Fluent speech in which words are not pronounced separately, with weak forms and elision is called?

• A. Connected speech
• B. Clear speech
• C. Phonemic transcription
• D. Intonation pattern

Answer: (A)

Fluent speech where words aren’t pronounced separately and where weak forms and elision occur is described as connected speech. In natural speech, sounds flow together across word boundaries, vowels in unstressed words often reduce to a quick, relaxed sound, and some consonants or syllables are omitted. This blending creates a smooth, continuous stream rather than a sequence of fully articulated words, which is exactly what connected speech captures.

The other terms refer to different ideas: clear speech is a deliberate effort to be easily understood, phonemic transcription is a symbolic representation of the sounds themselves, and intonation pattern focuses on the rise and fall of pitch rather than how words merge in connected speech.