ABSTRACT
This chapter draws together the threads on various topics relating to connected speech, looking in more depth at acoustic cues in relation to voice, place and manner of articulation. It looks at the relation of acoustic cues to narrow transcription and the concept of juncture, and introduces coarticulation, comparing this with assimilation. Acoustic cues are the means by which recognize sounds, distinguishing vowels from consonants, sonorants from obstruents, fricatives from plosives, voiced sounds from voiceless ones, etc. One other acoustic characteristic visible in darker images is the frequency level and spread of the friction. This relates to the place of articulation of the sound. Coarticulation is the name given to the ways in which sequences of discrete 'target' segments are fused together into continuous speech. The chapter investigates the coarticulatory nature of connected speech and parametric diagrams. It discusses narrow phonetic transcription skills, and shows how narrow transcription captures the auditory and articulatory characteristics of the speech continuum.
