A phonological Study of Elision in Standard English and Standard Arabic

Abstract

Elision can be defined as the ''omission of sounds in connected speech '' (Crystal, 2003: 158). In this respect , Underhill(1998 :61 ) indicates that ''elision is a natural result of the speech organs cutting corners in connected speech ,mainly to word boundaries'' . Thus, elision is the characteristic of rapid connected speech. It is used for the sake of making the pronunciation of sounds easy in connected speech. It is possible to elide a single phoneme or a whole syllable as illustrated in the following instances: