Vowel reduction in English

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to explore two closely related processes of vowel reduction in English, i.e. syllabic consonant formation and syncope. Apart from many similarities between these two processes, there are also quite a few differences and this paper presents them both. More specifically, we discuss the exact context in which they occur, try to find out the constraints governing their distribution and explain the reason for their diverse and varied effects on the preceding and following phonological material. It is pointed out that such differences arise due to two general cross-linguistic constrains operating in English.