The Even Yearbook 14 (2020)
#113
volume 14 (2020)
pages 135–156
author Zoltán G. Kiss and Péter Szigetvári
title Telling fortis and lenis apart in English obstruent clusters
DOI http://doi.org/10.57133/evenyrbk.20gs
keywords English, obstruent clusters, laryngeal specification, fortis/lenis
abstract There is an almost unanimous agreement among those concerned that English has clusters like [sp], [ft], [kt] (in, for example, sport, after, packed/act). Based on theoretical considerations, we contend that this is not the case, these words contain [sb], [fd], [kd], and [ɡt], respectively. In this paper we report on an experiment showing that the acoustic properties of the plosive clusters in the strings acting and packed in are different in a statistically significant way. The relative length of the vowel in acting is greater than in packed in, the voicing duration is longer in the cluster in acting, and VOT is larger before the /i/ in acting. This suggests that the former cluster is /ɡt/, while the latter is /kd/.
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