Kinds of Elision

There are 3 main kinds of Elision:

a) When the final syllable has /t, d/

Examples                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Conscripts   /’kɒnskrɪps/

The next day   /ðə ˈneks ˈdeɪ/

The last car     /ðə ˈlɑ:s ˈkɑ:/

Hold the dog!  /ˈhəʊl ðə ˈdɒg/

Send Frank a card. /sen ˈfræŋk ə ˈkɑ:d/

Facts  /fæks/

Helen’s machine stopped printing      /’hlənz mə’ʃi:n ‘stɒp ‘prɪntɪŋ/

The sounds /h/ and /j/ do not tend to create this elision but there are other consonants do. 

There are a number of useful combinations that they show the vulnerability of /t/ and /d/ such as -pt, -kt, -st, -ft, -ʃt, -ʧt, -bd, -gd, -nd, -ld, -zd, -ʤd, -vd, ðd:

Next day    /neɪks deɪ/

Mashed potatoes /mæʃ pɒˈteɪtəʊz/

The last post    /ðə lɑːs pəʊst/

Liz smiled gently /’lɪz ‘smaɪl ‘ʤentlɪ/

b) The elision of /ə/

This can often occur. In connected speech /ə/ can easily disappear at word end when the sound comes at the start of a word, positioned between two stressed syllables, as in:

Go away is pronounced /’gəʊ_’weɪ/

Or when it is followed by a stressed syllable beginning with /r/ or /l/

Secretary /ˈsekrətri/     

Police       /pli:s/

Memory    /ˈmemri/

Elision can also happen when the sound is produced in the middle or final combinations

Preferable is pronounced /’prefrəbļ/ 

Library is pronounced /’laɪbrɪ/

c) The loss of /h/

The sound /h/ is lost in pronominal weak forms. The elision occurs at the end of sentences with this sound.

For example, the /h/ of the two masculine pronouns is retained at the beginning of the sentence

He passed his exam is pronounced       /hɪ ‘pa:st ɪz ɪg’zæm/

Did you see him last night?                    / dɪd ju: si: ɪm lɑːs naɪt/

At Chile, Both of them, live happily        / ət ‘tʃɪli boʊθ əv əm lɪv ‘hæpɪli /

Elision and Liaison

This post will present a video about "Elision and Liaison" with simple and specific examples.

What is Elision? (According to Peter Roach)

According to Peter Roach’s English Phonetics and Phonology, A Practical Course: “The nature of elision may be stated quite simply: under certain circumstances sounds disappear; one might express this in more technical language by saying that in certain circumstances a phoneme may be realized as zero, or have zero realization or be deleted. As with assimilation, elision is typical or rapid, casual speech; the process of change in phoneme realisations produced by changing the speed and casualness of speech is sometimes called gradation. Producing elisions is something which foreign learners do not need to learn to do, but it is important for them to be aware that when native speakers of English talk to each other, quite a number of phonemes that the foreigner might expect to hear are not actually pronounced.”

In simply words, Elision is “the omission of one or more sounds in a phrase or in a word in certain contexts. Some letters which are between two consonants do not sound; this refers to the sound that will be silenced. This can help the speaker to pronounce words in an easier and quicker way.” Both consonants and vowels may be affected, and sometimes even whole syllables may be elided. Elision happens mostly in songs, in poetry, in theatrical plays, in order to maintain a particular rhythm.

 Some examples:

comfortable: /ˈkʌmfərtəbəl/ → /ˈkʌmftərbəl/

fifth: /ˈfɪfθ/ → /ˈfɪθ/

him: /hɪm/ → /ɪm/

laboratory: /læˈbɔrətɔri/ → /ˈlæbrətɔri/ (American English), /ləˈbɔrətri/ (British English)

temperature: /ˈtɛmpərətʃər/ → /ˈtɛmpərtʃər/, /ˈtɛmprətʃər/

vegetable: /ˈvɛdʒətəbəl/ → /ˈvɛdʒtəbəl/

What's Phonetic Elision?

To explain what means Phonetic Elision, is neccesary explain what Elision is, according to the Oxford diccionary, the word elision means: "the act of leaving out the sound of part of a word when you are pronouncing it".

This phenomena happen when we talk rapidly or when we talk with a colloquial style, some sounds of the words may be lost.

This phenomena can be recognize not just only on the sound also on the phonetical transcripcion of the word

It's very difficult stablish which sounds may be elited and which not. So this blog  was created to teach the studends how recognize this.

To understand how this phonemena occurs, here an example

The /h/ and the /t/ are not pronounced. Often, especially in informal English the sentence will sound like: