Allegro vs. casual speech (was "slurring"?)

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Arnold's note no the technical distinctions between "allegro" and "casual" 
("informal") is welcome. It is possible to have allegro formal speech (as when 
someone is trying to read a 30-minute conference paper in 20 minutes). 

My point--which I'm sure Arnold agrees with--is that "careless" is a 
relatively meaningless term when applied to speech. People are social animals, and we 
monitor pace and articulation (not to mention grammar and vocabulary) very 
carefully, if mostly subconsciously, to project the self-image we wish to 
project. 

In a message dated 2/22/09 1:23:19 PM, zwicky at stanford.edu writes:


> 
> On Feb 22, 2009, at 9:59 AM, Ron Butters wrote:
> 
> >
> > Allegro speech is not "careless" nor is it "slurred". It follows 
> > rules that vary from dialect to dialect. Speech in which no allegro 
> > rules are followed is not "careful," it is unusual, and sounds 
> > stilted.
> 
> casual speech (a matter of style) is not the same thing as allegro 
> speech, though the variants found in casual speech typically originate 
> historically in allegro speech: some allegro variants become 
> associated with informal style, and then are free to appear in slower 
> tempos.  but, as ron stressed, the phenomena of allegro speech, and 
> casual speech as well, are rule-governed and differ from variety to 
> variety.  (this is true in syntax as well as phonology/phonetics.)
> 
> arnold
> 
> 
> 




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