Re: ka and k^a [was: [tied] *kW- "?"]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:

> At 11:11:16 on Friday, 23 September 2005, Patrick Ryan
> wrote:
>
> > From: "Rob" <magwich78@...>
>
> >> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan"
> >> <proto-language@...> wrote:
>
> >>> No American dialect from coast to coast or in between
> >>> pronounces <lot> as /la?/.
>
> True, because the final consonant is still phonemically /t/.
> But the pronunciation [la?] ~ [lA?] is a U.S. variant of a
> fairly common pronunciation with unreleased [?t]. (And the
> difference is almost unnoticeable in ordinary conversation.)

Yes. I apologize for confusing slants, which mark phonemes, with
brackets, which mark phonetic realizations of phonemes (i.e. "real
pronunciation").

> [...]
>
> > Transforming /t/ into a glottal stop (/?/) in English is
> > strictly a low register Briticism. Whether it happens or
> > not in Canadian English in any register, I do not know,
> > but I doubt it. I certainly have never heard it.
>
> I suspect that you've never really listened. Final stops,
> especially /t/, are often (pre-) glottalized in American and
> Canadian English, and from there it's a short step to losing
> the original articulation entirely and getting simply [?].

This is especially true for /t/, as it is less marked than /p/ or /k/.

I wonder what lead to the pre-glottalization in the first place?

- Rob