Elision in function words (1-3)

 

H dropping and linking after the H dropping

Elision

Elision is the term for leaving out phonemes or syllables in order to form a shorter word. Elision is often used in poetry and music in order to keep the rhythm. In this situation, omitted sounds are replaced with an apostrophe. Elision makes words easier to say, and makes speech faster. For this reason, elision is common in casual conversation. Elision can occur in many forms. 

Elision in function words

One common elision happens with function words. Function words are words that relate to grammar, like  articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, pronouns, and conjunctions. These words lose some consonants or even a syllable in natural speech. For example,

for /fə/

are /ə/

to /tə/

our /ə/ or /ɑ/

your /jər/ 

them /əm/ or /m/

and /ən/

So, function words have two pronunciations: the strong (dictionary) pronunciation and the weak pronunciation. The weak forms use the schwa (/ə/), which we examined in the section on the vowel schwa. The weak form is used in natural speech when function words perform their usual grammar role. As we can see, when the weak form is used, many of the function words sound the same; consequently, we will not hear the difference in the natives’ natural speech. So, we should not try to pronounce them differently when we speak. 

In their weakened forms, function words are not pronounced independently, but are linked to their neighboring words and pronounced together. 

For example:

I’m looking for a book. 

Is this your house?

If they are used for emphasis or contrast, the strong form is used. For example, 

This is our house, not your house.

H-dropping 

H-dropping refers to the omission of the /h/ sound in function words that begin with H, like he, him, have, and has, if the H-word does not begin a sentence. When H is dropped, the remaining vowel sound is linked to the preceding word. We learned this in the section on catenation.

 

I saw him (sawim)

Did he ask her to go (didiasker)

You should have told me (shoudave)

Is that his new car?(isthatis new car)