1. SUPRASEGME
NTALS
BY: A. RAHIMI

2. ”I am discounting reports of UFOs. Why
would they appear only to cranks and
weirdos?”

3. SUPRASEGMENTALS
supra- + segmental
Beyond segments
Suprasegmentals are categorized as follow:

4. SUPRASEGMENTS
CONNECTED
SPEECH
ELLISION LINKING OMISSION
PROSODY
STRESS INTONATION ISOCHRONY

5. CONNECTED SPEECH
Assimilation: a phonological process by which one sound becomes
more like a nearby sound.
Elision: is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or
phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce.
Linking: the process of blending words in a sentence for the
ease of speech.

6. CONNECTED SPEECH
Language sound simplification
processes:
 Assimilation: let me go > lemme go
 Elision: ask her > aska
 Linking: got to go > gotta go

7. USAGE OF ELISION IN
ENGLISH
Word IPA before elision IPA after elision
comfortable /ˈkʌmfərtəbəl/
/ˈkʌmftərbəl/ (rhotic English),
/ˈkʌmftəbəl/ (non-rhotic
English)
fifth /ˈfɪfθ/ /ˈfɪθ/
laboratory /læˈbɔrətɔri/
/ˈlæbrətɔri/ (American
English), /ləˈbɒrətri/ (British
English)
temperature /ˈtɛmpərətʃər/ /ˈtɛmpərtʃər/, /ˈtɛmprətʃə/
vegetable /ˈvɛdʒətəbəl/ /ˈvɛdʒtəbəl/, /ˈvɛtʃtəbəl/
family /ˈfæmɪli/ /ˈfæmli/
him /hɪm/ /ɪm/
going to /ˈɡoʊ.iŋ tuˈ/ /ˈɡənə/

8. USAGE OF
ASSIMILATION

9. "I've got y'all's assignments here."
You
USAGE OF CONNECTED SPEECH
IN VARIOUS ACCENTS
"That book is yernses.“
Yours

10. USAGE OF CONNECTED
SPEECH IN HUMOURS
• Where did your mother come
from?
• Alaska
• Don't bother. I'll ask her myself

11. ASSIMILATION IN
ADVERTISEMENT

13. STRESS
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I did not take it.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (Somebody else did.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I did something else with it.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took a different one.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took something else.)
I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took it some other day.)
muscular energy
Physiologically
loudness
Acoustically
prominence
Linguistically

14. INTONATION
Different tunes for different meanings
1.Start high, end low: Declarative.
2.Start low, end high: Interrogative.
3.Negating presupposition.
Flatter pitch throughout, then sharp rise in pitch at negated element:
— Homer drinks Budweiser beer?
— No, Homer drinks Duff beer.

15. INTONATION
• Doubling the sounds frequency does not mean
the sound sounds twice as high (nonlinear).
•A “high” frequency for one speaker can be
“low” for another speaker (200hz is high for
an adult male, low for an child).

16. INTONATION
Some structures seem to require their own intonational phrasing for pragmatic
or semantic reasons:
— Asides Homer, as you know, can’t take care of himself.
Non-restrictive modifiers:
— Homer, who works at a power plant, caused an accident.
— Vocatives Homer, did you take out the trash?

17. ISOCHRONY
Isochrony is the postulated rhythmic division of time into equal
portions by a language.
Three alternative ways in which a language can divide time are
postulated:
The duration of every syllable is equal (syllable-timed)
The duration of every mora is equal (mora-timed)
The temporal duration between two stressed syllables is
equal (stress-timed)

18. SUPRASEGMENTS
CONNECTED
SPEECH
ELLISION LINKING
OMISSION
PROSODY
STRESS INTONATION
ISOCHRONY