Flapping

Template:Short description Template:English phonology topics Template:IPA notice Flapping or tapping, also known as alveolar flapping, intervocalic flapping, or t-voicing, is a phonological process involving a voiced alveolar tap or flap; it is found in many varieties of English, especially North American, Cardiff, Ulster, Australian and New Zealand English, where the voiceless alveolar stop consonant phoneme Template:IPAslink is pronounced as a voiced alveolar flap , a sound produced by briefly tapping the alveolar ridge with the tongue, when placed between vowels. In London English, the flapped Template:IPAblink is perceived as a casual pronunciation intermediate between the affricate Template:IPAblink, with higher class associations, and the glottal stop Template:IPAblink, with lower class associations.Template:Sfnp In these named varieties, outside of Britain, , the voiced counterpart of , is also frequently pronounced as a flap in such positions, making pairs of words like latter and ladder sound similar or identical. In similar positions, the combination may be pronounced as a nasalized flap Template:IPAblink, making winter sound similar or identical to winner.

Flapping of is sometimes perceived as the replacement of with ; for example, the word butter pronounced with flapping may be heard as "budder".

In other dialects of English, such as South African English, Scottish English, some Northern England English (like Scouse), and older varieties of Received Pronunciation, the flap is a variant of (see Pronunciation of English ).Template:Sfnp

Terminology and articulation

The terms flap and tap are often used synonymously, although some authors make a distinction between them. When the distinction is made, a flap involves a rapid backward and forward movement of the tongue tip, while a tap involves an upward and downward movement.Template:Sfnp Linguists disagree on whether the sound produced in the present process is a flap or a tap, and by extension on whether the process is better called flapping or tapping,Template:Sfnp while flapping has traditionally been more widely used.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Template:Harvcoltxt identify four types of sounds produced in the process: alveolar tap, down-flap, up-flap, and postalveolar tap (found in autumn, Berta, otter, and murder, respectively).Template:Sfnp

In Cockney, another voiced variant of that has been reported to occur to coexist with the alveolar tap (and other allophones, such as the very common glottal stop) is a simple voiced alveolar stop Template:IPAblink, which occurs especially in the words little , hospital and whatever . That too results in a (variable) merger with , whereas the tap does not.Template:Sfnp

In Cardiff English, the alveolar tap is less rapid than the corresponding sound in traditional RP, being more similar to . It also involves a larger part of the tongue. Thus, the typical Cardiff pronunciation of hospital as or is quite similar to Cockney , though it does not involve a neutralization of the flap with Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp

Distribution

Flapping of and is a prominent feature of North American English. Some linguists consider it obligatory for most American dialects to flap between a stressed and an unstressed vowel.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Flapping of also occurs in Australian, New Zealand and (especially Northern) Irish English, and more infrequently or variably in South African English, Cockney, and Received Pronunciation.Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

The exact conditions for flapping in North American English are unknown, although it is widely understood that it occurs in an alveolar stop, or , when placed between two vowels, provided the second vowel is unstressed (as in butter, writing, wedding, loader).Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Across word boundaries, however, it can occur between any two vowels, provided the second vowel begins a word (as in get over ).Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp This extends to morphological boundaries within compound words (as in whatever ).Template:Sfnp In addition to vowels, segments that may precede the flap include (as in party)Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp and occasionally (as in faulty).Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Flapping after is more common in Canadian English than in American English.Template:Sfnp Syllabic may also follow the flap (as in bottle).Template:Sfnp Flapping of before (as in button) is observed in Australian English.Template:Sfnp In North American English, and Template:IPAblink (t-glottalization) were the only realizations of before ,Template:Sfnp but studies in the 2020s have found in younger US speakers.Template:Sfnp

Morpheme-internally, the vowel following the flap must not only be unstressed but also be a reduced one (namely , morpheme-final or prevocalic , or preceding , , etc.Template:Efn),Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp so words like botox, retail, and latex are not flapped in spite of the primary stress on the first syllables,Template:Sfnp while pity, motto, and Keating can be.Template:Sfnp The second syllables in the former set of words can thus be considered as having secondary stress.Template:Sfnp

Word-medial flapping is also prohibited in foot-initial positions. This prevents words such as militaristic, spirantization, and Mediterranean from flapping, despite capitalistic and alphabetization, for example, being flapped. This is known as the Withgott effect.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

In North American English, the cluster (but not ) in the same environment as flapped may be realized as a nasal flap . Intervocalic is also often realized as a nasal flap, so words like winter and winner can become homophonous.Template:Sfnp According to Template:Harvcoltxt, in the United States, Southerners tend to pronounce winter and winner identically, while Northerners, especially those from the east coast, tend to retain the distinction, pronouncing winter with or and winner with .Template:Sfnp

Given these intricacies, it is difficult to formulate a phonological rule that accurately predicts flapping.Template:Sfnp Nevertheless, Template:Harvcoltxt postulates that it applies to alveolar stops:

• after a sonorant other than , , or , but with restrictions on ;
• before an unstressed vowel within words, or before any vowel across a word boundary;
• when not in foot-initial position.Template:Sfnp

Exceptions include the preposition/particle to and words derived from it, such as today, tonight, tomorrow, and together, wherein may be flapped when intervocalic (as in go to sleep ).Template:Sfnp In Australian English, numerals thirteen, fourteen, and eighteen are often flapped despite the second vowel being stressed.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp In a handful of words such as seventy, ninety, and carpenter, is frequently pronounced as , retaining and voicing , although it may still become in rapid speech.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Homophony

Flapping is a specific type of lenition, specifically intervocalic weakening. It leads to the neutralization of the distinction between and in appropriate environments, a partial merger of the two phonemes, provided that both and are flapped.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Some speakers, however, flap only but not . Yet, for a minority of speakers, the merger can occur only if neither sound is flapped. That is the case in Cockney, where is occasionally voiced to Template:IPAblink, yielding a variable merger of little and Lidl.Template:Sfnp For speakers with the merger, the following utterances sound the same or almost the same:

Homophonous pairs

		IPA	Notes
aborting	aboarding
alighted	elided		With weak vowel merger.
ante	Annie
anti-	Annie
at 'em	Adam
at 'em	add 'em
atom	Adam
atom	add 'em
auntie	Annie
banter	banner
batter	badder
batty	baddie
beating	beading
Bertie	birdie		With fern-fir-fur merger.
Bertie	Birdy; Birdie		With fern-fir-fur merger.
betting	bedding
biting	biding
bitter	bidder
bitting	bidding
bitty	biddy
blatter	bladder
bleating	bleeding
boating	boding
bruter	brooder		With yod-dropping after .
butting	budding
butty	buddy
canter	canner
canton	cannon
canton	canon
carting	carding
catty	caddy
centre; center	sinner		With pen–pin merger.
chanting	Channing
cited	sided
citer	cider
clotting	clodding
coating	coding
courting	chording
courting	cording
cuttle	cuddle
cutty	cuddy
daughter	dodder		With cot-caught merger.
daunting	dawning
daunting	donning		With cot-caught merger.
debtor	deader
diluted	deluded
don't it	doughnut		With weak vowel merger and toe-tow merger.
dotter	dodder
doughty	dowdy
eluted	alluded		With weak vowel merger.
eluted	eluded
enter	in a		In non-rhotic accents with pen-pin merger.
enter	inner		With pen-pin merger.
eta	Ada
fated	faded
flutter	flooder
fontal	faunal		With cot-caught merger.
futile	feudal		With weak vowel merger.
garter	guarder
gaunter	goner		With cot-caught merger.
goated	goaded
grater	grader
greater	grader
gritted	gridded
gritty	Griddy
hearty	hardy
heated	heeded		With meet-meat merger.
Hetty; Hettie	heady
hurting	herding		With fern-fir-fur merger.
inter-	in a		In non-rhotic accents.
inter-	inner
iter	eider
jaunty	Johnny		With cot-caught merger.
jointing	joining
kitted	kidded
kitty	kiddie
knotted	nodded
latter	ladder
lauded	lotted		With cot-caught merger.
linty	Lenny		With pen-pin merger.
liter	leader		With meet-meat merger.
little	Lidl
looter	lewder		With yod-dropping after .
manta	manna
manta	manner		In non-rhotic accents.
manta	manor		In non-rhotic accents.
Marty	Mardi		In the term Mardi Gras.
matter	madder
mattocks	Maddox
meant it	minute		With pen–pin merger.
metal	medal
metal	meddle
mettle	medal
mettle	meddle
minty	many		With pen–pin merger.
minty	mini
minty	Minnie
motile	modal		With weak vowel merger.
mottle	model
mutter	mudder
neater	kneader
neuter	nuder
nighter	nidor
nitre; niter	nidor
noted	noded
oater	odour; odor
otter	odder
painting	paining
panting	panning
parity	parody		With weak vowel merger
patter	padder
patting	padding
patty	paddy
petal	pedal
petal	peddle
pettle	pedal
pettle	peddle
platted	plaided
planting	planning
pleating	pleading
plenty	Pliny		With pen–pin merger.
plotting	plodding
potted	podded
pouter	powder
punting	punning
putting	pudding
rated	raided		With pane-pain merger.
rattle	raddle
righting	riding
roti	roadie
rooter	ruder		With yod-dropping after .
rotting	rodding
router	ruder		With yod-dropping after .
runty	runny
rutty	ruddy
sainting	seining
Saturday	sadder day
satyr	Seder
saunter	sauna		In non-rhotic accents.
scented	synod		With pen-pin merger.
scenting	sinning		With pen-pin merger.
seating	seeding		With meet-meat merger.
sent it	senate
set it	said it
shunting	shunning
shutter	shudder
sighted	sided
sighter	cider
sinter	sinner
sited	sided
skitting	skidding
sorted	sordid
slighting	sliding
stunting	stunning
tarty	tardy
tenter	tenner
tenter	tenor
tenting	tinning		With pen-pin merger.
title	tidal
toting	toading
traitor	trader		With pane-pain merger.
tutor	Tudor
tweeted	tweeded
utter	udder
waiter	wader		With pane-pain merger.
wattle	waddle
weighted	waded		With pane-pain merger.
wetting	wedding
winter	winner
wheated	weeded		With wine-whine merger.
whiter	wider		With wine–whine merger.
writing	riding

In accents characterized by Canadian raising, such words as riding and writing may be flapped yet still distinguished by the quality of the vowel: riding , writing .Template:Sfnp Vowel duration may also be different, with a longer vowel before than before , due to pre-fortis clipping.Template:Sfnp

Withgott effect

In a dissertation in 1982, M.M. Withgott demonstrated that, among speakers of American English, words seem to be chunked into pronunciation units she referred to as a foot, similar to a metrical unit in poetry. Such chunking was said to block flapping in the word ‘Mediterranean’ ([[Medi[terranean] ], cf. [ [sub[terranean]]). How a word is chunked relates to its morphological derivation, as seen by contrasting morphologically similar pairs such as the following (where the vertical bar shows where Withgott argued there is boundary between neighboring feet):

Initial-type t		vs.	flapped-t
military		vs.	capital
militaristic		vs.	capitalistic

The medial t in càpitalístic can be flapped as easily as in post-stress cátty , in contrast to the medial t in mìlitarístic, which comes at the beginning of a foot, and so must be pronounced as , like a t at the beginning of a word.

Long, seemingly monomorphemic words also are chunked in English for purposes of pronunciation. In such words ’s — as well as the other unvoiced stops — are pronounced like initial segments whenever they receive secondary stress or are at the beginning of a foot.

T-to-R rule

The origins of the T-to-R rule lie in the flapping of and the subsequent reinterpretation of the flap as , which was then followed by the use of the prevailing variant of , namely the approximant Template:IPAblink. It is applied in Northern England English and it is always stigmatized. The application of that rule means that shut in the phrasal verb to shut up has a different phonemic form than the citation form of the verb to shut . The rule is typically not applied in the word-internal position.Template:Sfnp

The T-to-R rule has also been reported to occur in the Cardiff dialect (where the merged consonant can surface as either an approximant or a flap) and South African English (where only a flap is possible). In the Cardiff dialect, the rule is typically applied between any vowel (including long vowels) and or the reduced (also across word boundaries), so that starting and starring can be homophonous as . In South African English, the merger is possible only for those speakers who use the flapped allophone of (making the starting–starring minimal pair homophonous as ), otherwise the sounds are distinguished as a flap (or a voiceless stop) for () vs. approximant for (). There, the merger occurs word-internally between vowels in those environments where flapping is possible in North American English.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Homophonous pairs

		IPA	Notes
battle	barrel
batty	Barrie
batty	Barry
betty	berry
but a	borough		In Cardiff English. But has an alternative form , with an elided .Template:Sfnp
butter	borough
catty	carry
catty	kar(r)ee
daughter	Dora
Fetty	ferry
hotter	horror
jetty	jerry
Lottie	lorry
matty	marry
otter	horror		With h-dropping.
petty	Perry
starting	starring
tarty	tarry		Tarry in the sense "resembling tar".

See also

• Phonological history of English consonants
• Regional accents of English

Bibliography

• Template:Cite EPD
• Template:Accents of English
• Template:Cite LPD

Further reading

• Withgott, M. Margaret. 1982. Segmental Evidence for Phonological Constituents. Ph.D. Dissertation for the University of Texas at Austin.
• Iverson, Gregory K. and Sang-Cheol Ahn. 2004. English Voicing in Dimensional Theory. Language Sciences (Phonology of English).
• Kahn, Daniel. 1976. Syllable-Based Generalizations in English Phonology. Ph.D. Dissertation for the University of Massachusetts reproduced by I.U. Linguistics Club.
• Steriade, Donca. 1999. Paradigm uniformity and the phonetics-phonology boundary. In M. Broe and J. Pierrehumbert (eds.), Papers in Laboratory Phonology V: Acquisition and the lexicon, 313-334. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.