But it’s – bites

I came across an interesting moment in a recording from Dellar and Walkley’s Outcomes Advanced. In unit 8 (Track 24 of the split edition) there’s a dialogue between two people talking about a holiday in the Dolomites. At one point the female speaker reassures her male listener that what he thinks is a dangerous situation (in climbing a mountain) is actually quite safe. The conversation goes

A: Really? I’m not sure I’d trust some rusty old cables
B: No, they’re fairly secure. I mean, you need a head for heights, bit it’s fine.

Have a listen.

And here are the last three words ‘But it’s fine’

When I first gave this soundfile a careful listen, I thought there was something interesting happening in terms of the sound shapes of ‘but it’s’ so I isolated them, and made this sound file.

To my ears (it is so important to say that!) but it’s sounds close to a monosyllable bites |baɪts| or even bite |baɪt|. Depending on the quality of your audio system, and the quality of your ears you may not hear a final s.

So what is happening? And how do we describe it? Is it down to the accent of the speaker? Or is it an example of a known (but unknown to me) speech process where the vowel quality of fine is anticipated in the articulation of the preceding vowel segments?

If the latter, might we expect
but it’s raining – but it’s = bates (anticipating the first element of the diphthong |eɪ| of raining).

And perhaps

but it’s hot – but it’s = bots
but it’s cool – but it’s = boots
but it’s shut – but it’s = butts
but it’s interesting – but it’s = bits