[THE APPRENTICE]

Dear members and friends:

I° - According to what I have learned about the division of words into syllables or syllable-splitting rules (Syllabification):

A word whose first syllable contains a short vowel sound in it ─a closed syllable─, this syllable must end with a consonant sound. It seems to me that the primary stress has something to do with this rule, too; for example:

PROCEDURE (pro-ced-ure) /prəˈsidʒə(r)/; PLEASURE (pleas-ure) /ˈplɛʒə(r)/; SCHEDULE (sched-ule) /ˈskɛdʒul/; ELISION (e-lis-ion) /ɪˈlɪʒən/.

Prefixes and suffixes are grammatical units that keep their syntactical structures in the syllable-splitting process.

UNCOUNTABLE (UN-count-a-ble); CONVERSATION (con-ver-sa-TION)

II° - When the /z/ sound and /j/ sound meet together from separate syllables in a word, they assimilate the /ʒ/ sound. This same phonetic aspect happens when /d/ and /j/ meet together asimilating the /dʒ/ sound; /t/ and /j/ also turn into /tʃ/ as in PICTURE (pic-ture) /ˈpɪktʃər/.

QUESTION:

Is this the whys and wherefores for those words above assimilate the aforementioned /ʒ/ /dʒ/ and /tʃ/ sounds?

OBSERVATION:

III° - Nearly all of the words above have a short vowel followed by a /j/ sound sound, except PROCEDURE; /i:/ sound is not a short vowel. All the words have the primary stress in that same syllable; that's why I think primary stress has something to do with it also.

I seem ENDURE (en-dure) /ɛnˈdʊə(r)/ /ɪnˈdjʊə(r)/ does not assimilate the /dʒ/ sound because /d/ and /j/ are part of the same syllable; they do not meet together.

ANALYSIS:

IV° - According to one of the syllabification rules, a syllable never ends with a short vowel sound; must end with a consonant one. The word PROCEDURE (pro-ced-ure) has its first short vowel sound in the second syllable CED /ˈsid/ followed by the syllable or suffix URE /jə(r)/. When a syllable ending with a phoneme /d/ is followed by another one beginning with /j/, both phonemes assimilate the /dʒ/ phoneme or sound.

The word PROCEDURE has a Schwa sound in its first syllable PRO /prə/ thus its phonetic transcription being as follows:

/prəˈsidʒə(r)/

I ask for your valuable comments in this issue.

[susan53]

2. What you're describing is not assimilation but yod coalescence. The yod is the sound /j/ When it follows the sound /d/ , the two merge ( or coalesce) /d/ + /j/ = /ʤ/. So for example "Would you" could be pronounced as /wʊd juː/ but in connected speech is liable to become /wʊʤuː/

Similarly /t/ + /j/ become /ʧ/. So "Got you!" could be /gɒt juː/ but in connected speech is liable to become /gɒʧuː/

If you look at your examples, where the word has an alternative pronunciation in careful speech involving /dj/ or /tj/ as an adjacent phonemes, - eg/prɒsiːdjʊə/ then in rapid connected speech one of the potential changes will be due to yod coalescence. Plus of course other changes such as vowel weakening - so you'd end up with something like - /prəsiːʤə/

It may also occur with /z/ + /j/, As in "As you're..." - with could be pronounced (carefully)/æz jɔː/ but in connected speech might well become /æʒɔː/
But ist has nothing has nothing to do with words like "pleasure", which could never be pronounced */plezjə/ It doesn't exist. The final consonant in "pleasure" is always /ʒ/:
/pleʒə/

So : where there is a potential pronunciation that involves the phoneme sequence /dj/ /tj/ or /zj/, then yod coalescence may occur so that the sounds merge and become /ʤ/, /ʧ/ or /ʒ/. It's as simple as that. Syllabification and other vowels in the word have nothing to do with it

[THE APPRENTICE]

Thank you susan53 for your valuable reply.

Regarding isolated words, it seems to me that ENDURE (en-dure) /ɛnˈdʊə(r)/ /ɪnˈdjʊə(r)/ does not take the yod coalescdence sound /dʒ/ because /d/ and /j/ are part of the same syllable and they do not meet/encounter together; in other words they're not adjacent sounds.

As for connected speech the yod coalescence sound of /ʒ/, which ocurrs when the /z/ and /j/ sound meet together, does not happend regularly; for example:

Jesus loves you /ˈdʒiːzəs lʌ(v)z juː/

Some native English speakers may pronounce it as follows:

(a) /ˈdʒiːzəslʌ(v)ʒ uː/

(b) /ˈdʒiːzəslʌ(v)zjuː/

[susan53]

No - "endure" could be pronounced either /endjʊə/ or /enʤʊə/ - it's the same rule as in the other examples. Whether the two sounds are in different syllables or the same one is irrelevant. If the two phonemes are adjacent then yod coalescence can occur - as your final example shows.

I'm not sure why you say the /z/ + /j/ can become /ʒ/ change does not happen regularly - I can think of loads of examples. It could happen eg in any of the following :
gives you / John's yoghurt / he's young / was your / goes yearly / does yoga etc etc etc

And don't forget that /s/ +/j/ can also become /ʃ/ - eg :
bless you / nice yacht / pass your / issue / etc

[THE APPRENTICE]

Thank you susan53

Does this also happen in British english (BrE)?

[susan53]

I was describing British English.