Linking

In connected speech words are not separated from each other. To achieve this, the following rules should be observed:

1. A word ending in a consonant blends with the initial vowel of the next word, no glottal stop should be heard.

e.g. as a rule

2. The letter ‘r’ is sounded at the end of a word if the next word begins with a vowel sound. But there is no linking [r] between two words separated by a pause.

e.g. nearer and nearer

He paused there, and then spoke again.

3. Between the word final [i] and the initial vowel of the next word an extra [j] sound can be heard to link them.

e .g. the apple [ ðijæpl]

4. Between the final [u] and the initial vowel of the next word an extra [w] sound can be heard to link them.

e.g. go and do that [gәuwәndu:ðæt]

Mark the links in the following phrases and sentences:

a. free entrance

b. blue eyes

c. no understanding

d. The awful aunty is here in a new outfit.

e. The doctor advised me to eat only apples.

f. The author is an ugly individual who earns a lot.

g. A new Austin is too expensive for us to afford.

h. He and Hugh Appleby are thirty-eight years old.

Exercise 53

Look at this famous book, play and film names and mark the links. Repeat the names with the tape.

War and Peace

Out of Africa

Death on the Nile

Alice in Wonderland

The Wizard of Oz

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

A Clockwork Orange

Laurence of Arabia

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Kiss of the Spiderwoman

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Venus and Adonis

First among Equals

Death of a Salesman.

Exercise 54

Put down the sentences you hear, work out their meanings and practise reading them.

Multi-word verbs are often difficult to understand because of linking!

Exercise 55

Listen and practice saying these London place names, paying attention to the linking.