Page 50 - Spoken English Flourish Your Language

SpokenEnglish II the values of the following: - b, d, f, g, h, k, 1, m, n, p, r, s, t, V, w,
z.
This leaves c~ j~ q~ x undisposed of. We also have y, which is not required as a vowel-symbol in English. If we allow y to retain its present value, we can also retainj as a convenient abbreviation of dzh. For tsh we have ch, which, by the omission of the superfluous h, can be reduced simply to c. We thus have c andj perfectly paral- lel. q may very well be taken to represent the back nasal ng. X lastly, if employed at all, must in consistency be extended to all kss in the language, not only in such words as six, but also in rex (wrecks), cex (cheques) and c.
These contractions fully counterbalance the necessity of retaining the digraphs th and sh, to which must of course be added dh and zh. Wh is very generally made into w in Southern English, but it is well to keep up the distinction on the chance of its being after- wards revived. The breath yh sometimes occurs in such words as 'hue' (yhuu), more commonly, however, pronounced hyuu, with a separate h before the y.
Consonants are often dropped in English. Thus the h of the per- sonal pronouns is generally dropped when they come after a verb and are unaccented, as in ai sao im (I saw him). Saw her and soar are both pronounced sao. The d of and is generally dropped be- fore a consonant, as in ct n em gen (cut and come again), where the vowel is dropped also on account of the t and n.
Assimilations also occur in rapid speech. Thus, many people who pronounce the q of 'going' and c. quite distinctly in most cases, regularly change the back into the point nasal (n), when it is fol- lowedbyapointconsonant(t,d,n),asingouint ...(goingto...). In I can~tgo the t is generally dropped and the point nasal is often assimilated to theg by being made into the back nasal q - ai kaaq
gou.