Allophones of /t/ in Scotland and Utah, United States of America
Allophones of /t/ in
dialects of Scotland
and Utah, United
States of America.
Sophia O’Shea
Salt Lake Community College
1
2
Abstract
The topic of this paper is a phonetic analysis of the phoneme /t/ and its set of allophones
that is distinct to a speaker from Scotland and a speaker from Utah, United States of America.
Audio data was collected from two subjects, one from Scotland and one from Utah, United
States of America. The hypothesis is; Allophones can be used in both dialects as complimentary
distribution and selected freely from variant allophones based on personal habit or preference.
The null hypothesis is that allophones can only be used in complimentary distribution.
The importance of understanding different phonemes in speech sounds is important
because it helps teachers understand the background and reasoning behind students exhibiting
such phenomena and thereby facilitating understanding if guidance for correction is needed.
Introduction
The purpose of this study is to isolate and analyze a set of allophones in natural speech
from two different speakers from different backgrounds. The analysis will include the
articulation and perception of speech of the phoneme /t/ and its group of allophones: [tʰ]
Aspirated. [ɾ] flap, [ ð ](voiced dental fricative).[θ] voiceless dental fricative.[ t ]omitted t. [ʔ]
glottal stop, and also describe the environments that the allophones might be commonly
instantiated.
Literature Review
Allophones can be interchanged, used freely with discretion from the speaker or are used
because of certain rules and environments. Different allophones are used in different regions of
countries and even smaller than that, allophones can vary within different towns and villages.
“[T]he choice of one allophone rather than another may depend on such factors as
communicative situation, language variety, and social class….[W]hen we consider the wide
range of possible realizations of any given phoneme (even by a single speaker), it becomes clear
that we owe the vast majority of allophones in free variation to idiolects or simply to chance, and
that the number of such allophones is virtually infinite”(Burleigh &Skandera, 2005).
In many parts of the United Kingdom you will hear the left out “tt”, this explains why in
areas such as Scotland you will hear this phenomena because of the close proximity of the
country, also because of migration back and forth over many generations of Scottish and British
patriots. “You can also hear a glottal sound in the cockney English pronunciation of the “tt” in
words like better and bottle”(Archibald et al, p.25). “In some British dialects, the glottal stop is
commonly heard in place of the [t] in a word like bottle. This glottal stop is often spelled with an
apostrophe <bo’l>”(Archibald et al,p.25).
In Utah, the phenomena is a little different, “Pronounced [ɾ] in some positions in GA and
Australian English, and is possible in RP in words like butter, [ʔ] in some positions in English
English, American English and Australian English, and [t̞ ] non-initially in Irish
English”(phonetic,web, 2012)
Summary
Phonemes have different groups of allophones that all depend on the region, dialect of the
speaker and free choice.
Methods
Design
This study requires voice recording of two speakers from different geographical
locations. Recording lasted approximately 10 minutes each. Each voice recording contains
natural speech conversation and the reading from “Little Red Riding Hood” (Hilbert, 1982). The
reason behind the choice of book is the phoneme /t/ is pronounced throughout the book; also the
book is quick to read.
Speakers
The first speaker is Helen Dishaw, age 45. Born and raised till the age of 7 in Newcastle,
Scotland and then raised in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. The second speaker is Bonnie
Hamilton, age 39. Born in Idaho, United States of American and raised her whole life in the
neighboring state of Utah. Both speakers agreed and signed a modeling waiver form before and
during recording times.
Data Collection
Voice recordings of both speakers using natural speech and reading from “Little Red
Riding Hood”(Connelly, Hilbert, 1982). Data from one subject was collected at Tracy Aviary in
a private room. The other recording was taken at a private residence. Both speakers knew
nothing of the reasoning behind the recording and that only a request for their voice recording
was required. Both speakers were directed to use natural speech in both reading and interview of
the required reading. Both recordings were taken during the month of April, 2012.
Data Analysis
/t/
[t] [ð] [θ] [ʔ] [ɾ] [tʰ]
The set of allophones that will be studied are: ð(voiced dental fricative)θ (voiceless dental
fricative) ʔ (glottal stop). [t] Omitted t sound. [ɾ]flap. [tʰ] aspirated when at beginning of word or
beginning of a syllable.
Transcription 1 [ʔ] Glottalized in middle of word position and the [ɾ] flap
Little
Pretty
Scottish
United
Transcription 2 [ɾ] Glottalized before a syllabic consonant.
Twenty
Forty
Transcription three [t] Omitted t at end of words.
Not
What
But
Transcription 4 [t] Omitted t sound at end of words.
Bit
It
Eat
Out
Transcript 5 [ð] voiced dental fricative
Mother, Grandmother, Teethe, Something.
Transcription 6 [tʰ], aspirated t sound when it is the first sound of a word or a stressed
syllable.
Teethe, Interesting, To, Twenty.
Results
Transcription 1 [ʔ] Glottalized and [ɾ]Alveolar tap in place of tt and in between
vowels.
“You can also hear a glottal sound in the cockney English pronunciation of the “tt” in words like
better and bottle”(Archibald et al, 2010)
Helen
Bonnie
American IPA
Little [ɭɪtʔɔ] < Li’ al>
[lɪɾ əl]
[lɪtəl]
Pretty [pɹɛtʔej] <pre’ eh>
[prɪɾi]
[prɪti]
Scottish [Skɑtʔɛʃ]< Sko’ esh>
[ skɑtɪʃ]
United [junajʔəd] <Uni’ed>
[junajtəd]
Helen:
/t/ →[ ʔ]/front vowel
Helen:
/t/→[ʔ]/back vowel There is a pattern; the words all share a phonetic property, a
voiceless glottal stop which comes after a vowel and if there are two tt’s the glottal stop comes
before a vowel. This allophone is in complimentary distribution.
Bonnie:
/t/→[ɾ ]/back vowel_back vowel Bonnie’s articulation changed from an alveolar stop
to a flap between vowels.
Transcription 2 [ʔ] Glottalized before a vowel
Helen
American IPA
Twenty [twɛnʔɛ] < twen’ eh>
Forty [fɑrʔɛ]
<for’ eh>
Helen: The glottal stop comes before a vowel.
[twɛnti]
[fɔrti]
/t/→[ʔ]/back vowel
Transcription three [t] and Omitted t at end of words.
Helen
Bonnie
American IPA
[nɑt]
[nɑt]
[nɑt]
What [wɑt]
[wət]
[wət]
[bʌt]
[bət]
[bət]
Not
But
Get
[gɛt]
[gɛ]
[gɛt]
Helen and Bonnie: The /t/ is omitted after a vowel. Complementary distribution.
/t/ →[t] /back vowel
Transcription 4 [t] Omitted t sound and [t]
Helen
Bonnie
American IPA
Bit
[bɪt]
[bɪt]
[bɪt]
It
[ɪt]
[ɪt]
[ɪt]
Eat
[it]
[it]
[it]
Out
[owt]
[awt]
[awt]
Helen:
/t/→[t]/front vowel
Bonnie: /t/→[ ]/ front vowel
Complementary distribution.
Complementary distribution
Transcript 5 [ð] unvoiced
Helen
Bonnie
American IPA
[məðər]
[məðər]
Grandmother [grændmʊðɛɹ]
[grændmʊðɛɹ]
[grændməðər]
Teethe
[tið]
[tið]
Mother
[mʊðɛɹ ]
[tið]
Something
[sʊmθɪŋ]
[Sʊɱθɪŋ]
[səmθɪŋ]
Helen and Bonnie: /t/→[ ð]/vowel_vowel Complementary distribution.
Transcription 6 [tʰ] , aspirated t sound when it is the first sound of a word or a stressed syllable.
Helen
Bonnie
American IPA
Teethe
[tʰif]
[tʰið]
[tið]
Interesting
[ɪntʰrəstɪŋ]
[ɪntʰ rəstɪŋ]
[ɪntrəstɪŋ]
To
[tʰ u]
[tʰu]
[tu]
Twenty
[tʰwɛnti]
[twɛnti]
Helen and Bonnie pronounced aspirated t’s at the beginning of the words
Discussion
Topic
The topic of this paper is a phonemic analysis of the phoneme /t/ and its set of allophones
that are distinct to a speaker from Scotland and a speaker from Utah, United States of America.
Explanation of results
Helen, speaker no.1 drops her middle tt’s completely and does not pronounce her t’s at
the end of words. Helen would pronounce her t’s very clearly at the beginning of words but this
was not always the case when she became conscious of her speech patterns.
Bonnic, speaker no.2 is typical of North America whereby she replaces her middle tt’s
with a d sound, she also starts her t words with a d sound if the word before ends with a d, such
as (and this) and (this and that)
Implications
The only implications are that the speakers are aware of the phenomena that they exhibit and are
capable of making a choice as to correct their sounds or to stay the same as they are.
Importance
Native speakers use allophones intuitively, non-native speakers benefit greatly from
explicit instruction on the subject by increasing their listening comprehension as well as being
perceived as more fluent speakers.
Limitations
The limitation that this study had was the researcher had very limited knowledge of the
study of linguistics. A personal limitation that the researcher faced was her own origin of birth.
The researcher was born and raised in London, England and the problem faced was transcribing
the sounds of the American IPA. Many of the sounds produced and described in the text book
“contemporary Linguistics” ( Archibald et al, 2010) sounded very different from the way the
researcher sounded her own allophones and phonemes. “There are many dialectical differences
in the pronunciation of vowels and syllabic consonants” (Archibald et al. study guide, 2010).
Summary
The hypothesis is; Allophones can be used in both dialects as complimentary distribution
and selected freely from variant allophones based on personal habit or preference. The null
hypothesis is that allophones can only be used in complimentary distribution.
This phonemic analysis proved that speakers have the choice to either speak using
allophones familiar to their environment or they could use allophones that are more correct.
References
Archibald, J. Aronoff,M. O’Grady,W. Reese-Miller, Janie. Contemporary Linguistics. An
introduction.2010.
Burleigh, P. Skandera, P. A Manual of English Phonetics and Phonology. Gunter Narr Verlag,
2005)
Hilbert, M. Connelly, Gwen. Little Red Riding Hood.
http://ipa.typeit.org/full/
Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International