The consonants

The plosives

The voiceless velar plosive is usually affricated (released with audible friction at the point of articulation) in all positions. Alveolar [t] is affricated initially in stressed syllables, but usually voiced and tapped between sonorants in words such as getting, butter, bottle. The tapping may occur over word-boundaries as well as within words, both within a foot and over foot-boundaries. (A foot here is a sequence of a stressed syllable and any following unstressed syllables up to but not including the next stressed syllable.) It occurs over word-boundaries only where the /t/ is word-final, e.g. in get eggs. In a tall person, aspiration/affrication of /t/ blocks the tapping. There are some slight indications that a glottal plosive may be starting to replace this tap, but it is too soon to say whether this feature will spread. A glottal plosive [ʔ] is in free variation with an affricated plosive in final position. The bilabial [p] can be heard aspirated in all positions. Both [p] and [k] and also [ʧ] may get glottal reinforcement in word-final position, and this variant seems to be gaining ground rapidly, having been virtually unknown in the 1970s. After syllable-initial [s], [p, t, k] are unaspirated.

 

The so-called voiced plosives have very little voicing, and are distinguished from their voiceless counterparts mainly by their lack of aspiration/affrication. There may be no phonetic difference between an intervocalic /t/ and an intervocalic /d/, but this has not been carefully analyzed.

مواضيع ذات صلة

Monophthongs and diphthongs MOUTH

Monophthongs and diphthongs CHOICE

Monophthongs and diphthongs PRICE

Monophthongs and diphthongs GOAT

Monophthongs and diphthongs FACE

Monophthongs and diphthongs NURSE

Monophthongs and diphthongs FOOT and GOOSE (LOOSE)

Monophthongs and diphthongs STRUT (CUT), BATH (GRASS), PALM and START

Monophthongs and diphthongs LOT (POT), CLOTH (OFF), THOUGHT, NORTH and FORCE

Monophthongs and diphthongs DRESS and TRAP (BACK)

Monophthongs and diphthongs KIT (FIT) and FLEECE (REEF)

Monophthongs and diphthongs