Humans are lazy. They usually choose the most comfortable way of doing things. This is especially true when North Americans speak English. The easiest way to speak is to start words with consonants and then alternate consonant and vowel sounds. Regardless of how words are spelled or where word breaks occur in print, Americans speak with as little effort as possible. Consequently, spoken English bears little resemblance to how it looks, and no matter how they look in print, most spoken words in English actually begin with a consonant, believe it or not.
The Impact of ‘Lazy’ Speech on ESL – Sharini’s Story
My adult ESL class was leaving the computer lab when a student turned to me and asked, “Teacher, what do you mean no?”
I told her, “Sharini, there is no such thing as the word noff,” and asked her where she heard it.
“You, teacher. You say no.”
“I said no?!” He was incredulous. “Do you remember the phrase or when I said it?
“Right now.” She answered without hesitation.
“Did I just say no? What did I say?”
“You say, ‘Tu no off you compuda.’
She was 100% correct. I said no! Who knows?
“Oh yeah.” I looked at my watch and shrugged. “Unfortunately, we’re out of time for today. We’ll have to talk about tomorrow.”
I had my work cut out for me. He had to find out what was going on with noff at 9:00 am the next day.
Turns out, noff wasn’t as complicated as I originally feared. Noff is a byproduct of a process called Bonding. Linking is the three-part phenomenon where speech flows independently of printed word pauses. It is not correct to label linking as slurred or lazy speech because it is simply the most natural way of speaking to work.
A bonding lesson
Consonants are short sounds that ‘stop’ and vowels are elastic sounds that ‘go’ or stretch. The easiest and most natural way for humans to speak is to alternate between “stop” and “go” sounds, starting with the “stop” sounds.
Many languages are built this way: alternating consonants and vowels, starting with consonants. Look at the names of these countries.
againstIN NOIN D.IN, CHYo NOIN, GRAMRE METERIN NOAND, Pmy R.you, jIN PYEAR, METERmy XYo againstooh…
Of course, English is different.
Consonant Clusters
Written English includes thousands of words with consonant blends such as those found in pleaseoh or listreet. Series of three or four or more consonants are also common in English, for example rlscl, ghtsbr, rchstr – although they are more easily recognized in their context: EarlsclIfe, Knightsbridge and churc Streetee When speaking English, the stopped sounds are pronounced consecutively without any difficulty.
Vowel Groups
Short vowel pairs or strings are also frequent in English. In words like pletc.seenthat is to saynd and shaved, the pairs of vowels represent a single sound. In other pairs of vowels like pwherem, lIn,retc.ct, each vowel makes an individual sound (which creates a new syllable). in bwatertiful, three vowels represent one sound, but in beingyousyqheyt, three vowels make two. (There is no logic in this language). Unlike consonant sounds, vowel sounds cannot be pronounced one after the other. Something amazing happens between vowel sounds; Stay tuned.
Binding occurs in three predictable places
Granted, sentences and phrases can start with vowel sounds, but the vast majority of words that start with vowels occur within sentences, where the three subconscious rules of ‘easiest way to say it’ take over.
DC – Consonant-to-consonant linking: When a word ends with the same consonant sound that the next word begins with, the sound is pronounced only once.
e.g. bus stop is pronounced /drunken stop/good morning is pronounced /good morning/
RESUME – Consonant-to-vowel linking: When one word ends with a consonant sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound, the consonant sound slides from the back of the first word to the front of the second.
for example turn off is pronounced /to turn off/North America is pronounced /North America/
v/v – Vowel-to-vowel linking: When a word ends with a vowel sound and the next word begins with another vowel sound, a consonant (which is not printed) is automatically pronounced in between. springy sounds I can’t pronounce side by side. Try it.
for example, go away is pronounced /go away/; poem sounds like /can/i am pronounced /I am/; lion sounds like /li yon/
Native English speakers do not consciously struggle with these problems. Most have no idea that they avoid beginning words with vowels. They might even deny that they do! English speakers learn vocabulary as distinct units for writing, then collapse those words where convenient when speaking. For non-native speakers, it’s a different ballgame.
The ‘stop’ or ‘go’ sound groups in English, combined with Linking, present many special challenges for students whose first language alternates strictly C/V or C/V/C. Very few of the words that students detect in conversation match the vocabulary they have studied at school, nor can they find the words they hear, such as no or waway, in the dictionary.
English might be the only language where the alphabet isn’t connected to the sounds in words, making some familiar suggestions ridiculous.
Ring it: /doubt sound/Look it up in the dictionary: /loo ki du pin the dictionary/
Summary
Regardless of how English is written or who knows it, spoken English strives to follow the easy consonant/vowel flow of natural human speech. Bonding is part of how speaking English works. With this information and a little practice, Sharini can decode noff on her own.
When native speakers learn that words do not start with vowels, they choose one of two possible responses:
/Ye sIy do/ or /No wIy don’t/