Doctor Byrnes' English and Philosophy

Catenation Catenation happens when a word ends in a consonant sound and the beginning of the next word starts with a vowel sound. In this situation, the consonant is moved to the ensuing vowel and pronounced like one word. These are examples: this afternoon  → thi safternoon  turn off  → tur noff  this orange  → thi (/s/)orange that orange  → tha t(/d/)orange dropoff → dro poff  sleepearly  → slee pearly  wake up  → wa kup not at all  → no t(/d/)a t(/d/)all  still early → stil learly get out of  → ge t(/d/)ou t(/d/)of  weekend off  → weeken doff took off  →too koff  come over → co mover cats and dogs →  cat san dogs

Intrusion Intrusion is placing an additional sound between two sounds. A well known case of intrusion is the use of a semivowel /j/ or /w/ to avoid hiatus. Hiatus, which means a gap, happens when we try to pronounce two consecutive vowel sounds clearly. To avoid the gap, we need to use a semivowel between two consecutive vowels. For example, in the phrase "he is," a small /j/ is added between the two vowels: “he/y/is.” This addition allows both vowel sounds to be pronounced fully and separately without pausing between the two words. If we do not add /j/ and continue the sound, it is not clear  whether we are saying “he is” or “his.”  /j/ intrusion We add /j/ sound before another vowel sound if a word ending in a vowel sound makes us move the lips sideways, as is common with high front vowels.  I asked.   I /j/ asked. She always comes on time. She /j/ always comes on time. the end  the /j/ end in the evening in the /j/ evening pay attention pay /j/ attention my office  my /j/