In this video we are going to have a look at yod coalescence and yod dropping. Don’t be scared off by these two complicated sounding terms. I promise, it is easier than you think!

In both of these features the sound /j/ plays an important role. Yod coalescence happens when two sounds join to form a new sound. In English, this always involves the sound /j/ which is where the ‘yod’ comes from. ‘Yod’ is the name of a letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and it refers to the sound /j/ as in the word ‘yes’.

We are going to look at all the examples you will encounter in English:

/d/ + /j/ = /dʒ/

/t/ + /j/ = /tʃ/

/s/ + /j/ = /ʃ/

/z/ + /j/ = /ʒ/

Yod coalescence can happen across syllable boundaries within words, but also across word boundaries. We will look at examples for both.

In comparison to yod coalescence, yod dropping refers to the elision of the sound /j/. This is a feature specific to American English. Again, we are going to cover several examples so you can see and hear the difference.

At the end of the video, I will show you how you can test someone’s accent to find out where they are from!

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