English
In most dialects of English, the first stop of a cluster has no audible release, as in apt, doctor, or logged on . Although such sounds are frequently described as "unreleased", the reality is that the two consonants overlap so that the release of the first takes place during the hold of the second, masking the first consonant's release and making it inaudible. This can lead to cross-articulations that seem very much like deletions or complete assimilation. For example, hundred pounds may sound like but X-ray and electropalatographic studies demonstrate that inaudible and possibly weakened contacts may still be made, so that the second /d/ in hundred pounds does not entirely assimilate a labial place of articulation, but rather co-occurs with it.
Such sounds may occur between vowels, as in some pronunciations of out a lot. The overlap here appears to be with a glottal stop, : the /t/ is pronounced, and since it is between vowels it must be released, but its release is masked by the glottal stop.
The term 'unreleased' is also used for a stop before a homorganic nasal, as in catnip. In such cases, however, the stop is released as a nasal, in a nasal release, and so is more precisely transcribed .
Read more about this topic: No Audible Release
Famous quotes containing the word english:
“I framed to the harp
Many an English ditty lovely well.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“He had first discovered a propensity for savagery in the acrid lavatories of a minor English public school where he used to press the heads of the new boys into the ceramic bowl and pull the flush upon them to drown their gurgling protests.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“I am sure my bones would not rest in an English grave, or my clay mix with the earth of that country. I believe the thought would drive me mad on my death-bed could I suppose that any of my friends would be base enough to convey my carcass back to her soil. I would not even feed her worms if I could help it.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)