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

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Aug 15, 2008, at 12:35 AM, LanDi Liu wrote:

>
> 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].

I actually hear some z action by van Velzen, perhaps this [sɪnzs] is
what he's doing. I spent a long time figuring out how to not pronounce
the t sound in such words (I had no model). It's interesting that
others have no trouble with it. BB

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