Flapping, frication and glottalization of /t/

There are two pronunciations of /t/ that are particularly associated with AusE. One is strongly fricated [t^s] and most noticed in prepausal position, for instance in an expression such as ‘And that’s as far as it went.’ [wεnt^s]. The other is a flap or tap [ɾ] and is heard widely in the pronunciation of the numbers thirteen [θз'ɾ​in] or eighteen [ei'ɾ​in]. It is interesting to note that the first, [t^s], is not widely distributed over the speech community and is more likely to be heard by speakers of Cultivated AusE. Although the [ɾ] is often thought to be a feature of Broad AusE, it is actually widely used by Australians.

A recent study of AusE (Tollfree 2001) gives a detailed account of the four variants of /t/. The first of these, plosive [t], has the usual English allophonic distribution for the aspirated and unaspirated variants but in addition it also has a voiced tap [ɾ], a glottalized variant [ʔ], and a fricated variant [t^s]. The voiced tap [ɾ] occurs in intervocalic final contexts, e.g. lot of, get up, and in medial contexts, e.g. bitter, mutter. For some words, such as attitude, beauty, data or city, Tollfree found that [ɾ] was almost categorical while in words followed by a syllabic /l/ like bottle or subtle or by a syllabic /n/ like mutton or baton both plosive [t] and [ɾ] were found. The glottalized variant was also found in medial positions such as cutlass or hitman, occasionally in intervocalic medial contexts like lot of or get out, but they were not found in intervocalic medial contexts like bitter. The fricated [t^s] was found in intervocalic and prepausal contexts. As mentioned earlier, the [t^s] variant was associated with women and the middle class, along with Cultivated vowel usage, in Horvath (1985). Tollfree (2001) also notes its occurrence in prepausal position in the formal style of young lower socioeconomic speakers but it occurred more often in both the prepausal and intervocalic medial contexts in both formal and informal styles in the speech of middle socioeconomic speak ers. In comparing the three variants quantitatively, Tollfree found a small number of the fricated variant [t^s] and she believes that it is receding in AusE; tapping and glottalized /t/ were more prolific but in those contexts where both could be used, tapping was strongly favored over glottalization.