Topic-061: Aspects of Connected Speech Overlapping is a common feature of connected speech. Ina rapid (connected) speech, overlapping between sounds results in the positions of some parts of the vocal tract being influenced quite a lot by neighboring targets thus creating various forms (allophones) for one phoneme. Keeping in mind this possibility of overlapping, a phoneme is an abstract unit that maybe realized in several different ways forms - allophones). Similarly, the differences between various allophones of a phoneme can be explained in terms of targets and overlapping gestures. The difference between two different forms of k sound (as the kin keyand the kin caw) maybe simply due to their overlapping with different vowels in context. Similarly, the alveolar n in ten is different than the dental n in tenth. Both are the result of aiming at the same target, but in tenth, the realization of the phoneme n is influenced by the dental target required for the following sound.
