Allophonic alternations in English
Summary
1. Aspiration
The English voiceless oral stops /p, t, k/, unless preceded by /s/, are aspirated before vowels
in the following contexts:
• At the beginning of a stressed syllable:
, , , ,
tie, retire, guitar,
contain
• Word-initially in unstressed syllables (but aspiration is weaker in this context): ,
today
• /p, t, k/ may also be aspirated word-finally, particularly if preceded by /s/:
.
• In word-final position, voiceless oral stops may or may not be released (i.e. they may be
realized without plosion). If they are released, they may be aspirated or unaspirated.
2. Devoicing of glides and liquids
English liquids and glides (/l, r, j, w/) are normally voiced, but they become devoiced when
preceded by a voiceless obstruent, i.e. voiceless fricatives and oral stops, provided the
liquid/glide and the preceding voiceless obstruent belong to the same syllable onset.
3. Velarization of the English alveolar lateral
• ‘Dark’ velarized /l/ (
[5]
) occurs postvocalically in word-final or pre-consonantal contexts (i.e.
in syllable codas).
• ‘Clear’ /l/ (
) always before vowels (and /j/) (i.e. in syllable onsets).
• Syllabic laterals (those occupying the syllable nucleus) are usually velarized (
[5]
).
• Vocalizede variants (
) result if in the articulation of
[5]
the tongue tip contact is lost.
• Syllabic
[5]
may become non-syllabic and retain velarization, or may resyllabify as an onset
and become clear when a vowel-initial suffix is appended.
4. Tapping of alveolar oral stops
In many varieties of English (particularly in North American English) /t, d/ are realized as a
voiced alveolar flap (= tap) articulated with the tip of the tongue: or . The flap occurs as
an allophone of /t, d/ in the following contexts:
• In intervocalic position following a stressed vowel and preceding an unstressed vowel.
• Between two unstressed vowels (optionally).
• Between a stressed vowel folloed by
and a following unstressed vowel.
1
