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Re: another silly phonology question

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Thursday, November 30, 2000, 17:20
(Re Spanish /T/ vs. [D]) Jeff Jones wrote:
>I haven't seen a response yet, so I thought I'd stick my oar in and muddy >the waters somewhat. >I think the difference is that between interdental (Castilian /T/), where >the tongue protrudes between the teeth, and dental ([D]), where the tongue >touches the back of the teeth. Wouldn't the "minimal pair" actually be a >constrast between phonemes (i.e. /T/ and /d/)? What I think you want is a >phonetic contrast. I don't recall when /T/ becomes voiced; it may vary from >dialect to dialect.>
You're right, they aren't at the same place of articulation. Well, offhand, here's a near-min.pr: caza 'hunt', cada 'each'. I'm not sure /T/ would ever be voiced-- maybe in fast speech when word-final -z precedes a word-initial voiced stop or nasal? Conversely, word-final /d/[D] is sometimes devoiced, as in the common (and criticized) pronunciation of "Madrid". Aside from some place names, nouns in -dad, -tud, and the little-used plural familiar imperative, -d just isn't all that common. I don't hear much Castilian anymore; many Latin Americans tend to just drop the -d.