Flapping Information

Intervocalic alveolar-flapping is a phonological process found in many dialects of English, especially North American English and Australian English, by which either or both prevocalic (preceding a vowel) /t/ and /d/ surface as the alveolar tap [ɾ] after sonorants other than /ŋ/, /m/, and (in some environments) /l/.

• after vowel: butter
• after r: barter
• after l: faculty (but not immediately post-tonic: alter → al[tʰ]er, not *al[ɾ]er)

The term "flap" is often used as a synonym for the term "tap", but the two can be distinguished phonetically. A flap involves a rapid movement of the tongue tip from a retracted vertical position to a (more or less) horizontal position, during which the tongue tip brushes the alveolar ridge. A tap involves a rapid backwards and forwards movement of the tongue tip. The sound referred to here is the alveolar tap [ɾ], not the flap [ɽ], and hence "tapping" is the correct term from a phonetic point of view (see also flap consonant). However, no languages are known to contrast taps and flaps, and the term "flapping" is ingrained in much of the phonological literature,^[1] so it is retained here.

Flapping/tapping is a specific type of lenition, specifically intervocalic weakening. For people with the merger these following utterances sound the same or almost the same:

For most (but not all) speakers the merger does not occur when an intervocalic /t/ or /d/ is followed by a syllabic n, so written and ridden remain distinct. A non-negligible number of speakers (including pockets in the Boston area) lack the rule that glottalizes t and d before syllabic n, and therefore flap/tap /t/ and /d/ in this environment. Pairs like potent : impotent, with the former having a preglottalized unreleased t or a glottal stop (but not a flap/tap) and the latter having either an aspirated t or a flap/tap, suggest that the level of stress on the preceding vowel may play a role in the applicability of glottalization and flapping/tapping before syllabic n. Some speakers in the Pacific Northwest turn /t/ into a flap but not /d/, so writer and rider remain distinct even though the long i is pronounced the same in both words.

The cluster [nt] can also be flapped/tapped; the IPA symbol for a nasal tap is [ɾ̃]. As a result, in quick speech, words like winner and winter can become homophonous. Flapping/tapping does not occur for most speakers in words like carpenter and ninety, which instead surface with [d].^[2]

A similar process also occurs in other languages, such as Western Apache (and other Southern Athabaskan languages). In Western Apache, intervocalic /t/ similarly is realized as [ɾ] in intervocalic position. This process occurs even over word boundaries. However, tapping is blocked when /t/ is the initial consonant of a stem (in other words tapping occurs only when /t/ is stem-internal or in a prefix). Unlike English, tapping is not affected by suprasegmentals (in other words stress or tone).

References

1. ^ Giegerich, Heinz J. (1992). English Phonology, pp. 225, 241. Cambridge University Press.
2. ^ "a sentence about a center for dentists, at the frontal edge of the continent, by the Atlantic ocean".

See also

• Regional accents of English speakers

Categories:

• English phonology
• American English
• Australian English
• Splits and mergers in English phonology

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