types of /t/ in English

Lecture No. 14
Title: Types of /t/ in English
1. Aspirated /t / : when the sound /t/ occurs at the beginning of a syllable, its pronunciation is accompanied by a puff of air called aspiration. This an be represented in the word ten. In contrast the pronunciation of /t/ in lent is unaspirated
2. Unreleased /t/: the pronunciation of final /t/ in words such as kit is frequently unreleased in the speech of many Americans : the tongue touches the alveolar ridge but does not immediately drop away to release the sound.. for most speakers of American English, in the pronunciation of the word kit , the voicing ends and the airflow stops before the tongue reaches the alveolar ridge in articulating the final /t/.
3. Glottal stop replacement of /t/: in certain words the tendency to have a glottal closure with the articulation of /t/ in certain environments reaches such an extreme that the glottal stop actually replaces/t/. in many speaker s pronunciationof words such as button and kitten, the stop articulation is actually carried out at the glottis, and the tongue does not move toward the alveolar ridge until the /n/ of the final syllable is articulated. The /t/ is replaced by the glottal stop if the following syllable contains a syllabic /n /.
4. Flapped /t/: in words such as pitted , /t/ is regularly pronounced as a voiced d- like sound by most speakers of American English. This sound is articulated by making a quick tap with the tongue tipon the alveolar ridge.