A Comparative Phonological Study of Elision in Standard British English and Central Kurdish

This study investigates speech sound omission by native speakers of Standard British English and Central Kurdish. It aims to explore how a sound or sounds can be dropped in a spoken language to simplify it. The study compares English and Kurdish to determine similar and dissimilar features related to the elision of sounds. Additionally, the study attempts to ascertain the reasons for omitting of a sound or sounds in each language.

-They should do it. /ðei ʃəd du: ɪt/. → /ðei ʃə du: ɪt/. (Gimson, 1970, p Denham and Lobeck (2013, p. 117) argue that in the case of having two or three fricative sounds in a coda, one or two of them frequently are elided. For example, in the word 'sixths' /sɪksθs/, the phonemes /s/, /θ/ and /s/ are fricative sounds in coda. The phonemes /s/ and /θ/ both can be elided together and the word can be pronounced as /sɪks/. Also, in the word 'fifths' / fɪfθs/, the phonemes /f/, /θ/ and /s/ are fricative sounds in coda. The phoneme /θ/ can be elided and the word is pronounced as /fɪfs/ or the phoneme /f/ can be elided and the word becomes /fɪθs/ in rapid speech. Even it is possible to elide the two fricative sounds /f/ and /θ/ together and the word is presented as /fɪs/.

Elision of Vowels
Vowels refer to those sounds which are produced without any air restriction of the airflow (Finch, 2000, p. 73).
In English, schwa /ə/ is the most frequent vowel sound. It occurs in weak and unstressed syllables (Roach, 2000, p. 82). The elision of a vowel is associated with a weak and unstressed syllable. According to Roach (2000, p. 142) and Skandera and Burleigh (2005, pp. 95−96), the elision of /ə/ occurs in unstressed syllables of polysyllabic words, particularly before or after a stressed syllable, and after one of the plosives, /p, t, k/. In the following words /ə/ is elided, and there will be an aspiration of the release of air in the articulation of the preceding plosive. - In disyllabic words, elision of /ə/ is common whenever it is followed by /l/, /n/ or /r/. When the phoneme /ə/ is elided, /ḷ/, /ṇ/ or /ṛ/ becomes syllabic. The number of syllables will remain the same, but the syllable boundary moves (Roach, 2000, pp. 86−90, 142;Skandera & Burleigh, 2005, pp. 95−96).  Gimson (1970, p. 238) points out that elision of /i/ can be found in English, but it is less common than /ə/. When there is a separated consonant, a whole syllable may be dropped (Gimson, 19970, p. 238;Crystal, 2008, p. 247). To Skandera and Burleigh (2005, p. 96), when a syllable is unstressed, the whole syllable can be elided, especially before or after a stressed syllable, particularly when the elided syllable contains a consonant that is repeated in the following syllable.
-Library /lai.brər.i/ → /lai.bri/. In the second syllable /rə/ is elided and the number of syllables is reduced from three to two.

Historical Elision
Historical elision refers to the omission of consonants in some words from clusters forever in speech though the matching letters still occur in the spelling (Skandera & Burleigh, 2005, p. 95;Collins & Mees, 2013, p. 123):

Elision in Kurdish
There are 37 letters in Kurdish which are classified into 29 consonants and 8 vowels. Each letter, in Kurdish, represents the same phoneme as everywhere else. For instance, the phoneme /ʃ/ is only represented by the letter 'ș'. In contrast, in English, the same phoneme may be represented by different letters or by the combination of different letters. For instance, phoneme /ʃ/ can be represented by 's+h' as in 'she', '-tion' as in 'nation', 's+u' as in 'sugar', 'c+h' as in 'machine'. There are two types of elision in Kurdish: consonants and vowels.

Conclusion
The following conclusions have been made from the study related to different types of elision in English and Kurdish: 1) Elision is useful for simplifying complex cluster of consonant sounds in both onset and coda.
2) Elision is useful and helpful for both native and non-native speakers for speaking more fluently and easily.
3) Elision is found in both onset and coda, but it is more common in the coda.
4) Elision is found in both English and Kurdish, but it is more pervasive in English.

5) Elision occurs in rapid speech.
6) Elision occurs within single words and at the boundaries of words, but it is more common at the boundaries of words.
7) Elision can be found at the beginning of words, in the middle of words, and at the end of words.
8) Elision in consonant sounds is more common than vowel sounds. 9) Plosive and fricative sounds are the most elided consonant sounds in English.
10) In English and Kurdish, the consonant sounds /t/ and /d/ are the most elided sounds, but in vowels /ə/ is the most elided sound. 11) Historically elision is more common in onset than in coda, but in the present-day elision is more common in the coda.