Sunday, January 06, 2002, 04:38 GMT
I am having a difference of opinion in another About forum concerning what in French is known as liaison, namely the smoothing out of syllable boundaries in speech.
Unfortunately, 'liaison' does not appear to be the correct technical term in English, as for example there is no reference to this feature in Peter Ladefoged's 'Course in Phonetics' Third Edition.
I am maintaining that not only is 'liaison' in English speech achieved by attaching a final consonant to a succeeding vowel:
*the vase is full of red orchids => [the va Ziz fu Lov re Dorchids]*
but that where no final consonant is available an intrusive semi-vowel or consonant is used, which has no correspondence in the written language:
* no apples => [no Wapples]*
* the exercise => [thi Yexercise]*
* Himalaya adventure => [Himalaya Radventure]
I would be most interested to hear your views on this, regardless of which variety of English you use or are being taught, and particularly if you have experience with speech synthesis.
With thanks
Harzer
Unfortunately, 'liaison' does not appear to be the correct technical term in English, as for example there is no reference to this feature in Peter Ladefoged's 'Course in Phonetics' Third Edition.
I am maintaining that not only is 'liaison' in English speech achieved by attaching a final consonant to a succeeding vowel:
*the vase is full of red orchids => [the va Ziz fu Lov re Dorchids]*
but that where no final consonant is available an intrusive semi-vowel or consonant is used, which has no correspondence in the written language:
* no apples => [no Wapples]*
* the exercise => [thi Yexercise]*
* Himalaya adventure => [Himalaya Radventure]
I would be most interested to hear your views on this, regardless of which variety of English you use or are being taught, and particularly if you have experience with speech synthesis.
With thanks
Harzer