vernacular increased in prestige. Accordingly, English arose to develop new varieties. The first base was on London usage then termed as ‘standard’ by
modern scholars. Then, there began some other variety dialects of English. As spoken Received Pronunciation serves as present-day British English, there came
the other dialects of English right through English speaking countries. In this sense, it can be stated that English variety emerges through the
discrepancy from the previous-forebear language and through the interaction with the other variety of vernacular languages. Thenceforward, this occurrence has an
impact on differences, changes, insertions, or modification of English in different areas of speakers or society. In line with this study, the difference in dialect that is
observed from the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary LPD is the distinctive dialect of stop deletion between British English and American English that has
been discussed in previous section Variety Dependent Deletion.
2. Economical Factor
The last factor that has an impact to the occurrence of deletion in English is the economical factor. In particular, the phenomenon of deletion can be viewed as
the reduction of sound in speaking. Explicitly, it is the way to make our speech become economical and practical. With the presence of sound deletion, the
pronunciation becomes more efficient and saving for the ease of pronunciation. This is in line with the basic rule of saying that is to make it as convenient and
speak-able as possible. Articulating sounds mean to produce sounds as enabling our speech production to utter words. This means, it is impossible to pronounce
some strings of sounds if they cannot be pronounced or they are difficult to be pronounced.
The examples are so many in daily conversation, connected speech, and rapid speech. The so-called
‘consonant omission’ or ‘consonant dropping’ is usually done to make ease of the pronunciation when speaking Kreidler, 2004:
100-101. Typically, the omission will occur in the consonant clusters. The examples are in the words kindly
ˈkaɪndli, windmill ˈwɪnd mɪl, redemption ri ˈdemp ʃən, Thompson ˈtɒmps ən, or empty ˈempti where there is usually a case
of consonant dropping in the middle of the clusters. Particularly, a cluster simplification often occurs in these-like words. In this extent, the happening of
consonant dropping is usually in line with the sonority scale which makes one of the least sonorant sounds to be the one that is omitted in the clusters. By this case,
the sound that is omitted is usually the one that is assimilated homorganically with the sonorant sound. This includes kinds consonant dropping that happen in final
consonant clusters such as the words dreamt, tempt, warmth, texts, prints, tents, and cents.
With regard to the occurrence of rapid speech, since the speed is faster than the usual speech, it is common if the speaker is usually less careful in talking.
Hence, the omission usually happens by this case. In this sense, the consonant deletion observed in the one-syllable word with unstressed syllable. This
occurrence usually takes place in function words, pronouns, and auxiliaries. The examples can be seen in the five sentences below Krediler, 2004: 227, 230.
1
Jack and Jill. ˈdʒæk ən ˈdʒ l
2
You tell her.
ju
ˈtel ər
3
What do you need? ˈwʌtəjə ˈnid
In the examples above, it can be noticed that the consonant in the words and function word, her pronoun, and do auxiliary is deleted in the phonetic
transcription as they are shown in the daily rapid speech. The reduced form happens because it is not the prominent word in the sentence it is not the stressed
syllable and the sense of the word usually can be identified directly or easily by identifying the context of what is said.
More specifically, the deletion or omission in connected speech is usually done in sequence of continuant consonant plus the stop t or d like in the
consonant cluster -st, -ft, ʃt, -nd, -ld, -zd, - ðt, -vd followed by a word with an
initial consonant Gimson, 1962: 273. The examples are the phrase next day, raced back, last chance, first light, west region, just one
; left turn, soft centers, left wheel, drift by, soft roes
; mashed potatoes, finished now, finished late, pushed them
; bend back, tinned meat, lend-lease, found five, world religion; refused both, gazed past, caused losses, raised gently; loathed beer; moved back, loved flowers,
saved runs, served sherry. After that, there is the word final cluster of oral stop or affricate plus the
stop t or d like in the consonant cluster -pt, -kt, -t ʃt, -bd, -gd, dʒd where the
final alveolar stop is usually deleted when the following words has an initial consonant. The examples are in the phrase keep quiet, helped me, stopped
speaking, jumped well; liked jam, thanked me, looked like, looked fine, picked one; reached Paris, fetched me, reached Rome, parched throat, robbed both,
rubbed gently, grabbed them,; lagged behind, dragged down, begged one, changed color, urged them, arranged roses, judged fairly,
and the like.
Then, in the sequence -skt, the velar stop k is usually the sound that is deleted rather than the alveolar stop t. The examples are in the phrase risked
person and asked them. Nonetheless, the t of the negative -nt is often deleted
before a consonant as in the pronunciation of
you musn’t lose it jʊ ˈmʌsn ˈluːs ɪt, he won’t buy it hɪ ˈwəʊm ˌbaɪ ɪt, does not she know ˈdʌzn ʃi ˌnəʊ, or before a
vowel like in
wouldn’t he come ˈwʊdn ɪ ˌkʌm, and you mustn’t over-eat jʊ ˈmʌsn ˌəʊvər ˈiːt .
The deletion of one of a boundary cluster of two consonants occasionally occurs in very rapid speech, though it is usually seen as a vulgarism. The
instances are in the pronunciation of he went away h ˈwen əˈwe , I want to come
a ˈw nə ˌkʌm or a ˈw ntə ˌkʌm , let me come in ˈlem ˌkʌm n, and get me
some paper ˈgem sm ˈpe pə. By all these examples, it can be noticed that the
deletion is done to make the pronunciation to become more efficient and more economical.
In relation to pronunciation of English, since English is the language which comes from different sources of languages and has contacted with different
vernacular of languages, this feature of economy suits the motives of the emersion of sound deletion. For instance, the word grandma variety dependent deletion
has several utterances including ˈɡræn m ː, ˈɡrænd m ː or even the
assimilation to become ˈɡræm m ː. In this sense, it can be recognized that the choice to make it as d-
deletion ˈɡræn m ː or assimilation into ˈɡræm m ː is the motive for easing the pronunciation. It is also observed in words like twenty
ˈtwenti or ˈtweni and subpoena sə ˈpiːn ə, səbˈpiːn ə, or ˌsʌbˈpiːn ə.
More specifically, in association with phonological constraints of clusters in English, the factor of efficiency also shows an important role in phonological
adaptation. That is, besides the impossibility of certain sequence of sound to be allowed in English, the selection and reduction of sounds has been the concern of
pronouncing or muting certain sound. Indeed, it is affected by the unconscious assortment made by the speaker through their mental capacity and suitability of
the sounds in terms of its comfort to speak. For instance, the words bdellium will
be much easier to be pronounced as ˈdeli‿əm rather than ˈbdeli‿əm, so does
with the word bomb as pronounce it b m instead of b mb. Also, the case of
homorganic state influences the occurrence of deletion as the economical way in
pronunciation. The example is on the word column
ˈk ləm. It will be redundant to say it
ˈk l əmn as the m and n are both already nasal and they are placed the end of the word.
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter consists of two sections. They are conclusion and suggestion. The first section notes some conclusions drawn from the discussions and findings
in the previous chapter. The second section presents some suggestions regarding the subject matter to the English teachers and future researchers.
A. Conclusions
This research studies stop deletion in orthographical consonant clusters of English words. All in all, there are 581 words containing stop deletion examined
for data analysis. From the highest to the lowest frequency, they are 136 words of g-deletion, 116 words of p-deletion, 112 words of b-deletion, 99 words of k-
deletion, 86 words of t-deletion, 16 words of d-deletion, 9 words of n-deletion, and 2 words of m-deletion.
In this study, the data were collected from dictionary analysis. To be more precise, they were taken from Longman Pronunciation Dictionary LPD, second
edition, by JC Wells, published in 2000. Specifically, this study is classified as a phonological study. That is, it is a study focuses on the phonological main points
of reviewing the occurrence of stop deletion that takes place in English words. Besides, this research attempts to seek the non-phonological factors that also
contribute to the occurrence of stop deletion in English. That is, it analyzes the phonological data in terms of sounds then it observes its relation to the spelling
orthography to obtain the historical explanation related to the phenomenon of deletion that occurs in English.
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