/t/ and /d/ are alveolar plosives since the sounds are produced at the alveolar ridge. /t/ is unvoiced and is the counterpart to the voiced /d/. The tongue is the tool to block all the air. The tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge and the sides of the tongue press against the upper side teeth. In this way, air is briefly prevented from leaving the vocal tract. The sound is aspirated when the air is released. The aspiration for /t/ is greater when it is the first sound of a word or the first sound of a stressed syllable. An initial /t/ or /d/ is much easier to recognize than a final /t/ or /d/.
/t/, /d/ minimal pairs
These are /t/ and /d/ minimal pairs, where the phoneme comes at the beginning of the word.
town down
two do
tie die
touch Dutch
train drain
try dry
tear dare
tear dear
ten den
tide dyed
tongue dung
tart dart
teal deal
team deem
tech deck
teen dean
tent dent
tide died
tin din
tire dire
tomb doom
tough duff
tout doubt
tower dour
tuck duck
tyre dire
tale dale
tamp damp
tell dell
tick Dick
tier deer
tusk dusk
/t/, /d/ minimal pairs for pre-fortis clipping
These are /t/ and /d/ minimal pairs where the phonemes come at the end of the words. Notice that the vowel sound is longer with /d/ because it is voiced. In English, the duration of vowel length is shorter before a voiceless consonant and longer when they come before voiced consonants. This phenomenon is called pre-fortis clipping. The term ‘fortis’ amounts to voiceless sound and ‘clipping’ means shortening. So, ‘pre-fortis clipping’ means shortening of vowel sound before voiceless consonants. For example, the vowel in bad /bæd/ is longer than the vowel in bat /bæt/.
bat bad
beat bead
bent bend
bright bride
but bud
cat cad
cute queued
debt dead
got god
hat had
write ride
ant and
at add
bet bed
cart card
eight aid
feet feed
flout flawed
height hide
heart hard
hit hid
hurt heard
kit kid
mat mad
meant mend
neat need
not nod
pat pad
pot pod
plate played
sat sad
sent send
set said
site sighed
spent spend
wait weighed
slight slide
stunt stunned
Allophones of /t/
/t/ has several allophones. As we examined in the previous episode, since /t/ is a voiceless plosive, it can be aspirated, unaspirated, or held, depending on the phonological environment. In addition, /t/ has three other allophones: the flap T, the glottal-t, and the silent-t.
Flap T
Flap T means that the voiceless alveolar stop, /t/, is pronounced as a voiced alveolar flap (or tap). This allophone of /t/ is denoted by [ɾ] in the IPA. Flap T is produced by briefly tapping the alveolar ridge with the tip of the tongue instead of the usual stopping of the air flow at the alveolar ridge. Once tapping the ridge, the tongue moves on to make the next sound in the word. By the way, flap T happens with ‘d’ as well as ‘t’. When words are pronounced with flap T, words with /t/ can sound almost like words with /d/. So these can be viewed as homophones due to flap T:
Homophones due to flap T
atom Adam
betting bedding
bitter bidder
coating coding
futile feudal
greater grader
hearty hardy
latter ladder
matter madder
metal medal
petal peddle
rated raided
seating seeding
title tidal
traitor trader
wetting wedding
writing riding
Flap T is such a prominent feature of American English that some linguists consider it obligatory for standard American English. So when do we use flap T?
After stressed vowel and before unstressed vowel
Most commonly, /t/ is realized as a flap T when ‘T’ or ‘D’ is in the middle of a word, and preceded by a stressed vowel and followed by an unstressed vowel. That is, flap T occurs most often when ‘T’ or ‘D’ comes between two vowels, provided the first vowel is stressed and the second vowel is unstressed. For example, these words include the flap T:
butter, writing, wedding, loader, kidding, water, meeting, bottom, battery, artificial
There are exceptions to this rule since words like “botox, retail, and latex” are not flapped in spite of the primary stress on the first syllables
Before syllabic L
A syllabic consonant is a consonant that can form an entire syllable on its own, without any vowels. Sonorants, in particular nasals and liquids, can become syllabic consonants in certain phonetic environments. A syllabic L sounds like “ul” (/əl/). When ‘T’ or ‘D’ comes before a syllabic /l/, it becomes a flap T. For example,
battle, bottle, middle, niddle, little, turtle, cattle, rattle, saddle, poodle,
fatal, hospital, metal
Before syllabic N (/əN/). (as in button), ‘T’ is pronounced as the glottal stop [ʔ] in American English, which we examine later.
After an r-colored vowel
When ‘T’ comes after an r-colored vowel and before a vowel, it can be pronounced as a flap T. For example,
charter, comforting, dirty, quarter, thirty
Flap T happens in phrases as well when T occurs between any two vowels, provided the second vowel begins a word. For example,
It is,
Without it,
That again.
What a good idea.
Put it in a bottle.
Get a better water heater.
Put all the data in the computer.
Patty ought to write a better letter.
When /t/ is the first sound of a stressed syllable, it remains the true /t/ sound. So, in these words, /t/ is not flapped, but aspirated.
Attach, determine, italic, interpret, attend.
Compare ‘Italy’ and ‘italic’. ‘Italy’ has the stress on the first syllable, so the ‘t’ is flapped, but in ‘italic’ /t/ is not flapped, since it begins the stressed syllable. The following are similar cases:
Atom - atomic
Forty- fourteen
Pattern- paternal
Silent T
Some spelling combinations almost always produce a silent t. These are examples:
“-ften”:
often, soften
“-sten”:
listen, glisten, hasten, fasten, moisten, christen, chasten
“-stle”:
castle, nestle, pestle, apostle, thistle, whistle, wrestle, gristle
‘T’ can also be silent in a consonant cluster when it comes in the middle of the cluster. For example,
lastly, postman, coastguard, wristband
When ‘n’ comes before ‘t’ and a vowel follows after ‘t,’ the /t/ sound can disappear, and we hear only the /n/ sound. That is, the combination /nt/ might be pronounced as /n/. For this reason, ‘winter’ and ‘winner’ become homophones. These are examples where ‘t’ is silent after ‘n’
Center, wanted, interview, international, advantage percentage
Glottal stop /ʔ/
Another allophone of /t/ is a glottal stop, represented by this symbol, /Ɂ/. It is the sound when we say “uh-oh.” The middle choking sound is the glottal stop. The glottal stop occurs when the vocal folds are briefly closed, and then released. When /t/ is expressed in a glottal stop, there is no sound for /t/.
Before syllabic N
In American English, glottal stop happens mainly when ‘t’ comes before the syllabic N. In other words, the glottal stop occurs before an unstressed “un” sound (/ən/). These words have a glottal stop.
beaten, bitten, Britain, button, certain, Clinton, cotton, curtain, eaten, gotten, forgotten, fountain, kitten, Latin, mitten, rotten, satin, written, mountain, sentence Marten, shorten, important
The glottal stop can also occur when ‘t’ comes between an r-colored vowel and n. For example,
Partner, kindergartner, smartness, expertness, shortness
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