Allophonic Variation Of Manner: Unreleased Plosives

Question 1

Bad day- when we say the words separately, both d’s have an approach, hold and release phase

Answer 1

Although the release phase for the d in bad may be inaudible when the word is produced in isolation as we have seen above, because it occurs before a pause

Question 2

When the two d’s are adjacent in the phrase bad day however it is possible that they

Answer 2

Merge together with a single approach and release, and one long held phase

Question 3

We say that the first d in bad is

Answer 3

Unreleased and transcribe it as d with a small circle in the top right hand corner.

Question 4

When there is rapid production of the phrase bad day, Gemination is said to have occurred. Notice that it is not the case

Answer 4

That the d’s have been deleted. Instead they have merged to have a longer hold phase than a single d and only a single approach and release phase. Note that the first d is entirely unreleased and this is rather different to a plosive with an inaudible release, where the release does occur but cannot be heard

Question 5

In any sequence of homorganic plosives, the first plosive can be unreleased

Answer 5

This includes voiceless plosives, for example in a sequence of k k , and where the two homorganic plosives differ in voicing (for example a sequence of k g)

Question 6

However once again we have a case of free allophonic variation when

Answer 6

Two homorganic plosives occur, the first might be unreleased or it can have wide oral release in which case Gemination does not occur, and each plosive has an approach, hold and release phase. Again, this depends on the speakers largely, unconcious choice

Question 7

Try to produce bad day in two ways: firstly with an unreleased first plosive and secondly with the plosive in bad produced with wide oral release. Do they both sound Norma and natural?

Answer 7

As the unreleased and wide orally released plosives are in free allophonic variation in this position, they should both sound fine. The release version may sound a little more careful, but both are acceptable. However when we visit assimilation we will come across a situation where the unreleased version is the only option