Voiceless alveolar plosive

Encyclopedia : V : VO : VOI : Voiceless alveolar plosive


IPA – number	103
IPA – text
IPA – image
Entity	t
X-SAMPA	`t`
Kirshenbaum	`t`

The voiceless alveolar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar plosives is t, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is t.

The [t] sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [t], and some distinguish more than variety. Many Indian languages, such as Hindi, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [t]. The only languages known without a [t] are Hawaiian (outside of Ni‘ihau), and colloquial Samoan, which also lacks an [n].

Contents

1 Features
2 Varieties of [t]
3 In English
4 In Georgian
5 In German
6 In Portuguese
7 See also

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar plosive:

Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Varieties of [t]

IPA Description
t tenuis t
tʰ aspirated t
tʲ palatalized t
tʷ labialized t
tˁ pharyngealized t
t̚ unreleased t
tʼ ejective t

IPA	Description
t	tenuis t
tʰ	aspirated t
tʲ	palatalized t
tʷ	labialized t
tˁ	pharyngealized t
t̚	unreleased t
tʼ	ejective t

In English

English has both aspirated [tʰ] and plain [t], but they are allophones of a single phoneme /t/.

When /t/ occurs at the beginning of a word or a stressed syllable, like in try, senatorial, or today, then it is always aspirated. When it occurs at the beginning of an unstressed syllable that isn't at the beginning of a word, like in palatable, or theater, then it becomes an alveolar tap in most North American dialects, becomes glottalised in some southern British dialects, and it is unaspirated or slightly aspirated in other dialects. When /t/ occurs in a consonant cluster following [s], like in stop, strain, or register, then it is always unaspirated. When it occurs at the end of a word, like in pit, waist, or apt, then it is usually unaspirated, and if the word is at the end of an utterance, then it is often unreleased. In the sequence /tɹ/ at the start of a syllable, such as in the word entrance, the /t/ is aspirated and the /ɹ/ devoiced, making an affricate-like sound something like [tʃ].

The glottal stop may also be an allophone of /t/, and the North American alveolar flap is also an allophone of d. See the articles on those consonants for more.

In Georgian

Georgian has aspirated and ejective [t]. They are distinct phonemes, not allophones. Aspirated t is spelled with თ. Ejective t is spelled with ტ.

In German

In German, as in English, aspirated and plain [t] are allophones.

In Portuguese

In Brazilian Portuguese, the letter t before the sound [i] (spelled as i or non-tonic e) can be pronounced [tʃ], as an allophone of [t]. A similar change occurs with [d].