ABSTRACT
A number of situations arise in connected speech (CS) where phonemes are changed, reduced, or simply left out. This chapter expands the discussion of conditions that lead to phonemes being dropped (i.e., being left out). The dropped sounds do not typically constitute the dropping of a whole syllable, nor are they systematically either vowel dropping or consonant dropping. It is important to remember that the vowel, consonant, and syllable dropping processes discussed in this chapter are not sloppy, slangy, or lazy speech. As is hopefully clear, the dropping of sounds is quite systematic. The chapter examines vowels that are dropped in various environments within words as well as between words as part of CS processes. Finally, it explains how dropping works in phrases with adjacent vowels.
