I don't understand the way elision works

Question

Hello. People say elision is when you drop/remove a letter of the word (so you can have a better speaking). Thing is: I don't know if I'm supposed toNot pronunce the sound altogetherMake it a stop sound when the letter is a D or T (Stop T, Stop D) and make it a longer sound when it is the same consonant (Big guys, for example) I'll illustrate my points with examples I've heard of:It's a Must-See!Some people say We drop the T completely it is spoken like: /mussee/. Or, should we instead stop the T and connect to the consonant S? /mus(t)see/Last day of summer!Is it: /lasday/ or /las(t)day/?Some moneyIs it: /Somoney/ or /So(m)money/In short: How elision works? Which one my guesses is the right one? Latter or former? Or maybe none?Thank you in advance.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Here are some examples in English with the pronunciation given before and after elison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elision#English

CalifJim · Answer

Collin ONeilPeople say elision is when you drop/remove a letter of the word

Correct. This is a big topic, so it won't be possible to discuss all the details in a single post.

Collin ONeilSome people say We drop the T completely it is spoken like: /mussee/. Or, should we instead stop the T and connect to the consonant S? /mus(t)see/

This is /t/ deletion (/t/ elision if you like). In certain contexts, /t/ is deleted in faster speech. In most cases this means that there is a slight silence where the /t/ should be, or the /s/ may be slightly prolonged instead. These /t/'s tend to reappear if the speaker slows down. /t/ deletion can occur within a word or between two adjacent words. The typical case is in the 'st' combination.

wistful, fistful, lastly, mostly, restless
taste this, lost the, list the,
lost me, cost me, last name, last day, most children

Christmas always requires /t/ deletion.

/t/ deletion is also obligatory in words that end in stle.

castle, thistle, bustle, trestle, whistle, wrestle

And, by the way, /k/ ("c") deletion is obligatory in muscle.

Collin ONeil
Some money
Is it: /Somoney/ or /So(m)money/

In the case of consonants that are not plosives like "some money" or "Swiss steak", for example, I don't know of anyone who would try to produce a distinct double "m" or a double "s". You might lengthen the "m" or "s" sound a little, but it's not completely necessary.

In cases like "big guy" or "bad dog", which involve plosives, you do a double consonant. (If you recall I explained how to do this in another post some time ago.) The plosives are /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, and /g/.

top pick, hot tip, sick kid, rib bone, bad dog, big guy

You haven't asked about it, but schwa deletion is often obligatory, or nearly so, in ordinary conversation. You will probably have to learn these one by one as there is no general rule.

Many words of English contain a reduced syllable — a syllable with the vowel schwa (/?/, usually spelled as "e") — which is omitted from the pronunciation. This causes the pronounced word to have one less syllable than it appears to have as a written word. The most common case in which schwa deletion occurs is before "r", but it also occurs before "l" and "n" and occasionally before other consonants. Schwa deletion is more usual when the syllable after the deleted syllable is completely unstressed, but it may occur in other cases as well.

Some words undergo schwa deletion consistently for all speakers. For other words this deletion is optional, or not consistently used by all speakers every time they pronounce the word. For some words, schwa deletion simply occurs naturally in more rapid speech, even though these words would be pronounced fully in a more formal setting or when speaking more slowly.

The deleted schwa is shown in italics in the following list.

Examples:

aspirin, liberal, interest, restaurant, federal, decorative, reference, every, several, average, delivery, dangerous, memorable, general, celery, zeppelin, accidentally, chocolate, beautifully, javelin, catholic, porcelain, bachelor, opening, cardinal, evening

This means that with schwa deletion, these words are pronounced as

asprin, libral, intrest, restrant, fedral, decrative, refrence, evry, and so on.

CJ

I don't understand the way elision works

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