Ying moments

Ying moments is a term I use in Phonology for Listening to refer to moments in spontaneous speech when words are squeezed into new and unfamiliar soundshapes which are likely to be a source of decoding problems for learners of English. The term is derived from another that I use in the same book – Ying’s dilemma. Ying’s dilemma is when a learner-listener, who believes that they know a word, cannot catch (decode and understand) that same word when it occurs in speech. Ying’s dilemma is illustrated here. I am tweeting about such moments #yingmoment.