Consonant cluster reduction

Question

I've noticed that in some TV programs some final consonant clusters are reduced. Here are a few examples that I've noticed:
facts -> fax
gifts -> gifs
tests -> tess
tasks -> tass
asked -> ass-t
kicked -> kit
Is it acceptable to make these kind of reductions in American English?

Kooyeen · Accepted Answer

No.
But in African American English sometimes, or often, there are similar reduction, for example TEST ---> TESS ... HAND ---> HAN

What you are hearing is probably the fact that consonants are not fully pronounced in some cases. For example the C in FACT is not pronounced like the C in COP. I retain it, so there's practically no sound coming from that C, and you get FA(C)T. It is not the same as FAT though, because my mouth is not skipping that C... it's just that no sound comes from the C, but I think the sound comes more from the movement from the unreleased C to the T, or even just from the T.

Maybe someone else will be able to help you more... I am a non-native speaker, but that's what I do and that's the way natives sound to me.

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. On TV you may not hear the sounds, the tongue-play within the chamber of the mouth and the tiny air stops, etcetera that occur when people speak. You need to be face-to-face with your pronunciation coach.

I can well see how you "hear" FAX for facts, because the sounds are about identical in those two words. You know from the context when someone tells you to send them a FAX that they are not talking about the "facts." That is the context or the syntax of the language.

GIFTS is spelled that way, but, actually when you pronounce it, you DO HEAR "GIFS." The ortography of words is a clue to their meaning, so the spelling is important when you are reading.

ASKED. Pronounce ASK. Feel and hear the little "kick" when you produce the "k." Now, add the past tense syllable, "ed." In this particular word, "ed" is pronounced as if it were a "t." Your mouth cannot go from the "K" to the "T" without trouble, so the "K" gets forgiven, softened, blurred in pronunciation..it just about disappears totally so that your tongue is able to touch the alveolar ridge just behind your front teeth. That is the positioning of the tongue within the mouth that causes this particular phenomenon. KICKed...see above for "asked." These kinds of sound changes are required due to the placement of the tongue.

On that subject, I might point your interest to the pronunciation of "a" or "an." Before a consonant you use "a" and before a vowel you use "an."
Try it. A dog. A cat. A shoe. A house. Now consonants.....An elephant, An egg, An old man, An idiot. If you were to reverse this speaking pattern, you'd quickly feel the ugliness and difficulty forced into your tongue movements.

An dog; an cat, an shoe; an house.......a elephant; a egg; a old man; a idiot.
Carole in Umatilla, OR

CalifJim · Answer

Learner100Is it acceptable to make these kind of reductions in American English?

No, unless you are a native speaker from a region where these reductions are nearly universal, and you are mostly indifferent to being upwardly mobile.

CJ

Sumryan · Answer

Yes, it is acceptable. Good for you for noticing these spoken reductions!

Since many languages don’t have consonant clusters, these are often difficult for non-native English speakers to pronounce. But, the truth is that even native English speakers have difficulty with some triple consonant clusters. Therefore, in some words we delete one of the consonant sounds. This happens most often when the middle consonant is a /t/, /k/ or /th/ sound. As you obviously heard ( :
Here are some examples:

tests: tess
tourists: touriss
months: monts
asked: ast
facts: fax

Good luck,
Susan

Kooyeen · Answer

sumryanHere are some examples:

tests: tess
tourists: touriss
months: monts
asked: ast
facts: fax

Hmm. I agree that you are not going to hear those consonants fully pronounced, but saying it's left out completely and giving those transcripts seems misleading to me. They are probably replaced by glottal stops, tightening of the throat, light tapping, etc... A non-native won't probably recognize those, but I think a native does. I ast about the fax. Hmm. I don't know...
Just my opinion.

CalifJim · Answer

Kooyeensaying it's left out completely and giving those transcripts seems misleading to me.

To me, too. Non-natives easily deceive themselves into claims that certain consonants are not present, especially when the consonant group in question never occurs in their own native language. In some cases I think we can say that they literally can't hear the 'missing' consonant -- until after they get more used to hearing English.
The reduction of final sts to ss is quite characteristic of Texan speech, however, though even there you hear something like two s's in a row /s - s/ with a tiny increment in the intensity when transitioning into the second /s/, so obviously the missing t "leaves a trace".

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

The pause or "trace of the missing t' is actually the /t/ itself. The /t/ is produced by completely stopping the air on the alveolar ridge - then typically followed by a puff of air. The /s/ is sustained air at this same point. When an /s/ follows a /t/, the puff of air often blends into the sustained air sound of the /s/. The /t/ is definately NOT missing - more like camouflaged by the /s/.
Also - the other reductions mentioned early in this forum are only acceptable in African American English. Standard American English includes them. When you are watching televison, if you are looking for the correct pronunciation - watch the news.

RM (speech therapist)

Raindoctor · Answer

Well, what's the quality of a plosive, say t, in such a position? Definitely, call it an allophone, which is different from all other allophones of /t/

All sounds form some gradient: stop -> fricative -> semi-vowel --> vowel --> null

sibilant + stop + sibilant
fricative + stop + fricative
stop + stop + fricative

The above clusters are targets for reduction.

Look at these words: actually, question

actual: k + t + ? > k?
question: s + t + ? > s? > ?
acts: k + t +s > k:s [k:] is an allophone of /k/, and this is the distinguishing marker, if any, between axe and acts.

True, one can hear some weak form of /t/. But it is incorrect to say that /t/ is mandatory is such clusters. C.-J. Bailey discusses this in his paper that deals with "tempo and pronunciation".

Kooyeen · Answer

What I wrote in my other posts above was written more than a year ago. Now I've changed my mind on some things, and I'm going to read an interesting book on phonology I found out. What I can say now is that I would definietely pronounce "asked" as "ast", because I believe there is no other way to say it when you are talking as smoothly and fast as native speakers do. The question about "facts" is interesting, because if you try to say the /k/, you can't release it and you end up saying something that sounds more like "fats"... which doesn't sound very good to me. So maybe while in /kt/ it is the /k/ that is unreleased (doctor), in /kts/ it is probably the /t/ that is skipped (facts). Anyway, I hope I'll find these interesing details in the book. I still feel too ignorant now (let alone last year, lol).

CalifJim · Answer

KooyeenWhat I can say now is that I would definietely pronounce "asked" as "ast", because I believe there is no other way to say it when you are talking as smoothly and fast as native speakers do.

Oof!

Couldn't you please keepjust a little bitof the /k/?

... asked her ... is not the flower 'aster'. Not to my ear!

CJ

Consonant cluster reduction

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