Connected speech can occur in a variety of ways. There are instances when sounds are added, deleted, or altered in various ways.  Since there are many subtopics inside it, we might talk about it for a very long period.

You'll learn a little bit about the five types of related speech discussed in this lesson: geminates, intrusion, elision, assimilation, and catenation or linking.

Catenation Or Linking

Most individuals usually initially think of catenation or linking when they consider connected speech. When the ends of two words converge, linking occurs. Linking occurs when a word's final consonant and the initial vowel of the following word are the same.

Here are some other examples: 

• “trip over” often sounds like “tripover”
• “hang out” often sounds like “hangout”
• “clean up” often sounds like “cleanup”

Intrusion

Intrusion refers to when a new sound "intrudes" or interjects itself. In between two other vowel sounds, there is frequently a /j/, /w/, or /r/ sound.

For example, we often say:

• “he asked” more like “heyasked”
• “do it” more like “dewit”
• “there is” more like “therris”

Elision

Elision refers to the disappearance of a sound. In essence, sounds near to them that are stronger or more comparable suck up other sounds. This frequently involves the sounds /t/ or /d/.

For example:

• “next door” often gets shortened to “nexdoor”
• “most common” often gets shortened to “moscommon”

Assimilation

Assimilation is the process through which two sounds combine to create a brand-new sound. This frequently occurs when /t/ and /j, which produce //, and /d/ and /j, which make /ʤ/, are combined.

Geminates

Geminates are consonant sounds that are doubled or lengthy. In connected speech, we frequently combine and lengthen the sounds when the final consonant of the first word matches the first consonant of the following word.

For example:

• “single ladies” turns into “single-adies”
• “social life” turns into “social-ife”