The Phonetic Context of American English Flapping: Quantitative Evidence

Abstract

The phonetic context in which word-medial flaps occur (in contrast to [t^h]) in American English is explored. The analysis focuses on stress placement, following phone, and syllabification. In Experiment 1, subjects provided their preference for [t^h] or [ ] in bisyllabic nonce words. Consistent with previous studies, flaps were preferred before stressless syllables and [t^h] before stressed syllables, but the following phone also exerted a small degree of influence. Experiments 2 and 3 tested whether [t^h ] or [ ] are associated with a particular syllable position in bisyllabic words. They demonstrate that [t^h] is favored in onsets, while [ ] is not consistently placed in either the onset or coda, nor is it generally ambisyllabic. These findings contradict analyses that posit syllable division as a conditioning factor in the appearance of [t^h] versus [ ]. Experiment 4 examined the pronunciation of 480 multisyllabic words from the TIMIT corpus. VCV was seen to favor [ ], while VCV favored [t^h]. In addition, flaps tend to be followed by syllabic sonorants and [t^h] by tense vowels. Because the following phones that influenced [t^h] and [ ] in Experiment 4 differ from those that were significant in Experiment 1, more research is necessary into the effect that following phones have on the appearance of [t^h] and [ ].