ASSIMILATION AND ELISION IN ENGLISH AND SLOVENE

Assimilation and elision, two important features of connected speech, are compared in English (RP) and in (standard and non-standard) Slovene. Non-standard pronunciation (the dialect of Ljubljana) has been included for Slovene in order to establish a parallel between the casual style of informal RP and the casual style of Slovene non-standard pronunciation, which varies from dialect to dialect. While there are no important differences between the standard and non-standard Slovene pronunciations with regard to (voice and place) assimilation, inclusion of non-standard (informal) pronunciation seems essential for the purpose of contrasting the process of (vowel and consonant) elision in the two languages. The present contrastive study has shown certain parallels between the two languages in the investigated area, as well as a number of differences; the latter can to a large extent be attributed to the existing differences in the sound systems of English and Slovene. Most notably, convergence can be observed in regressive place-of-articulation assimilation (e.g. assimilation of alveolar consonants) and elision of consonants (in consonantal clusters), while the main differences occur in voice assimilation of obstruents and elision/weakening of vowels. The main aim of the study is to point out the necessity of a contrastive approach both in view of understanding certain general tendencies, characteristic of connected speech across different languages, as well as in view of enabling non-native students' comprehension and acquisition of the processes of elision and assimilation in English by establishing links with their mother tongue.