American English Phonetics

Another American English Faculty Project

9.4.1 Flapping and other rules

In words like winter, center, Atlantic, in which ambisyllabic /t/ follows /n/, a number of rules can apply:

  1. Flapping can apply after (nasalization and) nasal deletion. GA /wɪntər/ becomes [wɪ᷈tər], and, because ambisyllabic /t/ is now between vowels, then becomes [wɪ᷈ɾər].
  2. t/d-deletion may apply to produce [wɪ᷈nər]. In practice, because the nasalization is likely to be maintained during the flap, the members of pairs like winter – winner will tend to be homophonous in unguarded speech.

Notice also in this connection that the following two utterances are distinct because of the /æ/ – /ə/ opposition in can’t – can:

you can’t eat it – [jəkæ᷈ɾiːɾɪt]

you can eat it – [jəkən iːɾɪ]

However, the following two sentences would be (near-)homophonous.

But you can’t eat it! – [bətʃəˈkæ᷈ɾiːɾɪt]

But you can eat it! – [bətʃəˈkæ᷈n iːɾɪt]