Re: [ADS-L] Pronunciation questio n (from L. Urdang)

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On May 29, 2007, at 8:02 AM, Ron Butters wrote:

> In a message dated 5/29/07 10:23:17 AM, t-irons at MOREHEAD-ST.EDU
> writes:
>
>
>> I have noticed the change in the pronunciation of the contracted n't
>> at the end of aux verbs among especially younger speakers but had not
>> been able to figure out exactly what the change is.  I think he
>> has it
>> right.  What is something like a syllabic /n/ for me has evolved into
>> a full schwa.
>>
>
> No one has mentioned that "didn't" has often been pronunced with a
> glottal
> stop allophone of the /d/.

i was wondering about the relationship between the two variants
(schwaful [or whatever-ful] final syllable, glottal stop for the
medial /d/).  do they tend to co-occur, or are they just both mostly
distributed in the south[?

> My sense is that I am hearing this less among the
> young, with an unvoiced /d/ instead. I wonder if this is what Larry
> is noticing.

my guess would be that the /d/ is unvoiced here because it's
glottalized; it would then be an intermediate stage between a voiced
allophone of /d/ and the glottal stop allophone.  but maybe, as ron
suggests, it's just unaspirated.  maybe both variants occur.  time
for some instrumental phonetics.

arnold

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org