Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> <jats:italic>Connected speech</jats:italic> (similar terms include <jats:italic>sandhi variation</jats:italic> , <jats:italic>reductions</jats:italic> , <jats:italic>reduced forms of speech</jats:italic> , <jats:italic>weak forms</jats:italic> , <jats:italic>casual speech</jats:italic> ) refers to sounds and words that are uttered in running speech rather than in isolation or citation form. In these normal circumstances, neighboring sounds may influence each other or otherwise be altered, and these adjustments are not limited to “casual/careless/informal” speech but are an unavoidable result of the natural use of language. An understanding of these effects is important to many scholars, from phoneticians to acquisitionists to those who work with speech recognition and synthesis and their computational implementation. In addition, awareness and knowledge of such phenomena are invaluable to language learners. The focus of this entry is to explore various connected speech rules, processes, and other phenomena, and to discuss their relevance and importance to second language learning. </jats:p>