What are extra sounds that appear in fluent, connected speech to link two words called?

• A. Intrusive Sounds
• B. Linking Sounds
• C. Assimilation
• D. Epenthesis

Answer: (A)

When two words are spoken together in fluent, connected speech, people often insert a tiny sound to connect them smoothly. These added sounds are called intrusive sounds. They’re not part of the words themselves or the spelling; they’re a natural way speech flows more easily from one word to the next. Intrusive sounds can be vowels or semivowels that bridge the boundary between the words, helping the transition sound natural in rapid speech. This term is used to describe the act of linking, not to describe changes inside a single word. It’s distinct from assimilation, where sounds change to resemble neighboring sounds, and from epenthesis, which is the general process of inserting a sound to ease pronunciation within a word or at a boundary for structural reasons. So, the best label for these linking insertions is intrusive sounds because they specifically describe extra sounds added to link two words in connected speech.