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English Flapping and the feature [vibrant]

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Marc Picard
Marc Picard
Affiliation:
260 Sherbrooke E.#425Montréal, QCH2X 1E1Canadapicard@vax2.concordia.ca
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Extract

In certain varieties of English, and most notably in the majority of North American dialects, alveolar oral and nasal stops undergo a process known as Flapping or Tapping in certain well-defined environments. At the present time, the resulting segments [ɾ] and [ɾ̃] cannot be satisfactorily captured by any known phonetic feature mainly because there is no way to distinguish a nasal stop from a nasal tap or flap. In this paper, I will argue that since vibration is the primary articulatory characteristic of taps, flaps and trills, the phonological rule of Flapping or Tapping constitutes evidence that [vibrant] should be added to the current inventory of features.

Type
Articles
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , November 1997 , pp. 285 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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