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The problem of unstressed vowels and the coarticulation within consonantal clusters for English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Celia Scully
Affiliation:
University of Leeds

Extract

In his book An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English A. C. Gimson (1970) describes the articulation of the English plosives in different phonetic contexts. He demonstrates here (146–54 and 156–8) and elsewhere (Gimson, 1960) the articulatory instability of, in particular, the alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/ in English. As W. S. Allen (1960) points out, the predominance of instability associated with the alveolar plosives, rather than with the bilabials /p/ and /b/ or velars /k/ and /g/ may correlate with the more common occurrence of the alveolars rather than with articulatory or other kinds of constraints specific to consonantal clusters containing /t/ and /d/.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of the International Phonetic Association 1973

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References

Allen, W. S. (1960). ‘A note on “instability”’, Le Maître Phonétique, 114, 27–8.Google Scholar
Gimson, A. C. (1960). ‘The instability of English alveolar articulations’, Le Maître. Phonélique, 113, 710.Google Scholar
Gimson, A. C. (1970). An introduction to the pronunciation of English. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Truby, H. M. (1959). ‘Acoustico-cineradiographic analysis considerations (with especial reference to certain consonantal complexes)’, Supplementum 182 to Acta Radiologica. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Wells, J. C. (1962). ‘A specimen of British English‘, Le Maître Phonélique, 117, 25.Google Scholar