smaller number of cases, the !rst sound causes the second
sound to change. For example, when we add -s and -ed
endings, the endings are voiced after a voiced sound, and
voiceless after a voiceless sound. The voicing of the !rst
sound a"ects the voicing of the following sound. (See
Chapter 6 for more details on these endings.)
In still other cases, two sounds blend together to make a new
sound. For example, when we say Don’t you? it often sounds
like Doncha? or when we say Did you? it sounds like Didja?
This type of assimilation is called palatalization because an
alveolar sound (/t/, /d/, /s/, or /z/) becomes a palatal sound
(/∫/, /ᴣ/, /ʧ/, or /ʤ/) when there’s a /y/ after it. Here are
the combinations of sounds that can cause this change:
/t/+/y/ ⇒ /ʧ/ Is that your dog?
/d/+/y/ ⇒ /ʤ/ It made you angry.
/s/+/y/ ⇒ /∫/ I’ll miss you.
/z/+/y/ ⇒ /ᴣ/ Is your brother here?
None of these types of assimilation has to happen; people can
also pronounce these combinations of sounds without the
changes described here. However, assimilation happens
constantly in real English, and spoken language sounds much
more natural if assimilation takes place.
Deletion (losing a sound)
In normal connected speech, sounds may disappear or not be
clearly pronounced in certain contexts. This is called
deletion or omission of a sound. It’s important to
remember, though, that we can’t leave out sounds just
anywhere. Omitting sounds at random makes language hard
to understand. The kind of deletion we’re talking about
happens only in certain speci!c situations and in certain
sound environments.Contractions and blends
The most familiar example of deletion is the shortened forms
called contractions. These are words like can’t, I’m, and
we’re that lose a whole syllable when two words are
combined. Many of these forms, like the examples just
mentioned, are so common and well-accepted that they have
standard written forms, using an apostrophe ( ’ ) to replace
the missing parts. Other shortened forms are just as common
in speech, but are not often written as contractions. For
example, when we shorten we are, we say /wiyr/, and it’s
acceptable to write it as we’re. However, when we shorten
teachers are, we can say /ˈtiyʧɚzɚ/, but we don’t usually
write it as teachers’re. These shortened forms that are usually
not represented as such in writing can be called blends. For
pronunciation purposes, contractions and blends are the same152