Help!

[Unregistered]

I'm doing english A Level Coursework, and I'm just wondering what the technical term is for running words together, or talking really fast so that a few words come out sounding like they are one word. Holly

[David L.]

I can't think of one word in English for that. We would say, "he was talking on top of himself'/'they were talking on top of each other'

[Clare James]

In most ELT writing, rapid delivery is referred to as 'connected speech.'

In linguistics analyisis of pronunciation there are various terms such as:

assimilation - where d sounds next to p, b or m sounds run into each other, like in 'handball'

elision - where you drop the sound of a word, as in 'Christmas' or 'sandwich'

absorption - where the sounds of words run together, as in 'a nice house' - 'an ice house'.

For more information on this try these websites:
Karen's linguistic issues - Karen's Linguistics Issues
A Reference Glossary to Pronunciation Terms and Terminology for ESL EFL TESL TEFL Teacher