T after R like in PARTY
This is yet another video on the letter T. I’ve already done a few videos on it, but it’s such a big subject, I can’t quite seem to get away from it. Today we’re going to talk about this case: party, party. Do you hear how the T is being pronounced here? Party. If you’ve already seen my video on T pronunciations, then you know when the letter T or double T comes between two vowel sounds, that it is often pronounced in everyday speech by native speakers as a D sound. For example, butter, water. But I got an email from someone recently saying that he’s noticed when the letter T comes after the R and before a vowel, that in this case too, it is sometimes pronounced as a D. And I admit, I’ve noticed this myself.
Now, I’m not saying that new English speakers should try to do this. But I am saying I’ve noticed that native speakers to it, so let’s point it out, let’s talk about it, so you know what’s happening when you hear it. The R consonant sound. When it is not at the beginning of a syllable, whether by itself or in a cluster, it sounds just like the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’ vowel. For example, in the word alert, alert. Here it is the R consonant sound, but it’s just like the ur vowel sound, rr, rr. So when the R comes after the vowel or diphthong in a syllable, it functions much like the ‘ur’ vowel sound. For example in the word alert, alert alert, there is no change in sound there from the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’ vowel symbol to the R consonant symbol. Ur, it’s all just one sound. And this R consonant as a vowel sound occurs any time the R consonant comes after the vowel or diphthong in a syllable.
For example in the word ‘father’, er, er. It’s that same sound, even in a syllable where there is a distinct, separate vowel sound before the R consonant. For example, in the word ‘part’. Ah, rr. Part, part, part. It may be a little quicker here, but it’s that same R consonant as vowel sound. This is why native speakers might pronounce it as a D when it comes after this sound and before a vowel sound. It’s that same rule, when it comes between two vowel sounds, even though it would be written in IPA with the R consonant sound. The R consonant sound in these cases is just like the ‘ur’ as in ‘her’ vowel sound.
Let’s look at some examples. Alerted, alerted. I’ve alerted the staff. Article, article. I read that article. Charter, charter. They’ll sign the charter tomorrow. Mortified, mortified. I was mortified. Sorted, sorted. We sorted it out. Vertical, vertical. Please draw a vertical line.
You may find that you hear this not only within a word, but in a phrase. When a word ends with -rt, and the next word begins with a vowel. Let’s look at some examples of that. Part of, part of. It’s part of the problem. Sort of, sort of, it sort of got out of hand. Expert in, expert in. He’s an expert in pronunciation. Airport on, airport on. I want to get to the airport on time. As I said, if you’re not comfortable with integrating this into your speech, that’s ok. But you probably will hear native speakers do it. Part of, part of, part of, part of. When the T gets changed to a D sound, it does smooth out the line somewhat. Part of, part of, part of. And linking and smoothing things out is a big part of American English. That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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