North American English ‘t’

How do you pronounce “t”?

Consider the following words:O mountain maintain writeO writerwriting writtenO fasterlittle atomO atomic hitting

fitnessO today return dirty

4 ways!Consider one of the following four ways:O /t/ - alveolar voiceless plosiveO /th/ - aspirated /t/O /tʔ/ - glottal catch – unreleased

soundO /ɾ/ - tap or flap – almost like a /d/

Rule for /ʔ/ (glottal catch)

When ‘t’ is at the end of a syllable before a pause, before a consonant or before unstressed /ən/, it is pronounced as /tʔ/1. He can’t do it.2. He lost the mittens.3. He saw a black cat.4. Where did he sit?5. He can’t do it.6. What can you do about it?7. Let me go.8. It rained 

9. Sit down.10. It was nice.11. Come here at once.12. He might not come.13. I’ve already eaten14. Button your buttons.15. Are those mittens made of cotton?16. Great Britain has many mountains.

Rule for /ɾ/ - flap or tap‘t’ becomes a flap when it is between two vowels, where it appears after a vowel and before an unstressed vowel. 

Letter Butter Metal Editor Little Bottle

1. Get a rate for it2. He invited her to a party.3. The editor’s at the meeting.4. He bet all his money.5. We’re out of milk.6. You can get a bottle for me.7. It’ll be fine.8. Thirty or forty people came.9. I’d like a little butter.

/t/ or /th/O /t/ or /th/ is pronounced in all other

situations not mentioned.O Note: aspiration /h/ occurs when the

‘t’ appears at the beginning of a stressed syllable (e.g., table, train, telescope, betray)

CompareO I don’t know what he sought.

O I don’t know what he saw.O Did you have a good date?

O Did you have a good day?O Did you see her goat?

O Did you see her go?O Where’s my belt?

O Where’s my bell?

Try this!Betty Botter bought some butter.But, said she, this butter’s bitter.I’ll buy a bit of better butterto make my batter better.So she bought a bit of better butter and made her batter better.