In defense of etymological speculation

[Alice Faber]

Mark A Mandel said:
>On Tue, 13 Aug 2002, Alice Faber wrote:
>
>#There may be something phonological going on there also, by which
>#unreleased /p/ is interpreted as unreleased or glottalized /t/ (which
>#some phonologists treat as the "default" consonant, or obstruent,
>#anyway). A few years ago, when I was researching glottal replacement
>#of /t/, I tripped over a usenet posting in which the stereotypical
>#Down East (Maine) "ayup" (for "yes"), was written "ayut" with a
>#description that implied glottal stop--this was in a baseball
>#discussion group!).
>
>Is "ayup" often pronounced with a glottal stop FOLLOWED by labial
>closure? If so, the [p] would be nearly or totally inaudible.
>

I don't have native intuitions about this. My gut feeling, though, is
that the consonant is unreleased (hence, virtually inaudible) *and*
the vowel is very short, which means that there *must* be a following
voiceless consonant (in English). So, you end up with a /t/ percept
without a [t]. So to speak.

Alice

--
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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
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