American English Phonetics

Another American English Faculty Project

The assimilation of GA /t,d,n,l/ to the place of articulation of a following consonant is probably the most common of the assimilation in GA. They can become bilabial, labiodental, dental, postalveolar and velar, depending on the place of articulation of the consonant that follows. The assimilation under b) and c) below will also occur in formal styles, and should definitely be adopted by the foreign speaker.

a) Alveolar /t,d,n/ become bilabial /p,b,m/ before /p,b,m/.

/t/ becomes /p/             footpath, football, treatment, got better, that pen, that book, that man, it missed

footpath

football

/d/ becomes /b/            deadpan, goodbye, headband, admit, good pens, good books, good mengood people

deadpan

goodbye

/n/ becomes /m/           input, sunbath, inmate, unpleasant, one pen, one book, one man, one blank

input

sunbath

b) Alveolar /t,d,n,l/ become dental [t̪,d̪,n̪,l̪] before [θ,ð].

/t/ becomes [t̪]                          eighth, wet through

eighth

wet through

/d/ becomes [d̪]                        width, hide that

width

hide that

/n/ becomes [n̪]                        enthusiasm, in there

enthusiasm

in there

/l/ becomes [l̪]                          although, well then

although

well then

c) Alveolar /t,d,n,l/ become post-alveolar [t̠,d̠,n̠,l̠] before /r/. Note that /tr,dr/ are post-alveolar affricates.

/t/ becomes [t̠]                         entry, ratrace

entry

ratrace

/d/ becomes [d̠]                       dry, headroom

dry

headroom

/n/ becomes [n̠]                       Henry, in red

Henry

in red

/l/ becomes [l̠]                        ultra, he’ll run

ultra

he’ll run

d) Alveolar /t,d,n/ become velar /k,g,ŋ/ before /k,g/. Of course, if /t/ is glottaled, as in [naɪʔˈkæp͜ʔ], there is no assimilation.

/t/ becomes /k/                        nightcap, shotgun, that car, that guy

nightcap

shotgun

/d/ bcomes /g/                         redcoat, mudguard, good cars, good guys

redcoat

mudguard

/n/ becomes /ŋ/                       income, engage, one car, one guy

income

engage

e) Alveolar /s,z/ become palate-alveolar /ʃ,ʒ/ before /ʃ/.

Examples are this ship, these ships: /ðɪʃ ʃɪp/, /ðiːʒ ʃips/.

this ship

these ships

Less commonly, this happens before /j/, as in this year, these years, where you may not want to apply the assimilation yourself, but should be prepared to hear it in the speech of native speakers. If you do use it, be careful not to turn /zj/ into /ʃʃ/ or even /ʃ/ in cases like these years, which at best would assimilate to /ðiːʒ jɪrz/.

this year

these years