The best way to acquire a native speaker’s accent singing along with pop songs. When you sing, you go into repetition that serves as a fun drill until such time it’s easy for you to go along with the connected speech. Let’s take a look at how a connected speech works. This is a no-brainer in mimicking native speakers.
Types of blending / Connected Speech
1. Catenation
Pronunciation practice can be fun through pop songs. If you want to sound like a native, why not try ‘blending’ or connected speech? Check out an excerpt of Dua Lipa’s song: “Don’t Start Now”Merge your speech by linking the final consonant sound and the initial vowel sound of the next word, and it’s called catenation.
Time Stamp | Connected Words | IPA/ Pronunciation guide |
0:09-0:10 | Did a full | /dɪdəfʊl/ |
0:10-0:11 | One Eighty | /wʌnˈeɪ.t̬i/ |
0:15-0:16 | I was | /aɪ wəz/ |
0:21-0:22 | look at | /lʊkæt/ |
0:23 | where I | /weraɪ/ |
0:24 | ended up | /ended ʌp/ |
0:25 | I’m all | /aɪ əm/ |
0:26 | good already | /ɡʊd ɑːlˈred.i/ |
0:27 | moved on | /muːvdɑːn/ |
SHOW LESS
2. Elision
The basic principle of removing excess sounds to keep the connected speech flowing is called Elision.
Time Stamp | Connected Words | IPA/ Pronunciation guide |
and one | ənwʌn (disappearing sound,d) | |
and i’ve lost | ənaɪvlɔst (disappearing sound,d) | |
what i see | wʌðaɪsi (soft d, also known as soft r sound) | |
what I got | wʌðaɪ gɑt (soft d, also known as soft r sound) | |
cause her | kɔz’ər (disappearing sound,h) | |
and im ən | æn’ɪm (disappearing sound,d) | |
what I’ve | wʌðaɪv (soft d, also known as soft r sound) |
Time Stamp | Connected Words | IPA/ Pronunciation guide |
but that’s | bʌ’ðæts | |
with that | wɪ’ðæt |
3. Intrusion
Fluent speakers normally insert a subtle consonant sound between words that have final and initial vowel sounds. *When a word ends with any of these vowel sounds /aɪ/, /iː/, or /ɛ/, and the next word begins with a vowel sound, they often insert a /j or the y sound/ (see example A).
*When a word ends with any of these vowel sounds /oʊ/ or /uː/, and the next word begins with a vowel sound, they often insert a /w/ (see example B)
Time Stamp | Connected Words | IPA/ Pronunciation guide |
I ain’t | /aɪjaint / | |
so amazing | /soʊwəˈmeɪzɪŋ/ |
Video source: SyrebralVibes
Music: thank you next lyrics (Ariana Grande)
Kobalt Music Publishing, CMRRA, MINT_BMG, LatinAutor – PeerMusic, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, ARESA, ASCAP, UMPI, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., LatinAutorPerf, LatinAutor – UMPG, LatinAutor – Warner Chappell, Abramus Digital, UMPG Publishing, Warner Chappell, PEDL, AMRA, BMG Rights Management (US), LLC, LatinAutor, and 12 Music Rights Societies
4. Assimilation
The combination of preceding consonant sounds results in a slight change of the combined words.
t + y = ch
d + y = ‘hard’ j
/s/ + /y/ = /ʃ/
Time Stamp | Connected Words | IPA/ Pronunciation guide |
I told you | /aɪ toʊldʒu/ | |
I need you | /aɪ nidʒu / | |
as you | /æʃu/ | |
I miss your | /mɪʃʊər/ | |
‘Cause you never | kəʃənˈɛvər |
Video lyrics :7clouds
Song:STAY ArtistThe Kid LAROI, Justin Bieber
Licensed to YouTube by
SME (on behalf of Columbia); AMRA, UMPG Publishing, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., ASCAP, SOLAR Music Rights Management, CMRRA, Create Music Publishing, Warner Chappell, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, Kobalt Music Publishing, LatinAutor – SonyATV, UMPI, LatinAutor, NirvanaDigitalPublishing, Sony ATV Publishing, PEDL, Pulse Recording (music publishing), LatinAutorPerf, and 11 Music Rights Societies
We hope you have enjoyed practicing pronunciation through the connected speech. Every now and then, find ways on making your English learning fun. Pop songs could increase your language practice.
Source :https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/pop-songs-connected-speech-fluent-english