’t know much, systematically than those we know well.
These are the reasons I choose this theme.
2. Aims Purposes of the study:
It is necessary to know as much about English as
possible. Therefore, I do this research with the aims of helping
the freshmen overcome the troubles in the first steps of
listening. In addition, English teachers may have more
facilities in their lectures.
3. Scope of the study:
As a small scientific research themetopic in English, the
study's themename is also the its scope of the study:
Reductions in English speech.
4. Methods of the study:
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The main methods in my study are choicematerial
collection, analysis, systematization, and classification. Firstly,
I have collected all materials from different sources such as
Internet, reference books, etc. Then, I have analyzed all the
collected materials with consulted much much help from my
supervisor and many other enthusiastic teachers in English
department without whom I cannot complete the research.
Literature Review
When speaking, English speakers use stress, intonation,
and aspects of connected speech, etc. One of the most
difficulties for those who learn English learners as a foreign
language is how to listen to English speech. Reductions are an
important part of informal English speech that requires
learners must know well many efforts to make a progress in
listening, and speaking.
Reduction is much in many ways related with to stress,
and intonation. If you stress words in English, English
speakers may misunderstand you because you may give too
much information. English speakers are used to hearing
stress on some words and not the others. You may sound
angry, impatient, or unfriendly. English speakers usually only
stress all words only when they are impatient or angry. When
you listen to English, you hear some words more clearly than
the others word. These clear words are usually information
key words and, they are stressed. The
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others are function words and , they are unstressed.
Therefore, stress makes helps us understand the speakers. To
make stress correctly, we must use reductions are needed
and will . Reductions make a contrast between grammatical
words and content words.
Reduction is a progress that speakers speak faster,
make sounds shorter, weaker and more unstressed more
clearly.
There are three kinds of reduction in English speech:
1) Qualitative reductions
2) Quantitative reductions
3) Zero reductions
Chapter 1: Qualitative reductions
The reductions of the length of a vowel without
changing its quality are called quantitative reduction.
In English speech, some pronouns have strong forms with /
: /, / : /, or / u: / sound may be a little reduced to / /, / /, or
/ u /.
Here is a chart of common cases:
Words Strong forms Weak forms
be / b: / / b /
been / b: n/ / b n/
he / h: / / h /
me / m: / / m /
she / : / / /
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the / ð: / / ð /
to / tu: / / tu /
we / w: / /w /
who / hu: / / hu /
you / ju: / / ju /
your / j :r / / jr /
Chapter 2: Quantitative reductions
"Many monosyllabic form words are subject to
quantitative variation according to whether they receive the
accent or not"(Gimson, 1980: 175)
In spoken English, “unstressed syllables sound softer,
are usually shorter, and are frequently reduced or centralized.
This means that the vowels tend to become / /, / /, / / and
the consonants are weaker” (Dauer, 2002: 93)
2.1. The schwa / /:
The vowels in most unstressed syllables tend to be pronounced the
same. The symbol for this sound is / / and English speakers often call it as
the weak vowel, the reduced vowel or the schwa. In English, the schwa is the
most common of all sounds.
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The schwa / / is a relaxed and easy sound: keep your voice going
when you pronounce the schwa / /.
Note: Any written English vowel can be pronounced with
the schwa / / (Zawadzki, 1996: 42).
E.g.: Woman / wmn /
Women / wmn /
Holiday / hlde /
Person / p: sn /
Success / s kses /
The schwa / / is pronounced unclearly so that it is very
difficult for English learners to hear without knowing it well.
2.2.1. The schwa / / with function words:
Speaking English with only strong forms sounds wrong.
The use of weak forms of English if you want your English to
sound English (OConnor, 1980: 92).
Here is a chart of grammatical words that are reduced
with the schwa / /:
Words Weak forms
with / /
Examples Phonemic
A / / I have a hat / h„v h„t /
Am / m / I am listening / m lsnŋ /
An / n / She has an
umbrella
/ i: h„z n m
brel /
And /n/+consonant O and I
Black and
white
/ wnd // bl„k n w/
Are //+ consonant Where are you / we j n/
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now?
They are awful
/ ðe jre :fl/
As / z / As good as
gold
/ z dz g ld
/
At / t / At last / t l: st /
But / bt / But why not? / bt w nt /
Can / kn / How can I
help?
/ h kn
help /
Could / kd / She could
come
/ i: kvd km /
Do
(aux)
/ d / What do they
do?
/ wt d ðe d
/
Does
(aux)
/ dz / What does he
do?
/ wt dz
d /
For /f /+consonant Tea for two
Thanks for
asking
/ ti: f tu: /
/ „ŋks fr :
skŋ /
From / frm / She is from
L.A.
/ i: z frm
ele /
Had
(aux)
/ hd / He had come
back
/ hi: hd km
b„k /
Has
(aux)
/ hz / She has done it / i: hz dn t /
Her / h / Her hands / h h„ndz /
Must / mst / I must go / a m st /
Of / v / Some of each / sm v i: /
Shall / l / What shall we / wt l wi: d
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do? /
Should / d / I should do so. / a d d s /
Some / sm / Some money / sm mn /
Than / ðn / Its easier than
that
/ ts i: z ðn
„t /
That / ðt / (only in
relative clause)
She said that
she could do it
/ i: sed ðt i:
kd du: t/
The / ð / The tie / ð ta /
Them / ðm /
/ m /
Tell them
Pick them up
/ tel ðm /
/ pk m p /
Their / ð /+consonant
/ ðr / + vowel
Their houses
Is their office?
/ ð hasz/
/ z ð r fi: s /
There / ð/+
consonant
/ ðr / + vowel
Theres a hat.
Is there a
party?
/ ð z h„t /
/ z ð r pa:
t /
To / t /+
consonant
Go to work / t w: k /
Us / s / He makes us
smile
/ hi: meks s
smal /
Was / wz / It was dark. / t written z da: k
/
Were /w /+consonant
/ w / + vowel
They were
talking.
They were
asking me.
/ ðe w t: kŋ /
/ ðe writtenr
a:kiŋ m/
Would / wd / I would like ... / a wd lak /
You / j / What are you
doing?
/ wt j diŋ /
Your / jr / Close your / kls jr as /
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eyes.
2.1.2. The schwa / / with content words:
In rapid speech even content words may be reduced
quantitatively, because the more rapid the speeches, the
greater the tendency to reduction and obscuration of
unaccented words are (Gimson, 1980: 264).
Quantitative reduction not only occurs in grammatical
words but also in some common content words. A
monosyllable in a position that is adjacent to a primary stress,
especially if they contain a short vowel.
E.g.: They sit here / ðe st h /
2.2. The short vowel / /
"In the North of England, speakers may use / / in place
of / / " (Hancock, 2004 : 46).
E.g.: luck / lk / / lk /
Chapter 3: Zero reductions
The omission of a vowel or a consonant is called zero
reduction. According to Zinder (1964), when speaking fast, all
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unstressed parts may be very reduced, even omitted. This
chapter shows kinds of this reduction.
3.1. Vowel omission:
Many English speakers, especially in Australia and
America, generally reduce the number of syllables in word
when speaking informally and fast. If you pronounce all the
letters of a word, you may say the wrong number of
syllables. (Zanwadzki, 1996:29). Therefore, English speakers
may misunderstand you.
Here are cases that / / in unstressed syllables can
disappear - leave forms with fewer syllables:
3.1.1. Consonant + / / + / reductions / r / + weak vowel
/ / is omitted
E.g.: Different / dfrnt / / dfrnt /
Preferable / prefrbl / / prefrbl /
3.1.2. / r / + weak vowel + consonant weak vowel is
omitted
E.g.: Library / labrr / / labr /
3.1.3. Consonant + weak vowel + / l / weak vowel is
omitted
E.g.: Family / f„ml / / f„ml /
Awful /: fl / /: fl /
3.1.4. Primarily accent + / / or / / in weak syllable /
/ or / / is omitted (in rapid speech).
E.g.: Police / p li: s / / p li: s /
3.1.5. / / after / p, k, t / / / is omitted.
E.g.: Career / k r / / k r /
Tonight / t nat / / t nat /
To come / t km / / t km /
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3.1.6. / / before / l, m, n, r / / / is omitted
E.g.: Canal / k n„l / / k n„l /
Business / bzns / / bzns /
3.1.7. A word-final consonant + initial / / + a continuant
/ / is omitted.
E.g.: Get along / et lŋ / / et lŋ /
3.1.8. A final / / + following / r / + word-internal vowel /
/ is omitted.
E.g.: Father and son / fa; ð rnd sn / / fa; ð rn sn /
3.1.9. The loss of / / in "is" often happens with following
"it".
E.g.: sit right?
/ zt rat /
3.1.10. The loss of "".
"English speakers often delete "" in informal
conversation". (Zawadzki, 1996 : 197)
E.g.: Is it Ok? Oh...suppose so
3.1.11. "Any, anything, anyone"
"In spoken English, words such as any, anything,
anyone are sometimes reduced when they follow "get" or
"got" (Nunan, 2004 : 57)
E.g.: Didnt you getny hats?
We havent gotnything to eat yet.
3.2. Consonant omissions
3.2.1. The loss of / h /
"When a pronoun or auxiliary verb beginning with the /
h / sounds unstressed and does not come at beginning of a
phrase, the / h / is normally dropped in spoken English. The
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sound that comes after the / h / is then linked to the last
sound of the previous word". (Judith, 1990)
Words &
Strong
forms
Reduce
d forms
Examples with reduced forms
Had
/ h„d /
/ d / We would had come if we had
known it.
/ wld /
Has
/ h„z /
/ / She has come.
/ i: jz km /
Have
/ h„v/
/ z / We have much money.
/ wi: jv m mn /
He
/ hi: /
/ / Is he right?
/ z rat /
Her
/ h: /
/ r// /
I took her hand.
/ a tk h„nd /
Him
/ hm /
/ m / Let him do it!
/ let m du: t /
His
/ hz /
/ z / I like his tie.
/ a lak z ta /
Some English speakers in London do not pronounce
the / h / (Hancock, 2004).
E.g.: Head / hed / / ed /
Note: Linking is especially important with silent "h".
3.2.2.
3.2.2.1 The loss of / v /:
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According to Kelly (20030, / v / in of can disappear
when the next word begin with a consonant.
E.g.: Lost of time / lt v tam / / lt tam /
3.2.2.2 The loss of / j /
In America, the / j / is dropped from words like: "new,
student..."
The loss of preceding consonant in the two continual
consonants (in informal speech)
E.g.: give me a cake / v m kek / / m
kek /
3.2.2.3 The loss of cluster of adverbs formed with " ly "
E.g.: openly / pnl / / pl /
3.2.2.4. The loss of / g / in V-ing V-in
E.g.: going goin
3.2.3. The loss of / t /
3.2.3.1. Omission of / t / after / n /
In rapid speech, / t / is usually omitted after / n / in
unstressed syllable of common in Canada and the
Middle West
E.g.: Winter / wnt / / wn / (sounds like winner)
Toronto ( t is omitted)
Many English speakers omit / t / across word
boundaries in very common words:
Want to / wn t / / wn / (informal written:
"wanna")
Going to / ŋ / / n / (informal written:
"gonna")
Negative particle / -nt / + consonant / vowel / t / is
omitted.
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E.g.: I dont know
/ a dn / (informal written: "dunno")
Except: / -nt / + / j - / / - n /
E.g.: didnt you / ddn /
The loss of / t / in final cluster / -nt /, / -lt /
E.g.: Went mad
Felt blue
Note: nasal + / t / + nasal / t / is pronounced as a glottal
stop instead of being omitted.
3.2.3.2. Reduced / t / in past tense.
In the past tense, "/ t / in a verb becomes a quick / d /
sound or is silent". (Gilbert, 2000: 147)
E.g.: wanted / wnd/ (many English speakers say: /
wnn /)
3.2.3.3. Reduced / t / in between vowels:
* In many accents, for examples American accent, / t /
is often pronounced "as a quick / d / in between vowels".
(Gilbert, 2000: 118)
E.g.: "Write it" (sounds like "ride it")
Some common words: water. Better, later,
hotter, city, betty, atom, etc.
Even these: sit any, lot of, get all, hit it,
etc.
* In some accents, including some parts of London,
the / t / between two vowel sounds is made not with the
tongue but by stopping the air at the back of the throat to
make a short silence.
E.g.: "Butter" is pronounced "buer"
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3.2.3.4. Word - final / t / + word - initial / t, d / / t / is omitted
(informal speech).
E.g.: Ive got to come
/ av gt t km / / av gt km /
3.2.3.5. The loss of / t / in it when the following word begins
with a consonant.
E.g.: I think it might be morning.
/ a ŋk a mat b m:niŋ /
3.2.4. Simplification of consonant groups.
English speakers often simplify groups of three (or
more) consonants by omitting the middle consonants.
E.g.: months / mns / / mns /
Tests / tests / / tess /
3.2.4.1. Consonant groups with / t, d /
* When / t / or / d / occurs between two other stop
consonants, they are never pronounced. So English
learners should leave them out.
E.g.: locked car / lk ka: /
Note: In this case, even "ed" is omitted (/ t /, / d /)
* Stop + / t / or / d / + fricative / t / or / d / is omitted.
E.g.: kept singing / kep sŋŋ /
* Fricative (often / s, f / ) + stop/ fricative/nasal / t / is
omitted.
E.g.: / st / + stop: last time / la:s tam /
+ fricative: west side / wes sad /
+nasal: best man / bes mæn /
/ ft / + stop: lift boy / lf b /
+ fricative: left shoe / lef u: /
+ nasal: soft mattress / sf mætrs /
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* The / t / in / st, ft / may be omitted when other consonants
follow, but it is not very common.
E.g.: Next week/ neks wi: k /
Best road / bes rd/
Last lap / la:s læp /
* Nasal (often / n, m / + / d / + stop/ nasal / d / is omitted
E.g.: / nd / + stop: tinned beans / tn bi: nz /
+ nasal: blind man / blan mæn /
/ md /+stop: it seemed good / t si:m d /
+nasal: skimmed milk / skm mlk /
Note: In this case, even "ed" can be omitted.
* The / d / in / nd ,md / may be omitted when other
consonants follow, but it not very common.
E.g.: Blind chance / blan ans /
Send seven / sen sevn /
She seemed well / i: si:m wel /
* Voiceless plosive/ affricative + / t / + initial consonant word
/ t / is omitted.
E.g.: reached home
* Voiced plosive/ affricative + / d / _ initial consonant word /
d / is omitted.
E.g.: changed face
* Omission of word-final / d / before / t, d /
E.g.: We could try
* Omission of final alveolar explosive / t, d / before / h, j /.
E.g.: Red house
Violent jacket
3.2.4.2. Other consonant groups:
* The loss of stop in: fricative + stop + fricative
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E.g.: Desk / desks / / dess /
Months / mns / / mns /
3.3. Contractions. ( Essberger,1997).
Contraction is a kind of reduction in which we shorten
letters both in writing (informal) and in speaking.
Especially, when speaking English, we often use
contracted forms to save time.
3.3.1. Positive contrastions.
Short
form
Long form Short
form
Long form
Im I am Shell She will
Ive I have Shed She had/ she would
Ill I will/ I shall Its It is/ it has
Id I would/ I had/ I
should
Itll It will
Youre You are Were We are
Youve You have Weve We have
Youll You will Well We will
Youd You would/ you
had
Wed We had/ we would
Hes He is Theyre They are
Hell He will Theyve They have
Hed He had/ he
would
Theyll They will
Shes She is/ she has Theyd They had/ they
would
3.3.2. Negative contractions.
Notes: There are two possible forms of the verb "to be"
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E.g.: "They arent" or "theyre not", etc.
In questions, "am not" is contracted to "arent".
Short
form
Long form Short form Long form
Arent Are not Maynt May not
Cant Can not, cannot Mightnt Might not
Couldnt Could not Mustnt Must not
Darent Dare not Neednt Need not
Didnt Did not Oughtnt Ought not
Doesnt Does not Shant Shall not
Dont Do not Shouldnt Should not
Hasnt Has not Wasnt Was not
Havent Have not Werent Were not
Hadnt Had not Wont Will not
Isnt Is not wouldnt Would not
3.3.3. Other contractions:
The contraction ’s ( = is/ has) is not used only with
pronouns. It can also be used with nouns, names, question
words and words like "here" and "there".
Short
form
Long form Example
Heres Here is Heres your bread.
Therell There will Therell be nobody here tomorrow.
Theres There is Theres a person!
Thats That is Thats my house!
Thatll That will Thatll cost £8.
Hows How is Hows your father?
Thiss This is Thiss my friend.
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Howre How are Howre you?
Whatll What will Whatll they will do?
Whats What is Whats this?
Whatre What are Whatre they saying about?
Whatm What am Whatm I supposed to say?
Whens When is Whens the birthday?
Whos Who is Whos your lover?
Wheres Where is Wheres your house?
Whod Who would
Who had
Whod like sweet?
Whatd What would
What had
Whatd you do then?
Whatd you done before?
Howd How would
How had
Howd she reach Paris?
Howd you made this?
Whered Where
would
Where had
Whered you go?
Whered they gone?
Whend When
would
When had
Whend he visited her then?
Whend he come?
Wholl Who will Wholl be there?
Note: some common contractions in informal, rapid speech:
+) Aint = am not/ are not/ is not
E.g.: You aint a teacher.
+) Aint = has not/ have not
E.g.: they aint come yet.
Whatcha = what are you
E.g.: Whatcha going to do?
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+) Whatcha = what have you
E.g.: Whatcha got there?
+) The faster speech is, the more the reduction is.
Do you want a beer?
Do you wanna beer?
D you wanna beer?
D ya wanna beer?
Ya wanna beer?
wanna beer?
+) n = and
E.g.: Rock n roll
+) Sm = some
E.g.: I got sm beer
Chapter 4: Use of full forms
Reductions are used in everyday English. But there are
certain contexts that only strong forms are used.
4.1. Strong forms are used when function words are
stressed for the purpose of emphasis or expressing
the disagreement.
E.g.: You must go now.
/ mst /
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4.2. Strong forms are used when function words stand
at the end of groups or sentences.
E.g.: What’s that for?
/ f: /
Exceptions: he, him, his, her, them and us still have their
reduced formed in final position (unless they are stressed).
E.g.: I like her / a lak /
4.3. When a function word is being contrasted with
another words, its full form must be used.
E.g.: It must be he not me.
/ hi: / / mi: /
4.4. When function words are being quoted, the full
forms are used.
E.g.: You can’t say and here.
/ ænd /
Conclusion
In this research report, I have systematized reductions
in spoken English. Through it, English learners may feel
listening less difficult and English teachers may have many
useful facilities.
Because of my limited knowledge, not all results here
may be enough. To make this study better, I really wish to get
contributory ideas and comments from readers.
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Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest
thanks to all people that have helped me do this study. It is
my supervisor, Mr. Nguyçn Ninh BØc who has given me a lot
of invaluable suggestions. It is enthusiastic English teachers:
Mr. Khoa Anh Vièt, Ms. Trßn Lan Anh, Ms Nguyçn Minh Huè
whose constant help and encouragement are very important
to my progress. It is my friends who always stand by me and
help me overcome my troubles. And it is the authors without
whose previous ideas I can not do this research.
Hanoi, March of 2006
Leâ TroÏng Khaùnk
APPENDIX I: Manner of articulation.
1. Plosive (complete closure + sudden release):
/ b, p, d, t, g, k /
2. Fricative (narrowing resulting in audible friction):
/ v, f, z, s, , h, ð, , /
3. Affricate (closure + low separation)
/ , /
4. Nasal (complete closure + air escape through nose):
/ m, n, ŋ /
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5. Lateral (closure in mouth centre + air escape at tongue
sides):
6. Approximant (slight narrowing but not enough to cause
friction):
/ w, j, r /
APPENDIX II: Voicing
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Voiced Voiceless
b p
v f
ð
d t
z s
g k
Voiced Voiceless
m
h
n
ŋ
w
j
r
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