The Peculiarities of the Phrase’s Transcription
The phrase for transcribing and the further analysis:
Don’t you want to whisk her off to Barbados to get married?
The transcription for this phrase according to the Standard Southern English/NRP should be presented as the following one:
[doʊntʃə wɒnʔ (t)ə wɪsk (h)ə rɔf tə bɑbeɪdəs tə geʔ meri:d]
The cases of the phonemic alternations appeared in pronouncing the phrase
[doʊntʃə] – Fusion/Reciprocal Assimilation. Assimilation as a phonological process can be observed in a connected speech when one sound is influenced by another sound which can precede it or be located after this sound (Davenport & Hannahs 2010). When there is the mutual influence between these two phonemes it is possible to speak about the fact of reciprocal assimilation (McMahon 2001). It also can be discussed as the double assimilation because the both sounds undergo certain changes (Odden 2005).
In this case, sounds [t] and [j] can be considered as the assimilated sounds which influence each other and contribute to the emergence of the definite changes in the pronunciation of these two sounds. Moreover, in this word the plosive sound [d] is aspirated at the begging of the word and can be analyzed as the example of the aspiration of plosives (McMahon 2001).
[wɒnʔ], [geʔ] – Glottal Reinforcement. Glottalization is the process which is typical both for vowels and consonants. There are several types of glottalization. According to the degree of glottalization it can be full or partial (Davenport & Hannahs 2010). Glottal reinforcement is characterized by adding the sound [ʔ] to the definite sound (in this case this sound is [t]).
This process is generally characteristic for the voiceless plosives which are located at the end of syllables (Odden 2005). In these cases it is the sound [t] which is changed under the influence of the process of glottalization caused by closure of the gottis in the flow of the speech (McMahon 2001).
[(t)ə], [(h)ə] – Deletion/Elision. The phonological process of deletion is typical for the speech and should be characterized as the omission of a sound in a speech (Davenport & Hannahs 2010). In these cases the omission of the consonants [t] and [h] are observed. These two consonants are elided in the flow of the speech under the influence of the sounds which are next to them (McMahon 2001). These cases are the examples of the initial consonant deletion which is influenced by the preceded sounds in the speech (Odden 2005).
[(h)ə rɔf] – Insertion. Insertion can be considered as the process which is opposite to the process of deletion. Thus, insertion is the addition of the sound between the other sounds where there were not these sounds in the words. This process occurs only in the speech (Odden 2005). The kind of the insertion in this case can be discussed as the insertion to link the different words with the help of adding generally unpronounced sound [r]. Insertion makes the flow of the speech more fluent and understandable (Davenport & Hannahs 2010).
[doʊntʃə], [(t)ə], [(h)ə], [bɑbeɪdəs] – Reduction. The unstressed vowels in the flow of the speech are generally reduced to the sound [ə] (Odden 2005). This process which results in emerging this definite sound accentuates the partial pronunciation of the sound which is influenced by the unstressed position of the sound in the word (Davenport & Hannahs 2010).
References
Davenport, M & Hannahs, S J 2010, Introducing phonetics and phonology, Hodder Education, USA.
McMahon, A M S 2001, An introduction to English phonology, Edinburgh University Press, USA.
Odden, D 2005, Introducing phonology, Cambridge University Press, USA.