Lenition, fortition and the status of plosive affrication

The case of spontaneous RP English /t

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20399863
AutoresEmanuela Buizza (University of Leeds), Leendert Plug (0000-0002-6884-1311, University of Leeds)
Año2012
Volumen29
Número1
Páginas1-38
Fecha de publicación2012-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPhonology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0952-6757 • E-ISSN: 1469-8188
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0952675712000024
OpenAlexW2095804295
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas46

This paper reports on a phonetic and phonological study of /t/-affrication in spontaneous British English Received Pronunciation. The study is motivated by the uncertainty surrounding plosive affrication in the literature on lenition and fortition. We suggest that a decision as to the status of a given pattern involving affrication in terms of lenition or fortition should be based on thorough phonetic and phonological analysis. We present a phonetic and phonological account of /t/-affrication, which takes into consideration the temporal and spectral characteristics of the sounds involved, as well as their distribution across phonological environments. Crucially, we compare affricated instances of /t/ with aspirated and fricated ones in the same dataset – the former arguably unmarked in this variety, the latter uncontroversially the result of lenition. We argue that the phonetic and phonological characteristics of /t/-affrication presented in this paper are consistent with an account in terms of fortition rather than lenition

Linguistics · Phonological rule · Phonology · Pronunciation · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence