Back to Matrix [ɾ] → [tʰ] Edit this Data

[tʰ]→[ɾ]Certainty: 3/5Commonality: 4/5

Germanic Allophony Lenition Deaspiration Voicing Flapping

Voiceless aspirated alveolar plosive to Voiced alveolar flap

The transformation from a voiceless aspirated alveolar plosive (tʰ) to a voiced alveolar flap (ɾ) is a prominent allophonic variation of the phoneme /t/ in several dialects of English, including North American and Australian English. This phenomenon, commonly known as T-flapping, involves the lenition of the alveolar stop when it occurs in specific phonetic environments, typically between a stressed vowel and an unstressed vowel or syllabic consonant.

Phonetic Effects

Lenition, Deaspiration, Voicing

Language Examples

American English Germanic

photographer [fəˈtʰɑ.ɡɹə.fɚ]→photograph [ˈfoʊ.ɾəˌɡɹæf]— The underlying /t/ phoneme is realized as an aspirated plosive [tʰ] in the stressed syllable of 'photographer' but as a voiced alveolar flap [ɾ] in the unstressed intervocalic position of 'photograph'.

atomic [əˈtʰɑmɪk]→atom [ˈæɾəm]— The /t/ phoneme is aspirated [tʰ] when stressed in 'atomic' but flapped [ɾ] when unstressed and intervocalic in 'atom'.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Germanic Shifts

[a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction [æ] → [ɛ] — Vowel Raising

Sources & References

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