The process of "squeezing together" the syllables that occur between stressed syllables is called what?

The process of "squeezing together" the syllables that occur between stressed syllables is called what?

• A. Accomodation
• B. Assimilation
• C. Coarticulation
• D. Elision

Answer: (A)

Elision is the process at work here. It’s when a sound or an entire syllable is dropped in connected speech, especially the unstressed bits between stressed syllables. This makes speech faster and more fluid, squeezing those middle bits together. A common example is when phrases like “going to” are spoken as “gonna,” which shows the vowel and sometimes the syllable being omitted. Another everyday example is in fast speech where “and” becomes a quick oral link like “bread and butter” turning into “bread ’n butter.” The other terms don’t fit this specific idea. Assimilation describes sounds becoming more like nearby sounds, and coarticulation is about overlapping articulatory movements, not necessarily dropping syllables. Accommodation isn’t a standard phonetic term for this phenomenon. So the term that matches the described process is elision.

Elision is the process at work here. It’s when a sound or an entire syllable is dropped in connected speech, especially the unstressed bits between stressed syllables. This makes speech faster and more fluid, squeezing those middle bits together. A common example is when phrases like “going to” are spoken as “gonna,” which shows the vowel and sometimes the syllable being omitted. Another everyday example is in fast speech where “and” becomes a quick oral link like “bread and butter” turning into “bread ’n butter.”

The other terms don’t fit this specific idea. Assimilation describes sounds becoming more like nearby sounds, and coarticulation is about overlapping articulatory movements, not necessarily dropping syllables. Accommodation isn’t a standard phonetic term for this phenomenon. So the term that matches the described process is elision.