Re: Aspirated stops vs. fricatives (was Re: Tit'xka (Pretty Long Post))

Tom Wier wrote:

Eric Christopherson wrote:
>>
>>I disagree that final /k/ is unreleased, at least from the speech
>>I hear every day. I pronounce "pack" [p&k_h] and "tap" [t&p_h],
>>but "cat" [k&t7] ([7] representing no audible release). I'm
>>inclined to think that [t7] is the same sound as in "cattle"
>>[k&t7l=], but it sounds just like [d] and I have seen it
>>represented as a tapped /r/ before. Anyone know what the *real*
>>story is? :)
>
>Well, *most* dialects *do* have unrelease in those positions.  In
>your case, it might actually be due to substrate influences from
>foreign languages of generations ago.  In your general area of the
>country, it's actually been attested that a number of Germanisms
>have found their way into the speech of English speakers (like "Do
>you wanna come with?" exactly paralleling German "Willst du
>mitkommen?"), or perhaps Scandinavianisms [note to our Scandinavian
>readers out there:  do your languages feature unrelease in final
>position?].  For me, all stop consonants feature unrelease word-
>finally.
The way I understand this, in English, glottalized and
un-glottalized final stops are generally free variants of all final
stops. The only exception would be in several dialects in the
British Isles where final /t/ is pronounced as a glottal stop [?]
without any element of [t]. In Danish, glottalization is a
suprasegmental feature; some words are characterized by having the
"st/od" (or glottal catch). I'm reminded of the difference between
two very short Danish words that are spelled the same except that
one is stressed and the other isn't: e't ("one") and et ("a"). The
word e't is stressed and has a glottal catch. This glottal catch
somewhat triggers an unreleased /t/. On the other hand, et is
unstressed and does not have this glottal catch. This triggers a
released /t/, almost aspirated. That's the story as far as my own
Danish speech goes. I'm really not sure what the story is regarding
the other Scandinavian languages. They are more tonal than Danish
and use tones rather than a glottal catch in their suprasegmental
phonologies.

Regards,
-Kristian- 8-)