Grammar Spod: Criminal pronunciation

Greetings my little grammar lovers. This month I’ve decided to give you a rest from all your intensive grammar learning because to keep the crime theme going we’re going to look at some criminal  aspects of pronunciation that always makes me laugh and is very important in spoken English but causes many problems for those of you who are listening.

The English language itself is a bit of a master thief: it is a Latinate language on the whole with aspects of Anglo-Saxon and many other words stolen from different languages. The Latin influence has meant that the sounds of English can change when words are spoken in ‘natural’ conversation (which some people might call ‘sloppy’).

Lock you doors there’s an intruder trying to get in...

Certain vowel sounds (a.e.i.o.u) when next to other vowels or consonants create totally new sounds which help to ‘pull’ the words together. There are three of these ‘intruders’ in the English language /w/, /j/, and /r/
I’ve looked through my crime records and found some examples of these intruders in action...

• /w/: go away!; two apples         
• /j/: three onions, I am
• /r/: law and order, I saw him 

Master of disguise...

Consonants can be crafty things, you have to watch them because in certain situations they have the ability to totally change the way they are pronounced and ‘overpower’ the letter following them, we say that they are ‘assimilating’ the other sounds.

My crime records have found some examples of these bullying letters...

• In the following examples the letter ‘T’ can change into a ‘P’ sound between the words

• In these examples the letter ‘D’ can change into ‘G’ sound between the words