No audible release

No audible release
◌̚

A stop with no audible release, commonly called an unreleased stop, is a stop consonant with no release burst: no audible indication of the end of its occlusion (hold). In the International Phonetic Alphabet, lack of an audible release is denoted with an upper-right corner diacritic (U+031A ◌̚ COMBINING LEFT ANGLE ABOVE) after the consonant letter: [p̚], [t̚], [k̚].[1]

Audibly released stops, on the other hand, are not normally indicated. If a final stop is aspirated, the aspiration diacritic ⟨◌ʰ⟩ is sufficient to indicate the release. Otherwise, the "unaspirated" diacritic of the Extended IPA may be employed for this: apt [ˈæp̚t˭].

English

In most dialects of English, the first stop of a cluster has no audible release, as in apt [ˈæp̚t], doctor [ˈdɒk̚tər], or logged on [ˌlɒɡ̚dˈɒn]. Although such sounds are frequently described as "unreleased", the reality is that the two consonants overlap so that the release of the first takes place during the hold of the second, masking the first consonant's release and making it inaudible.[2] This can lead to cross-articulations that seem very much like deletions or complete assimilation. For example, hundred pounds may sound like [hʌndɹɨb pʰaundz] but X-ray[3] and electropalatographic[4] studies demonstrate that inaudible and possibly weakened contacts may still be made, so that the second /d/ in hundred pounds does not entirely assimilate a labial place of articulation, but rather co-occurs with it.

Such sounds may occur between vowels, as in some pronunciations of out a lot. The overlap here appears to be with a glottal stop, [t̚ʔ]: the /t/ is pronounced, and since it is between vowels it must be released, but its release is masked by the glottal stop.[5]

The term "unreleased" is also used for a stop before a homorganic nasal, as in catnip. In such cases, however, the stop is released as a nasal, in a nasal release, and so is more precisely transcribed [ˈkætⁿnɪp].

Other languages

In most languages of East and Southeast Asia with final stops, such as Cantonese,[6] Hokkien,[7] Korean,[8] Malay, and Thai,[9] the stops are not audibly released: mak [mak̚]. This is true even between vowels. The effect is thought to be due to an overlapping glottal stop[5] and is more precisely transcribed [mak̚ʔ]. A consequence of an inaudible release is that any aspirated–unaspirated distinction is neutralized. Some languages, such as Vietnamese, which are reported to have unreleased final stops, turn out to have short voiceless nasal releases instead: that is, the excess pressure is released (voicelessly) through the nose, so that there is no audible release to the stop.

Formosan languages

The Formosan languages of Taiwan, such as Tsou and Amis, are unusual in that all obstruents are released but not aspirated, as in Tsou [ˈsip˹tɨ] "four" and [smuˈjuʔ˹tsu] "to pierce", or Amis [tsᵊtsaj] "one" and [sᵊpat˹] "four". (The symbol for a release burst, ⟨˹⟩, is acknowledged but not supported by the IPA.[10])

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The diacritic may not display properly with some fonts, appearing above the consonant rather than after it. In such cases U+02FA ◌˺ MODIFIER LETTER END HIGH TONE, ⟨p˺⟩, may be used instead.
  2. ↑ Zsiga (2003:404)
  3. ↑ Browman & Goldstein (1990)
  4. ↑ Nolan (1992)
  5. 1 2 'no (audible) release', John Wells's phonetic blog, 2012 March 14.
  6. ↑ Matthews, Stephen; Yip, Virginia (1994), Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar, London: Routledge, pp. 15–6, ISBN 0-415-08945-X
  7. ↑ Ngo, Chiau-shin (2008), What is Taiwanese Language Phonetic Script? (PDF), p. 4
  8. ↑ Choo & O'Grady (2003:26)
  9. ↑ Smyth, David (2003), Teach yourself Thai, London: Hodder & Stoughton, p. xii, ISBN 0-340-86857-0
  10. ↑ International Phonetic Association (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge University Press. p. 173.

References

  • Browman, Catherine P.; Goldstein, Louis (1990), "Tiers in articulatory phonology, with some implications for casual speech", in Kingston, John C.; Beckman, Mary E., Papers in laboratory phonology I: Between the grammar and physics of speech, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 341–376 
  • Choo, Miho; O'Grady, William D. (2003), The Sounds of Korean: A Pronunciation Guide, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press 
  • Nolan, Francis (1992), "The descriptive role of segments: Evidence from assimilation.", in Docherty, Gerard J.; Ladd, D. Robert, Papers in laboratory phonology II: Gesture, segment, prosody, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 261–280 
  • Zsiga, Elizabeth (2003), "Articulatory Timing in a Second Language: Evidence from Russian and English", Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25: 399–432, doi:10.1017/s0272263103000160 
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