-- essentially an [r] without the serif at the top left-hand
corner.
This kind of very fast t is called a tap. The IPA
symbol for it is
-- essentially an [r] without the serif at the top left-hand
corner.
A narrow transcription of some words with taps would be:
| water |
   
|
| butter |
 
|
| city |
   |
| gotta |
  |
In North American English, a tap will usually be used instead of a
regular [t] when it comes between two vowels (including syllabic
s)
as long as the second vowel is unstressed. (Other dialects of
English will usually use a regular [t] here. North Americans will
occasionally use a regular [t] here as well, but usually only in
exaggeratedly careful, hyper-correct speech.)
Most North American speakers will also use a tap instead of a [d] in the same environment:
| leader |
|
| bloody |
|
| coda |
  |
| kiddo |
|
If both t and d are pronounced as taps in the same
environment, it might be possible for the difference between them
to be lost. For example, butter and budder might
end up being pronounced as
,
and latter and ladder might both be pronounced as
.
This is indeed what happens in many North American dialects. In
other dialects, words like latter and ladder are
still pronounced differently. One way of writing the difference is
to put the diacritic for voicelessness (a small circle) underneath
the tap symbol. The symbol
normally represents a voiced sound (like [d]). With the diacritic,
represents a voiceless sounds (like [t]).
| Some dialects | Other dialects | |
| latter |
|
|
| ladder |
|
|
But vibration of the vocal folds is seldom the real difference for
those dialects that pronounce latter and ladder
differently. (A tap is a very short period of time to try to get your
vocal folds to stop vibrating then to start vibrating them again for
the following vowel.) But there are a number of other small phonetic differences that usually go along with voicing. For example, if you
say cat and cad several times normally, you should notice
that the vowel of cat has a higher pitch than the vowel of
cad and that the vowel of cad is longer. Using IPA
diacritics (an acute accent for high pitch, a grave accent for low pitch,
and a cuneiform-like colon
for length), we can give narrower transcriptions of cat and
cad as:
| cat |
  |
| cad |
 |
Marking the same pitch and length differences the latter/ladder contrast in the dialects that make it, we can give the following narrow transcriptions:
| Some dialects | Other dialects | |
| latter |
|
|
| ladder |
|
|
[aj] and [aw] usually begin with the tongue body in a very low
position (and usually central, though this varies for some dialects) --
the position we use the vowel symbol
for. The tongue body then moves upward and forward for [aj] or
upward and backward for [aw].
Most Canadian English speakers use another version of these
diphthongs in some words. Instead of the tongue starting in a low and
central position, it starts mid and central, in the position we use
the symbol
for. The tongue body then moves upward and either forward or
backward, just as it does for the regular [aj] and [aw].
| loud |
| lout |
|
| house (verb) |
 
| house (noun) |
|
| gouge |
| couch |
 |
| eyes |
| ice |
|
| tribe |
| tripe |
|
| live |
| life |
|
| ride |
| write |
|
Which word uses which version of the diphthong isn't a random choice.
You can notice in the list above that all the consonants that follow
and
are voiceless, while all of the consonants that follow regular
[aj] and [aw] are voiced. The "raised" variants
and
will be used whenever the following consonant is voiceless;
otherwise regular [aj] and [aw] will be used (including the
case when there is no following consonant, as in cow
and
my
).
You can hear sound files of words with Canadian Raising on Taylor Roberts' web page.