NS > NTS (was: Re: "war" [wor])

[LanDi Liu]

On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 2:18 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> That reminds me: in the not-too-distance past, TZ argued that there is
> no "t" sound in words like "since" and "prince."
>
> My first phonetics professor held that there is a prestige dialect
> that maintains the "ns" pronunciation, thus differentiating "prince"
> from "prints" (a pursuit that TZ should be greatly interested in). I
> recently found a great example, pronounced by the Netherlander pop
> singer Roel van Velzen in "When Summer Ends." The song video can be
> seen (and heard) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWkBMbhAYPM. It
> starts right off with his t-less pronunciation of "since".
>
It seems that the [t] or no [t] in since depends on when you stop the
vocalization.  If you say something like [sɪnzs] then there is
definitely no [t].  It also may have to do with how dry your tongue is
at the moment.  It seems that I can say [sɪns] with a drier tongue,
but if it is wetter, then it comes out [sɪnts].

--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
My Manchu studies blog:
http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu

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