> > Barbara Blithered;
> > So /T/ becomes /t[/ and /D/ becomes /d[/. To the unpractised ear they
> > all sound like /d/.
> Nik Niggled;
> Is that /t[/ unaspirated? Because otherwise, I can't see why it would
> be mistaken for /d/ rather than /t/.
First I'm not sure we're using the same ASCII/IPA transcription system.
But BTAIM the dental t's and d's of hibernian english are almost
plosives. The enitre accent is what folk call "soft" it has a whispered
quality in which much voicing disapears. So the dental t is a very
"hard" sound in the context of the whole accent (one does not here
phenomes in isolation after all :-)).
The very first time I went to Dublin I was only 12 years old (1966) and
my mum tried to drum bit of culture into me by taking me on a guided
bus tour of the capitol. As we we coming up to Trinity College the Guide
grabed the mike and when into his routine about the college and its
famous library. My jaw dropped when he said "When Trintiy College
Library was founded they had only thirty books", because in my
unfamiliararity with the dublin accent I thought he'd said "dirty books"
;-)
Barbara