Flap T: Really a D Sound?

Tagged With: Flap T

I use the symbol for the D [d] in my videos for the Flap T. Is that really accurate?
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Video Text:
In this American English pronunciation video, were going to take a look at the
question: is the Flap T really a D sound?Its not unusual for people to ask my why I
say the flap T is a D sound. They will say its not the same as a D sound in, for
example, day. My answer to them: youre right. But, the Flap T, or T between
vowels, is the same as the D between vowels. So basically what Im saying, is that
a D between vowels is not the same sound as the D in other cases, though they
both use the same IPA symbol. Lets take a look at an example word: dad.
For that beginning D, there is a stop: dd, dd. D is a stop consonant, so I let air
build up a little bit in my throat dd, dd, dd and then release it. Its the same
with a D at the end of the word, though a little more subtle. Dd, dd, Dad-d-d-d, but
you can still hear, dad-d-d, there is a stop. Well, lets take a slightly different word,
Daddy. Now we have a D sound between two vowels. Daddy, Daddy. Im going to
stretch out the vowel sound before and after to make that D more noticeable.
Daaaaaadyyyy. Did you hear a stop? There wasnt one. Daaaaaadyyyy.
Between vowels, or after an R and before a vowel, its a different sound, because
there isnt a stop. If I pronounced both Ds with a stop it would sound like this: daddy. But it doesnt. It sounds like daddy, uhh, no stop in the airflow. This is true of
the Flap T as well.
As I said before, if you look up the word daddy in a dictionary, both of the D
sounds, though different, will have the same symbol.

This is why I have chosen to say the that Flap T is just like the D sound it is like
one kind of D sound, the D between vowels. So, matter = madder. Pronounced
the same way. When we pronounce a T or D this way, it smooths out speech. It
takes out a stop, which is why youll hear so many Americans flap their Ts. We
love to smooth out the line.
So, this was a long explanation about why I use the [d] symbol for a Flap T. The
most important thing to take from this video, though, is that both T and D between
vowels, or after an R and before a vowel, dont have a stop component. They do
not interrupt the flow of the line, they smooth out the speech.
One last comment. Sometimes, regarding the Flap T, Ill get a comment from a
student: that sounds like an R sound to me. It is an R sound? Well, depending on
your native language, yes, it is. The al-VEE-uh-ler flap is in many languages,
usually represented by the letter R. For example, Arabic, Japanese, Korean,
Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, to name a few. So you may ask, why dont I use that
IPA symbol? Two reasons: you wont see that symbol in dictionary of American
English. And, Im not fluent enough in any of those languages, to say: yes,
definitely, I know it is absolutely the exact same movement of the tongue, touching
exactly the same spot at the roof of the mouth. So whether it is exactly the same
sound or just very close, it may be very useful for you to think of the Flap T or D
between vowels as the R sound from your native language. But, just keep in mind
that it is not at all related to the R sound in American English. RRRR, where you
can hold out that sound, and the front part of the tongue must not touch the roof of
the mouth.
Thats it, and thanks so much for using Rachels English.