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ASSIMILATIONS OF THE /j/

Assimilation is when two sounds come together and change or melt into a new sound. Assimilations may happen inside a word, or between two words, when the final sound of a word touches the first sound of the next word (because when we speak we join all the words together). When speaking, people make many assimilations, most of them can only be noticed by the trained ear of an academic speaker and are not important for us. But there are 4 assimilations that are very important, because the sound changes a lot and the student of English can notice the difference and feel confused about it.

The sound /j/ is usually found in the letter Y, the letter I and the letter U (when it is or was in the past pronounced /ju:/)

1- /t/ + /j/ = /tʃ/  (T+Y=CH)

Nice to meet you arrow3 meet + you /mi:t  ju:/ = /mi:tʃu:/
picture arrow31 /pɪktjʊə*/ 2 /pɪktʃʊə*/ 3 /pɪktʃə*/  (1= old fashioned pronunciation, 2= transitional pronunciation, 3= present pronunciation, the vowel /ʊ/ weakened and disappears)

2- /d/ + /j/ = /dʒ/ (D+Y=J)

would you like some tea? arrow3 would + you /wʊd ju:/ = /wʊdʒu:/
soldier arrow3 /səʊldjə*/ = /səʊldʒə*/

 

3- /s/ + /j/ = /ʃ/ (S+Y=SH)

special arrow3  /spesjəl/ = /speʃəl/
it's just you = it's jus' you arrow3 /dʒʌs  ju:/ = /dʒʌʃu:/ (in conversational English "just" often loses its final T and it sounds "jus", so S + Y = SH)

4- /z/ + /j/ = /ʒ/

treasure arrow3 /trezjʊə*/ 2 /treʒʊə*/ 3 /treʒə*/ (1, 2, 3= see comments to the word "picture" above)
learning centres such as universities arrow3 as + universities /əz  ju:nɪvɜ:*sɪtɪz/ = /əʒu:nɪvɜ:*sɪtɪz/

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