Phonetics & Phonology Weak Form Words In the phonology of stress-timed languages, the weak form of a word is a form

that may be used when the word has no stress, and which is phonemically distinct from the strong form, used when the word is stressed. The strong form serves as the citation form. A weak form is a word as an unstressed syllable, and is therefore distinct from a clitic form, which is a word fused with an adjacent word, as in Italian mangiarla, 'to-eat-it'. A word may have multiple weak forms, or none. In some contexts, the strong form may be used even where the word is unstressed. In English, most words will have at least one stressed syllable, and hence no separate strong and weak forms. All words which do have distinct strong and weak forms are monosyllables, and are usually function or discourse particles. For most of these, the weak form is the one usually encountered in speech. As the extreme example, the strong form of the indefinite article a is used only in the rare cases when the word is stressed: naming the word, or when emphasizing indefiniteness. For instance: Question: "Did you find the cat?" Answer: "I found a [e] cat." (i.e. maybe not the one you were referring to) Otherwise (unless one is risking pomposity) the weak form [] is used for a. The main words with weak forms in Received Pronunciation are: a, am, an, and, are, as, at, be, been, but, can, could, do, does, for, from, had, has, have, he,her, him, his, just, me, must, of, shall, she, should, some, than, that, the, them, there, to, us,was, we, were, who, would, you

Groups of words that are typically affected by phonological context, and which have weak forms are:

Personal Pronouns: Subject pronoun he When used in the middle or at the end of a sentence (NEVER at the beginning) and is preceded by a consonant sound, this pronoun loses the glottal sound / h / and is transcribed with a weak vowel sound: He said he would come, didnt he? / h sed wd km ddnt /

Object pronouns: a) Object pronoun her

When used before consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of a sentence, this pronoun loses its glottal sound / h / and is transcribed with a weak vowel sound:

Tell her her mother needs her. / tel h m ni:dz /

b) Object pronoun him When used before consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of a sentence, this pronoun loses its glottal sound / h / and is transcribed with a weak vowel sound: I sent him a present for his birthday. / a sent m preznt f hz b:de /

The same rules are followed with the words herself and himself c) Subject or Object Ponoun you.

When you is used at the beginning, in the middle or and the end of a sentence as a subject pronoun, it is transcribed with a weak vowel (/ / if its followed by a consonant sound or / / if there is a vowel sound after the word; especially when it is at the beginning or middle of the sentence)

I dont think I know you / a dnt k a n j /

You are all going to start working now / j r :l g t st:t w:k na /

Did he tell you how to operate this machine? / dd tl j ha t pret s mi:n /

Possessive Determiners:

Possessive determiner his When this determiner (also known as possessive adjective) is used in the middle of the sentence, after a word which ends with a consonant sound, it loses its glottal sound / h /:

I used his mobile phone to call my friends / a ju:zd z mbal t k:l ma frendz / However, when the words is used as a possessive pronoun (replacing a whole noun phrase) , it doesnt lose the glottal sound:

Our car is bigger than his / : k:r z bg n hz / (Our car is bigger than his car)

Possessive determiner her When this determiner (also known as possessive adjective) is used in the middle of the sentence, after a word which ends with a consonant sound, it loses its glottal sound / h /: She took her bag an left the room in a hurry / tk bg n left ru:m n hr /

Prepositions

at; for; from; of; to. Only when any of those prepositions occur finally in a clause, they take their strong form; or when they are part of compound prepositional phrases or are emphasised. Otherwise, you must use a weak form for such words when theyre not emphasised. For example: What are you thinking of? Final Position, in which the preposition has some emphasis. In this case you need to use the strong form of of. Im thinking of moving out Medial Position, no particular emphasis on of. In this case, you need to use its weak form. Take a look: / wt j k v / / am k v muv at /

Compound prepositional phrase: I drove to and from London. / a drv tu n frm lndn /

Modal Auxiliary Verbs:

can; must; would; shall; should.

Again, if these words are not at the end of an utterance (sentence, phrase), before a pause, or theyre not emphasised, you must use their weak form. The modal verbs and the primary auxiliaries NEVER take a weak form in the following cases:

When they occur in final position in an utterance (sentence-final position); for example in short answers. In those cases, they have to take the strong form. Examples:

Can you help the cook? / kn j help kk / Yes, of course I can. / jes v ks a kn / Sorry, but I cant help him. / sr bt a knt help hm /

IMPORTANT: Must loses its final consonant sound when its followed by a word which begins with a consonant sound, too. Compare: Must I tell her the truth? / mst a tel tru: / Must they sign this paper? / ms e san s pep /

Primary Auxiliary verbs:

Verb to be: am are; was; were. Have: have; has; had. Do: do; does.

NOTE: In the case of the primary auxiliaries have and do, they take the weak form ONLY when they are used as auxiliaries; NOT when they are used as main verbs. Compare: We have some very bad news for you. (have as main verb) / w hv sm bd njuz f ju/

We have travelled all around the world. (have as auxiliary verb) / w hv trvld l rand wld /

IMPORTANT: When have; has and had are used as auxiliaries and they are preceded by consonant sounds, they lose their glottal consonant sound / h / at the beginning. For example: The books have arrived becomes: / bks v ravd /

 George has moved to London becomes: / d:d z mu:vd t lndn /

What do you know about that? (do as auxiliary verb) / wt d j n bat t /

I have to do the housework this afternoon. (do as main verb) / a hv t du hmwk s ftnun/ In the case of the verb to be, however, its forms are used with weak forms in both cases; when theyre acting as auxiliaries or main verbs too.

There are other cases in which you need to differentiate the word class of a word by using either a strong or weak form. For example: That: When this word is used as a demonstrative pronoun or determiner, it takes the strong form: Whos that man that greeted you? (That man, not this) / hu z t mn.../

But when the word is connecting two clauses, this is, when the word is a relative pronoun, you must use its weak form.: Whos that man that greeted you? /... t ritd ju/

There: When this word is used as an adverb, it takes a strong form: Lets go there. / lets e /

When its used as the existential to be, you must use its weak form: There is a problem. / r z prblm / Theres a problem. / z prblm /

There are thousands of languages. / r azndz v lwdz /

Apart from the above, there are other words like some, saint, sir, etc, that also require different symbols depending on the context. Consult Diana Finchs book for more information about them. For example: My son is a saint, really! Hes polite, considerate and cultured. (Strong Form / sent /) Todays Saint Andrews Day. Lots of Scottish are celebrating it around the world. ( Weak Form / snt / )

When the word some is used as a quantifier, it takes a weak form / sm /, but when its used meaning except for it takes a strong form / sm /

Other notes: The word you has a strong form and two weak form. The first of the weak forms , / j / is used when the following sound is a consonant. For example in the phrase you know / j n /. However, when the next sound is a vowel, you need to use another vowel sound, thus you agree becomes / j ri/. The same applies to other words such as to and do, logically.