For words ending in "-ity" is it ~t or ~d

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

You mean they should recognize it by putting a general statement in their pronunciation guide regarding this well-known allophonic variation? Maybe something like:

"In some contexts, as when a stressed or unstressed vowel precedes and an unstressed vowel or \&l\ follows, the sound represented by t or tt is pronounced in most American speech as a voiced flap produced by the tongue tip tapping the teethridge. In similar contexts the sound represented by d or dd has the same pronunciation. Thus, the pairs ladder and latter, leader and liter, parody and parity are often homophones."
http://www.m-w.com/help/pronguide.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Tom Zurinskas
Sent: Mon 6/11/2007 7:20 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:      Re: For words ending in "-ity" is it ~t or ~d
 
...

SUMMARY  - as spoken in m-w.com;
Most words ending in "ity" are spoken as ~idee.
This sample is large and sufficient.
Dictionaries should recognize this fact.

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