1 Phonetics as a branch of linguistics

eighth - at three

alveolar [t] becomes dental [Ɵ]

Accommodation is the adaptation of sounds combinations of vowel-consonants type and consonant-vowel type:

never - man (consonant-vowel type)

nasal pronunciation of vowels

Labialization of consonants is before labialized vowels.

board - blackboard

man - postman

Elision is a complete loss of sounds, both vowels and consonants. In informal speech we can lose many sounds. The process cannot be neglected in defining the

phonemic status of speech sounds. These phenomena represent the economy of energy from the part of the speaker. Usually the listener doesn’t even notice this

because these changes don’t influence the meaning. The target of listener is usually to understand the meaning but sometimes the meaning can also be influenced,

for example [z] can represent has, is, does, plural, possessive, third person singular. Now let us consider which qualitative characteristics of consonants can

be changed in connected speech. Consonants can be modified according to the place of articulation: assimilation takes place when a sound changes its character

in order to look like a neighboring sound and the characteristic which is involved in this is almost always a place of articulation:

1. 
   eighth - at the - said that
   

Partial regressive assimilation

2. 
   tree - true - dry - dream
   

Partial regressive assimilation

3. 
   horseshoe - this shop
   

Complete regressive assimilation

4. 
   graduate - congratulate - did you - could you
   

Partial regressive assimilation

5. 
   symphony
   

Partial regressive assimilation