#2942: Fluid Speech

XKCD comic, described below.
Transcript

[Above the panel:]

Fun fact: Experienced speakers constantly merge, drop, and alter sounds when talking at normal conversational speed to optimize for efficient mouth movement.

[The panel shows four labeled side profiles of a mouth with paths of sounds made in different parts of the mouth. There is a label "More fluid" with an arrow pointing to the right. From left to right:]

[Label:]

Going to

/ɡoʊɪŋ tu/

[Path:] (G O >> I >> NG >> >> ) ( >> T >> >> O)

[Label:]

Goin' to

/ɡoʊɪn tə/

[Path:] (G O >> I >> N)(T >> >> O)

[Label:]

Gonna

/ɡʌn.ə/

[Path:] (G O >> NN >> A)

[Label:]

How fluent speakers actually say it when speaking rapidly

/ɡə̃/

[Path:] (G >> >> ə̃)

[Below the panel:]

If you think you don't do this, try to use "hot potato" in a sentence and fully pronounce the first "t" without sounding like an alien impersonating a human.

(Sourced from explainxkcd.com)

Thank you to linguist Gretchen McCulloch for teaching me about phonetic assimilation, and for teaching me that if you stand around in public reading texts from a linguist and murmuring example phrases to yourself, people will eventually ask if you're okay.

ExplainOriginal