Linking in English/ Liason

Alberto   Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:53 pm GMT
I have noticed that some speakers seem to ignore "Linking/ Liason" (e.g. "She works in an old office" --> "She work si na nol doffice"), they do not connect the sounds at the end of the words.

Is there a general rule for this?
Antonio   Thu Oct 27, 2005 10:40 pm GMT
natives do link. it´s natural in English. Unlike German...
Mxsmanic   Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:46 am GMT
What you are describing is not liaison. Liaison is the pronunciation of a final and normally silent consonant in a word when that word precedes certain other words. Liaison is a prominent feature of French but is not otherwise very common among languages.

The only example in English that I can think of is the liaison of final 'r' in non-rhotic English pronunciations (such as RP) with the initial vowel of a following word (this 'r' would normally be silent in non-rhotic pronunciation). In American English, however, even this liaison does not exist: the 'r' is always pronounced if it is written, and it is never pronounced if it's not, no matter what word follows.

Some non-rhotic accents go one step further and insert a non-existent 'r' sound between two words if one ends in a vowel and the other begins in a vowel, or at the end of an isolated word ending in a vowel. This is why some British speakers say "idear" instead of "idea." It sometimes sounds substandard to American ears (because it makes the speaker sound illiterate).
Guy   Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:54 am GMT
Mxsmanic said
>>the 'r' is always pronounced if it is written, and it is never pronounced if it's not<<

this is not exactly true... how about the word "colonel"? I pronounce it /k_h3`:nl/ with a rhotic vowel though the r is never written.
Kirk   Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:02 am GMT
<<Mxsmanic said
>>the 'r' is always pronounced if it is written, and it is never pronounced if it's not<<

this is not exactly true... how about the word "colonel"? I pronounce it /k_h3`:nl/ with a rhotic vowel though the r is never written.>>

Also, there is a very small class of words in rhotic American English which may often have no 'r' at the phonetic level in normal speech, even tho 99.99% of all other written 'r's are indeed spoken. One example of this is the word "surprise," which is often pronounced [s@"praIz] instead of [s@`"praIz] even by otherwise completely rhotic Americans.
Brennus   Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:41 am GMT
Differences in cadence exist among the different varieties of English, especially between American and British English forms. The tendency in colloquial speech to drop the -d- in 'old' occurs in both America and England e.g. Brit. "Got any ol' Pixies' clobber gathering dust under the dresser?"; Am. "Yow! A big ol' bee came right through the window!"
Guest   Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:47 am GMT
How about...?
dossier - dossie(r),
comfortable - comfo(r)t[r]able
Lazar   Sat Oct 29, 2005 2:52 pm GMT
<<Also, there is a very small class of words in rhotic American English which may often have no 'r' at the phonetic level in normal speech, even tho 99.99% of all other written 'r's are indeed spoken. One example of this is the word "surprise," which is often pronounced [s@"praIz] instead of [s@`"praIz] even by otherwise completely rhotic Americans.>>

Yeah - I'm completely rhotic, but I omit an orthographic 'r' in the following words:

surprise - [s@pr\aIz]
particular - [p@tIkj@l@`]
governor - [gVv@n@`]