Elision of "it" and "what" at the beginning of sentences

Asked May 10 '19 at 15:10

Active May 11 '19 at 04:33

Viewed 72 times

I am reading American Accent Training. I find sometimes either 'it' or 'what' at the beginning is omitted.

e.g.

It's in the bag. [tsinə bag]

What's in it. (Though labeled [w'ts ..] I only hear [tsini])

I have learned some rules about elision of /t/ and /h/, but I googled and failed to get rules about the elision at the beginning.

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

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asked May 10 '19 at 15:10

baodi zhang

2

...and the question is? – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ May 10 '19 at 17:23
1

An unstressed syllable could be reduced or dropped in rapid or careless speech, but that's hardly limited to initial sounds, or to American English. Written forms like 'twas, 'tween, 'twere, and 'twixt long predate the existence of American English, suggesting an even longer tenure in spoken use. – choster May 10 '19 at 17:41
"American Accent Training". Really? This is a thing? I do a pretty mean Deputy Dawg and my Muskie is quite good; could I monetise this? – Michael Harvey May 10 '19 at 18:43
1

Well, Ah do declay-uh, Dep'ty Dawg! – Michael Harvey May 10 '19 at 19:58
1

This sounds like a case of Conversational Deletion, which drops dummies, auxiliaries, pronouns, complementizers, prepositions, and other predictable grammatical words at the beginning of a sentence. – John Lawler May 10 '19 at 22:39
1

@John Lawler，I think you give me a clue. – baodi zhang May 11 '19 at 02:54

0 Answers0