1 Prof Francisco Zabala - 2016 Elision Elision has been traditionally defined as ‘the omission of sounds in connected speech’ (Crystal, 2008 p 166) Roach (2001: 61) is of the opinion that: From the point of view of coarticulation studies, elision is not a separate process from assimilation It is simply an extreme result of coarticulation, whereby two sounds are articulated so closely in time to each other that a sound or sounds between them are completely obscured In spite of the great number of cases of elision that occur in English, some authors of pronunciation manuals agree on what kinds of elision are recommended for the foreign learner to adopt (Cruttenden, 2014; García Lecumberri & Maidment, 2000) Elisions can take place both within the word or at word boundaries It is interesting to note that most cases affect syllable-final sounds 1.1 Elision of s & c The alveolar plosives s and c are extremely common in word final and syllable-final position They are readily elided provided they are preceded by a consonant with which they agree in voice and followed by another consonant Since c is always preceded by a voiced sound, it is safe to state that it can always be elided if it is sandwiched by consonants As regards s., the only two clusters where there is voice disagreement are ms and ks The literature seems to differ in terms of which sounds prevent the elision of a previous s or c.: such elisions seem to be blocked by a following g (Cruttenden, 2014; Ortíz Lira, 2007; Tench, 2011), while they seem to be disfavoured by a following v (Mott, 2005; Ortíz Lira, 2007; Tench, 2011), i (Cruttenden, 2014; Ortíz Lira, 2007), k and q (Tench, 2011) ELISION OF FINAL s+ c RULE Voiced consonant * '.c.( * Voiceless consonant * '.s.( * Any consonant other than: • g (forbidden) • v+ i+ k+ q (infrequent) EXAMPLES Blond man !akPm'c( !l`m World Cup !v29k'c( !jUo Arrived late ?!q`Hu'c( !kdHs Last summer !k@9r's( !rUl? Mashed potatoes !lzR's( o?!sdHs?Ty Cleft palate !jkde's( !ozk?s Exceptions: • Negative contractions: the voice disagreement found in the cluster ms is overridden, as well as the constraint on the following sound E.g.: Isn’t it? !Hym's( Hs I can’t go .`H !j@9m's( !f?T You shouldn’t allow it .it !RTcm's( ?!k`T Hs • The conjunction “and” almost always drops its final sound, provided it is not followed by silence E.g.: Ben and I !adm ?m `H Europe and Asia !iT?q?o ?m !dHY? Prof Francisco Zabala - 2016 1.2 Elision of g The initial consonant in the weak forms of grammatical words he, him, his, himself, her, herself, have, had and has can be dropped provided they are not initial in the intonation phrase Compare: I have told him what I thought of his wife and her lover .`H 'g(?u !s?Tkc 'g(Hl { vPs `H !SN9s ?u 'g(Hy !v`He { ?m 'g(? !kUu? Vs He can’t flee the country His father would die if he did .gh !j@9ms !ekh9 C? !jUmsqh {{ gHy !e@9C? v?c !c`H He 'g(h cHc Perfect modal verbs customarily elide g in the weak form of the word have: PERFECT MODALS RULE Must Can’t Should May Might Needn’t Ought to ?u st ?u+ sv?u+ stu+ s?u EXAMPLES She must have been late .Rh !lUrs ?u aHm !kdHs It can’t have happened .Hs !j@9ms ?u !gzomc You should have told me .it RTc ?u !s?Tkc lh It may have occurred .Hs ld'H( ?u ?!j29c You might have guessed .it l`Hs ?u !fdrs You needn’t have come .it !mh9cms ?u !jUl You ought to have resigned .it !N9s st ?u qH!y`Hmc 1.3 Elision of k The dark allophone of k shares its back resonance with the back vowel N9 It is because of this similarity that k can be elided when it is preceded by this vowel and followed by a consonant E.g.: Altogether $N9'k(s?!fdC? Also !N9'k(r?T .!N9'k(C?T Although All the citizens !N9'k( C? !rHsHymy Brown (1990, 69) 1.4 Elision of fricatives in clusters According to Cruttenden (2014), consonantal clusters in syllable final position may be extremely difficult to articulate The maximal cluster allowed by the phonotactics of English is VCCCC (e.g thousandths) The third consonant is normally lost E.g.: Thousandths !S`Ty?m'c(Sr Texts !sdjr's(r Sixths !rHjr'S(r+ !rHjS'r( Wells (2008) mentions the simplification of ,'C(y+ ,'S(r in moths !lUm'S(r and clothes !jk?T'C(y Prof Francisco Zabala - 2016 1.5 Elision of Schwa & Syllabic Consonant Formation English is varisyllabic, as long words not always have a fixed number of syllables (Wells, 2009) If a weak vowel, such as schwa, is completely elided a syllable is lost (e.g.: gardening !f@9c-?m-HM = !f@9c-mHM.) However, some consonants are capable of absorbing the syllabic status of schwa and, therefore, become syllabic themselves gardening !f@9c-?m-HM = !f@9c-m