What is HIATUS? Hiatus is a Latin word meaning space / break.
‘He took a HIATUS from his job and travelled round world for a year’
‘The band released three albums in quick succession then took a HIATUS before realising a fourth album many years later’
‘Many English accents avoid HIATUS by inserting a consonant sound to fill in a space between two vowels’
Phonetically and linguistically speaking then, HIATUS is the space/break that occurs when two vowel sounds border one another.
English language speakers often avoid a HIATUS by bridging it with a connecting consonant sound. For example, we don’t say ‘a afternoon’ but ‘an afternoon’. We put an ‘n’ there to separate the vowels and link them together via a consonant. But certain accents of English, such as Modern British RP (Received Pronunciation), will go further to avoid any type of HIATUS between vowel sounds. For instance, ‘vanilla ice cream’ becomes ‘vanilla-r-ice cream’, with an /r/ being inserted to fill the ‘awkward’ space between the final schwa vowel /ə/ from the next vowel. Also in modern RP, and most London accents ‘a good idea about’ becomes a ‘good idea-r-about’ and ‘law overruled’ becomes ‘law-r-overruled’.
The opposite of HIATUS is continuation.
Speakers of other accents, for instance, the general American accent, seem more accepting of HIATUS. In the phrases ‘a good idea about’, ‘law overruled’ and ‘vanilla ice cream’, American speakers will comfortably run through the HIATUS of the two neighbouring vowels together with an effortless vocal glide. Of course, Americans still say ‘an_afternoon, an_evening’, but in many other instances they just continue through the space / hiatus between vowels, without the need to fill the space with a linking consonant.
Listen to these British and American speakers say the phrase below. Do you notice the different ways they join the words ‘idea_of…’ ?
BRITISH MODERN RP ACCENT:
“I’ve never really liked the idea of reality TV”
GENERAL AMERICAN ACCENT:
“I’ve never really liked the idea of reality TV”
Now try saying the phrase “I’ve never really liked the idea_of reality TV” out loud yourself. What feels more comfortable to you? To break the vowel sounds between “idea_of…” ? with a linking intrusive /r/ or not?
Now listen to these short phrases below. Do the speakers link the words with an /r/ or not?
BRITISH MODERN RP ACCENT:
“vanilla ice, Anna agreed, India again, law overruled, raw avocado, saw eighteen”
GENERAL AMERICAN ACCENT:
“vanilla ice, Anna agreed, India again, law overruled, raw avocado, saw eighteen”
Now try speaking them yourself. How do you join the words?
To hear more examples from different accents of English just visit this page and scroll down to the audio players.
HIATUS avoidance in accents: Is it random or is there a reason?
But is it really so random that the British RP accent avoids HIATUS, and the general American accent doesn’t? Or is there a reason? Maybe there really are factors in accents and languages that easily lend themselves to being comfortable with HIATUS or not? The voice placement / oral posture of the accent could be a key factor. Perhaps people just do what’s easiest for the mouth position at the bordering of the sounds, and follow ‘the line of least resistance’?
Fronted placement – HIATUS avoidance?
Accents such as Modern British RP have a very fronted oral posture / placement, where the key point of resonance sits around the lips and front of the jaw. Therefore, vowels that rest in placement here naturally rest towards the front mask of the face; the lips and front of the jaw, which brings the articulatory organs here very close together. So the natural way to fill the HIATUS is with the nearest consonant to the placement of that vowel sound when it meets another, e.g. in ‘my /j/ idea, two /w/ evenings and vanilla /r/ ice’ the linking sounds /j/, /w/ and /r/ (intrusive), are naturally articulated because in fact that is where the speech organs happen to be sitting at the time, and the linking consonant is naturally generated. It is the ‘line of least resistance’ so to speak.
Back-central placement – HIATUS acceptance?
Yet in the general American Accent the placement / oral posture sits back in the mid-tongue / palatal area. The schwa /ə/ is placed further back and is slightly more open, and the accent’s ‘resting place’ falls further back in the mouth, making it more natural to make an effortless vocal glide through a HIATUS between vowels. American speakers definitely do not seem to avoid HIATUS to the extent that British speakers do. Americans will make much less defined linking sounds /j/ and /w/ in the sequences ‘my /j/ idea’ and ‘two /w/ evenings’. But in the sequence ‘vanilla ice’ the intrusive /r/ is totally absent in most American accents, so there is no HIATUS avoidance here. Speakers of most American accents would comfortably run the more open schwa /ə/ into the /aɪ/ diphthong, as it doesn’t naturally ‘rest’ forward to generate an intrusive /r/ as would be the case as in the British RP accent. It is the fronted placement of the British /r/ and the height of the British RP schwa /ə/ that causes this ‘intrusive /r/‘ sequence to come naturally.
Also, modern British RP speakers saying, ‘law overruled’ would insert an intrusive /r/ and say ‘law /r/ overruled’. The vowel /ɔː/ from ‘law’ in RP has the same tongue-height position as the alveolar /r/, so if it runs into another vowel a British RP speaker will naturally insert the fronted alveolar /r/ as a ‘divider’ to avoid the HIATUS. It’s the line of least resistance.
However, for general American speakers saying ‘law overruled’ the open-back vowel in ‘law’ /lɒ:/ is placed nowhere near the American retroflex /r/. The tongue-height is very different between the two sounds /ɒ:/ and retroflex /r/. Therefore, they do not naturally rest into a natural intrusive /r/ like Modern RP does.
Accent Training and HIATUS: Conclusion and tips for learners.
Sometimes learners of new accents and languages make errors in linking words and sounds by hyper-correcting according to their own native accent. For instance, some British actors in the early stages of learning the American accent will accidentally use an intrusive /r/ in sequences like ‘vanilla ice cream’ and ‘law overruled’, just because they associate this HIATUS avoidance with their own native British speech pattern. But if one wishes to learn an American accent to a native speaker level, this has to be corrected and learners must train themselves to vocally glide through the HIATUS between certain vowels. This not only sounds more native, but also helps the learner to improve the oral posture and vowel placement of the American accent, then in turn they start and finish the phonetic sounds more accurately too.
The same goes the other way round. American actors learning the British RP accent need to learn to use an intrusive /r/ to avoid the HIATUS between certain vowels. This in turn helps them to improve the oral posture and vowel placement for the RP accent. Also, American actors are very conscious of the non-rhotic pattern of the British RP and London accents, and learners sometimes hypercorrect by trying to remove all the syllable final linking /r/s, even when it’s unnecessary (such as ‘better_ice cream’) and intrusive /r/s (such as ‘vanilla-r-ice cream’).
SO really, observing the presence or absence of HIATUS can help you learn a more genuine and truer accent.
In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtnlGH055TA there is an interesting slant given on HIATUS by phonetician Dr Geoff Lindsey (at 4.15 minutes into the video).
