Re: English /T/, was Re: Spanish ll in different dialects

Tim May wrote:

>Joe wrote at 2004-08-28 16:04:47 (+0100)
> > Doug Dee wrote:
> >
> > >IIRC . . . When I was in college, one of my linguistics professors (William
> > >Labov), mentioned that for most speakers of American English, the /T/ phoneme
> > >is generally not pronounced as an interdental -- the tongue doesn't actually
> > >protrude between the teeth.  (He mentioned that most black Americans do have an
> > >interdental.)
> > >
> > >This seems to be a case where the traditional description hasn't caught up to
> > >drifts in pronunciation.
> > >
> > >
> >
> > Yeah, but I speak British English ;-)
>
>So what?  The issue is what Ben speaks, and how it compares to his
>teacher's Spanish.
>
>
>
Yeah, I know.  I was giving an excuse for my assumption.

>Besides, I speak British English and my [T] isn't
>interdental.  (Although I can think of a number of reasons why I might
>have an unusual realisation of that phoneme.)
>
>
>
Hmm.  Judging by Mark's post, I'd say the two might be in free variation
across most dialects.