Lizz: That Brab Pitt is well fit!
Vee: I see what you mean but he's no Tog Carty.
Lizz: Off EastEnders? Give over Vee!
Now, we all know that 'Brab' is 'Brad' and 'Tog' is 'Todd' but why does this happen?
Hold on, you don't believe me? Read this sentence and think about the position of your lips and tongue when you get to the end of their first names:
Brad Pitt is fitter than Todd Carty.
Hopefully you found that your lips came together at the end of Brad and the back of your tongue touched your velum* for Todd. This is because both names end in alveolar plosives; /t/ and /d/. Phonemes made in this position are rather susceptible to shifting around depending on the following consonant - this is known as dealveolar assimilation. Here's the rules:
|
A word ending…
|
coming before a word beginning…
|
changes to end…
|
|
/t/
|
/k/ or /ɡ/
|
/k/
|
|
/d/
|
/k/ or /ɡ/
|
/ɡ/
|
|
/t/
|
/p/ or /b/
|
/p/
|
|
/d/
|
/p/ or /b/
|
/b/
|
|
/n/
|
/k/ or /ɡ/
|
/ŋ/
|
|
/n/
|
/p/ or /b/
|
/m/
|
|
/n/
|
/m/
|
/m/
|
Why is this important?
I often find that even the most proficient students can become robotic when speaking because they don't link words together. By teaching them to do this, and making them look out for it, you're helping them sound less Johnny 5 and more alive!
Johnny 5 is alive!
Try the following sentences. Make sure that your students do not release the first assimilated phoneme but rather hold the position for a short time - remember you're practising connected speech!
- The hot camel had a tiny hump.
- Bad girls have more fun.
- I hate bears and penguins.
- The freed prisoner went to the pub.
- Ten gorillas marched into town.
- Don't bin bananas when they're brown, bake them!
- Too much fake tan makes you look terrible.
You could also do this as a dictation exercise; read the sentences a few times each at normal speaking rate and ask the students to write down what they hear. This type of activity will help them with those nasty gap fill exercises in IELTS and Cambridge exams.
* for velum see previous post 'I good like a cup of tea'.
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