My American Accent (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

My American Accent
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nikolic993
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Message 9 of 12

30 May 2015 at 4:15am | IP Logged

hrhenry wrote:

I think this really depends on which part of the US/Canada you're in. I've never heard "dmorrrow", for example. It's always a voiceless "T" where I am (North Central US).

While at first listen, spitting may sound like "spidding" but it's actually somewhere between a voiceless "T" and a voiced "D". I definitely hear "wader" much more often than "water", though. :)

R.
==

@hrhenry: Thanks for chiming in. I wrote often, not always. Those were the first examples that I thought of, so maybe they weren't the best choices. I've heard it in a lot of movies and TV shows, so I don't know from which part of the U.S the people that say it like that are from. I remember watching Marvel's "Daredevil" a couple weeks ago and the leading actor said "dmorrow" a couple of times.(He is from England but he speaks with an American accent). It's hard to find an example on pronunciation websites, because the word is spoken in isolation and not in connected speech.

@hrhenry&Tarvos: As far as the nuances are concerned,I just rounded it up to (what at least to me was) the closest sounding phoneme. I wasn't thinking about the voiced/voicelss distinction. I'm still a layman when it comes to describing stuff, so I didn't want to overanalyze it. :)

Edited by nikolic993 on 30 May 2015 at 4:16am
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tarvos
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Message 10 of 12

30 May 2015 at 4:39am | IP Logged

It's subtle. However if you want to do an accent right it's important to think about
these kinds of details, as well as the overall intonation.
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tastyonions
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Message 11 of 12

30 May 2015 at 11:59am | IP Logged

The "t" in "spitting" is pronounced like any old flapped "d" that begins an unstressed syllable, e.g. in "ridding" or "bidding" or "ladder." Actually, "ladder" is a very good example: most Americans pronounce "ladder" and "latter" exactly the same when speaking normally (i.e. not becoming self-conscious and wondering whether they "should" be different).

"If I offered you a choice between a ladder and a footstool, which would you pick?"
"The ladder." (Did I mean the second item, or the first one?) ;-)

The "dmorrow" thing is interesting. Lots of people (including me) say it like that in casual speech, but only in between vowels, e.g. "see you tomorrow."

We're going to the movie dgether (together).
We are going to the movies together.

I'm free dday (today).
I will do my chores today.

In these cases, again, it is the flapped "d" of "ladder" rather than the more "explosive" one of "darker."

Edited by tastyonions on 30 May 2015 at 12:10pm
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nikolic993
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Message 12 of 12

11 June 2015 at 6:07am | IP Logged

I came across this today:

Quote:

Do Americans pronounce T like D? Pronunciation editor Josh Guenter writes:

It’s often stated that Americans pronounce T like D. This is not quite accurate. In American English, T and D are always pronounced distinctly in words like dip and tip, or attack and adapt, or bleat and bleed. However, there are many words, such as metal and medal, or bleating and bleeding, or bitter and bidder, where T and D are indeed pronounced the same for many speakers of American English. In these words, it is not the case that T is being pronounced as a D. Rather, it is the case that both T and D are being pronounced as a third sound, commonly known as a “tap” or a “flap.” The “tap” that we may hear in a word like bleating is not the same sound as the final consonant in bleat, but it is also not the same as the final consonant in bleed.

We do not find the “tap” sound in all positions in a word in American English. We only find it between vowels. Specifically, we only find it between vowels when the following vowel is not stressed. Stressed syllables are indicated in our dictionaries by one of two marks, either the high stress mark, /ˈ/, for a syllable which has the greatest degree of stress in the word, or the low stress mark, /ˌ/, for a syllable which doesn’t have the greatest degree of stress in the word, but which still receives stress. Any syllable not preceded by one of these two marks is unstressed. Thus, we may hear the “tap” sound in words like metal, bleeding, or bitter, but we would not hear the “tap” in words like attack, since the vowel following the T is in a stressed syllable. It should be noted that R acts like a vowel in American English with regards to tapping, thus words like barter, herding, or aorta will have taps. Also, a “tap” can be found at the ends of words when the following word begins with an unstressed vowel. For example, in the sentence "I will read a book," the D at the end of read will sound like a tap.

Not all speakers of American English pronounce T and D as taps in the situations mentioned. Some will keep T and D distinct in all situations. Tapping of T and D is also not common in British English though it is common in Australian English. Even some speakers who do use taps might not always do it consistently, and might pronounce a word with a tap sometimes, and with a regular T or D other times. A learner of English who wants to keep T and D distinct in all situations will be understood. However, if you want to sound like a native speaker of American English, it is useful to learn when to pronounce T or D as a tap.

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