fastly spoken english

Okay, I know this is probably a bit off topic, but all
the stuff being thrown around about reduced forms of
the definite article and prepositions mand me want to
throw in my observations about fast speech in my
dialect (canadian).
What I notice is a lot of contractions at the
beginnings of sentences, so that " I think" becomes
[aINk] (with stres on the [I]), "but I'm" becomes
[baIm], "I don't" becomes [aont] (with stress on the
[o]), "can" becomes [k] before I, you, we.

Finally, here's one of the most impressive instances
of contraction that I've found.  Watch what happens to
the 6 syllables of "I am going to have":

Slow, hypercorrect speech:
"I am going to have some tea"
[aI &m goIN tu h&v s@m ti] (6+2 syllables)
(with & for ae digraph)

Normal speed speech?:
"I'm gonna have some tea"
[aIm gUn@ h&v s@m ti]  (4+2 syllables)

Fast speech: something like
I'm g'ave some tea
[aIm g&v s@m ti]
or even
[aIN&v s(@)m ti]  (2+2 syllables)

Now wouldn't it be fun to come up with a form of
future english using such contractions?

Rachel Klippenstein

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