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THE ART OF SPEAKING AND READING. 73
when combined together in the phrases of connected speech. The more conversational the style of the speech the greater the change that is observed. Those who try to preserve too carefully the due significance of such sound in ordinary conversation are said to be pedantic. The chief changes that take place are the assimilation of consonants, or the simplification of groups of consonants, and the substitution of weak for strong forms of unaccented words or syllables. These changes must not, however, interfere with the distinct pronunciation of a word or of any syllables in a word; there is no excuse for slurring even the unaccented syllables, each sound should be heard distinctly by the audience and not guessed by reference to the context.
97. Assimilation and Simplification.—Assimilation and simplification of consonants save trouble by reducing the number of articulatory movements. The tendency is especially marked in ordinary conversation; in such words as phthisis the ph is dropped; d and a are frequently omitted, as in bread an(d) butter; the d of and is usually dropped before a consonant and retained before a vowel; note also such words as han(d)kerchief, We(d)nesday, this(t)le, Chris(t)mas. It seems that when two similar sounds are placed together the common articulatory movement is made once only; this is very noticeable in compound words.
98. Accent.—When unaccented many words have a weakened sound, such as the, a, an, of, to, etc. This should be observed in speaking, but the unaccented words should never lose their articulatory form. The pronunciation of many words are changed when they become compound, such as day and Sunday, mouth and |
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