LG204 background.pdf

LG204-5-FY ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Background
Stops which precede other consonants or those which occur pre-pausally are not
released. This is because the articulators are already anticipating the following sound
and are forming into that sound. Release, if we can describe it as such, therefore,
merely spills into the following sound. Examples of words where there are two
adjacent stops include apt fact etc. The diacritic that denotes no release is hence nap
[np].
Lack of release can apply to stops in any dialect of English, however, for many of us
there is a further variant on the final /t/ in particular (sometimes also on /p/ and /k/).
This the glottal stop []. In non-prevocalic position, these stops may either be preglottalised
– that is to say that a glottal stop precedes or accompanies the stop
articulation, as in cap [k p]. Pre-glottalisation may also occur with /t/ but here it is
more likely that the alveolar contact will be totally lost here, leaving the glottal stop as
a substitute, as in cat [k]. The extent to which /t/ is replaced by a glottal stop and in
what position in the word, will vary from speaker to speaker and from dialect to
dialect. Ladefoged, who is primarily writing about American English, says that it’s
very likely to happen before a syllabic nasal in a word like button [bIt is also
very common syllable finally in words such as Scotland [sklnd], Watford [wfd]
and Gatwick [gwk].
Alveolar stops may also be released into a following nasal or lateral consonant. That
is to say that in words like sudden instead of releasing the contact for the [d] it
remains in its position and air is channelled through the nose. Likewise, in a word
such as muddle the sides of the tongue will be lowered whilst the alveolar contact
remains in place. I have discussed these phenomena with regard to voiced [d], but, of
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