Elision, Assimilation and Linking

So far, we have been looking at indivudual sound units and also individual words. However, what is most important for us is to look at how people actually speak. This can help us, not only with our own pronunciation, but also with our listening skills. When we are speaking naturally, it is not always easy to hear where one word ends and the next begins. This is because what were hear is connected speech. Common features of connected speech are elision (the dropping of phonemes), assimilation (the changing of phonemes, according to the surrounding sounds) and linking (the shifting of phonemes, or the addition of aspirated phonemes so as to join words together).

Aspects Of Connected Speech

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The BBC has a series of three radio programmes which discuss these features. You can download these programmes, or read the explanations on the website.