This week several of my students asked me if reduced speech was only appropriate in informal situations. I don’t believe that it is.
Whenever people speak, they have a tendency to save energy by connecting sounds together. This connected or reduced speech is not necessarily sloppy or informal, it’s the way most Americans speak English in everyday situations.
Reduced or connected speech may include:
- contractions
- linking sounds together
- sound assimilation
- epenthesis or addtion of certain sounds
- deletion of certain sounds
There are rules and patterns you can learn that will help you understand and use American English reduced speech forms.
For students of English who want to learn more about reduced and connected speech I suggest Nina Weinstein’s Whaddaya Say?
Whaddaya Say? Guided Practice in Relaxed Speech, Second Edition
Teachers of American English pronunciation can learn all of the technical details of assimilation, epenthesis and deletion by reading Celcia-Murcia and Brinton’s classic book, Teaching Pronunciation.
Teaching Pronunciation: A Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Tags: American English Pronunciation, american english pronunciation books, learn american accent, linking, teaching american english pronunciation
