Flapping ortapping, also known asalveolar flapping,intervocalic flapping, ort-voicing, is aphonological process involving avoiced alveolar tap or flap; it is found in many varieties ofEnglish, especiallyNorth American,Cardiff,Ulster,Australian andNew Zealand English, where thevoicelessalveolarstop consonantphoneme/t/ is pronounced as avoiced alveolarflap[ɾ], a sound produced by briefly tapping thealveolar ridge with the tongue, when placed betweenvowels. In London English, the flapped[ɾ] is perceived as a casual pronunciation intermediate between the affricate[tsʰ], with higher class associations, and the glottal stop[ʔ], with lower class associations.^[1] In these named varieties, outside of Britain,/d/, the voiced counterpart of/t/, is also frequently pronounced as a flap in such positions, making pairs of words likelatter andladder sound similar or identical. In similar positions, the combination/nt/ may be pronounced as anasalized flap[ɾ̃], makingwinter sound similar or identical towinner.

Flapping of/t/ is sometimes perceived as the replacement of/t/ with/d/; for example, the wordbutter pronounced with flapping may be heard as "budder".^[2]

In other dialects of English, such asSouth African English,Scottish English, someNorthern England English (likeScouse), and older varieties ofReceived Pronunciation, the flap is a variant of/r/ (seePronunciation of English/r/).^[3]

The termsflap andtap are often used synonymously, although some authors make a distinction between them. When the distinction is made, a flap involves a rapid backward and forward movement of the tongue tip, while a tap involves an upward and downward movement.^[4] Linguists disagree on whether the sound produced in the present process is a flap or a tap, and by extension on whether the process is better calledflapping ortapping,^[5] whileflapping has traditionally been more widely used.^[6][7]Derrick & Gick (2011) identify four types of sounds produced in the process: alveolar tap, down-flap, up-flap, and postalveolar tap (found inautumn,Berta,otter, andmurder, respectively).^[8]

InCockney, another voiced variant of/t/ that has been reported to occur to coexist with the alveolar tap (and other allophones, such as the very commonglottal stop) is a simplevoiced alveolar stop[d], which occurs especially in the wordslittle[ˈlɪdʊ],hospital[ˈɒspɪdʊ] andwhatever[wɒˈdɛvə]. That too results in a (variable) merger with/d/, whereas the tap does not.^[9]

InCardiff English, the alveolar tap is less rapid than the corresponding sound in traditional RP, being more similar to/d/. It also involves a larger part of the tongue. Thus, the typical Cardiff pronunciation ofhospital as[ˈɑspɪɾl̩] or[ˈɑspɪɾʊ] is quite similar to Cockney[ˈɒspɪdʊ], though it does not involve a neutralization of the flap with[d].^[10]

Examples of flapping in American English

"Betty Botter" tongue twister

A recitation of the tongue twister "Betty Botter" with flapping

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Pronunciation oflatter andladder with and without flapping

[ˈlætɚˈlædɚˈlæɾɚ]

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Pronunciation ofwinter andwinner with and without flapping

[ˈwɪntɚˈwɪnɚˈwɪɾ̃ɚ]

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Pronunciation ofseventy with and withoutt-voicing, and with flapping

[ˈsɛvn̩tiˈsɛvn̩diˈsɛvɨɾ̃i]

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Flapping of/t/ and/d/ is a prominent feature ofNorth American English. Some linguists consider it obligatory for most American dialects to flap/t/ between astressed and an unstressed vowel.^[7][11] Flapping of/t/ also occurs inAustralian,New Zealand and (especiallyNorthern)Irish English, and more infrequently or variably inSouth African English,Cockney, andReceived Pronunciation.^[12][13][14]

The exact conditions for flapping in North American English are unknown, although it is widely understood that it occurs in an alveolar stop,/t/ or/d/, when placed between two vowels, provided the second vowel is unstressed (as inbutter,writing,wedding,loader).^[6][15] Across word boundaries, however, it can occur between any two vowels, provided the second vowel begins a word (as inget over[ɡɛɾˈoʊvɚ]).^[6][15] This extends to morphological boundaries within compound words (as inwhatever[ˌwʌɾˈɛvɚ]).^[16] In addition to vowels, segments that may precede the flap include/r/ (as inparty)^[11][17] and occasionally/l/ (as infaulty).^[18][19] Flapping after/l/ is more common in Canadian English than in American English.^[20]Syllabic/l/ may also follow the flap (as inbottle).^[21] Flapping of/t/ before/ən/ (as inbutton) is observed in Australian English.^[22] In North American English,[t] and[ʔ] (t-glottalization) were the only realizations of/t/ before/ən/,^[23] but studies in the 2020s have found[ɾ] in younger US speakers.^[24]

Morpheme-internally, the vowel following the flap must not only be unstressed but also be areduced one (namely/ə/, morpheme-final or prevocalic/i,oʊ/, or/ɪ/ preceding/ŋ/,/k/, etc.^[a]),^[26][27] so words likebotox,retail, andlatex are not flapped in spite of the primary stress on the first syllables,^[11] whilepity,motto, andKeating can be.^[26] The second syllables in the former set of words can thus be considered as havingsecondary stress.^[6]

Word-medial flapping is also prohibited infoot-initial positions. This prevents words such asmilitaristic,spirantization, andMediterranean from flapping, despitecapitalistic andalphabetization, for example, being flapped. This is known as theWithgott effect.^[28][29]

In North American English, the cluster/nt/ (but not/nd/) in the same environment as flapped/t/ may be realized as anasal flap[ɾ̃]. Intervocalic/n/ is also often realized as a nasal flap, so words likewinter andwinner can become homophonous.^[30] According toWells (1982), in the United States, Southerners tend to pronouncewinter andwinner identically, while Northerners, especially those from the east coast, tend to retain the distinction, pronouncingwinter with[ɾ̃] or[nt] andwinner with[n].^[31]

Given these intricacies, it is difficult to formulate aphonological rule that accurately predicts flapping.^[7] Nevertheless,Vaux (2000) postulates that it applies to alveolar stops:

• after asonorant other thanl,m, orŋ, but with restrictions onn;
• before an unstressed vowel within words, or before any vowel across a word boundary;
• when not in foot-initial position.^[32]

Exceptions include the preposition/particleto and words derived from it, such astoday,tonight,tomorrow, andtogether, wherein/t/ may be flapped when intervocalic (as ingo to sleep[ˌɡoʊɾəˈslip]).^[33] In Australian English, numeralsthirteen,fourteen, andeighteen are often flapped despite the second vowel being stressed.^[34][35] In a handful of words such asseventy,ninety, andcarpenter,/nt/ is frequently pronounced as[nd], retaining/n/ andvoicing/t/, although it may still become[ɾ̃] in rapid speech.^[36][37]

Flapping is a specific type oflenition, specificallyintervocalic weakening. It leads to theneutralization of the distinction between/t/ and/d/ in appropriate environments, a partialmerger of the two phonemes, provided that both/t/ and/d/ are flapped.^[5][38] Some speakers, however, flap only/t/ but not/d/. Yet, for a minority of speakers, the merger can occur only if neither sound is flapped. That is the case in Cockney, where/t/ is occasionally voiced to[d], yielding a variable merger oflittle andLidl.^[39] For speakers with the merger, the following utterances sound the same or almost the same:

In accents characterized byCanadian raising, such words asriding andwriting may be flapped yet still distinguished by the quality of the vowel:riding[ˈɹaɪɾɪŋ],writing[ˈɹʌɪɾɪŋ].^[40] Vowel duration may also be different, with a longer vowel before/d/ than before/t/, due topre-fortis clipping.^[41]

In a dissertation in 1982, M.M. Withgott demonstrated that, among speakers ofAmerican English, words seem to be chunked into pronunciation units she referred to as a foot, similar to a metrical unit in poetry. Such chunking was said to block flapping in the word ‘Mediterranean’ ([[Medi[terranean] ], cf. [ [sub[terranean]]). How a word is chunked relates to itsmorphological derivation, as seen by contrasting morphologically similar pairs such as the following (where the vertical bar shows where Withgott argued there is boundary between neighboring feet):

The medialt incàpitalístic can be flapped as easily as in post-stresscátty[ˈkʰæɾi], in contrast to the medialt inmìlitarístic, which comes at the beginning of a foot, and so must be pronounced as[tʰ], like at at the beginning of a word.

Long, seemingly monomorphemic words also are chunked in English for purposes of pronunciation. In such words[t]’s — as well as the other unvoiced stops — are pronounced like initial segments whenever they receive secondarystress or are at the beginning of a foot.

The origins of the T-to-R rule lie in the flapping of/t/ and the subsequent reinterpretation of the flap as/r/, which was then followed by the use of the prevailing variant of/r/, namely the approximant[ɹ]. It is applied inNorthern England English and it is always stigmatized. The application of that rule means thatshut in the phrasal verbto shut up/ʃʊrˈʊp/ has a different phonemic form than the citation form of the verbto shut/ʃʊt/. The rule is typically not applied in the word-internal position.^[42]

The T-to-R rule has also been reported to occur in theCardiff dialect (where the merged consonant can surface as either an approximant or a flap) andSouth African English (where only a flap is possible). In the Cardiff dialect, the rule is typically applied between any vowel (including long vowels) and/ə/ or the reduced/ɪ/ (also across word boundaries), so thatstarting/ˈstaːtɪŋ/ andstarring/ˈstaːrɪŋ/ can be homophonous as[ˈstaːɹɪn~ˈstaːɾɪn]. In South African English, the merger is possible only for those speakers who use the flapped allophone of/r/ (making thestarting–starring minimal pair homophonous as[ˈstɑːɾɪŋ]), otherwise the sounds are distinguished as a flap (or a voiceless stop) for/t/ ([ˈstɑːɾɪŋ~stɑːtɪŋ]) vs. approximant for/r/ ([ˈstɑːɹɪŋ]). There, the merger occurs word-internally between vowels in those environments where flapping is possible in North American English.^[43][10]

• Phonological history of English consonants
• Regional accents of English

• Withgott, M. Margaret. 1982. Segmental Evidence for Phonological Constituents. Ph.D. Dissertation for the University of Texas at Austin.
• Iverson, Gregory K. and Sang-Cheol Ahn. 2004.English Voicing in Dimensional Theory. Language Sciences (Phonology of English).
• Kahn, Daniel. 1976.Syllable-Based Generalizations in English Phonology. Ph.D. Dissertation for the University of Massachusetts reproduced by I.U. Linguistics Club.
• Steriade, Donca. 1999.Paradigm uniformity and the phonetics-phonology boundary. In M. Broe and J. Pierrehumbert (eds.),Papers in Laboratory Phonology V: Acquisition and the lexicon, 313-334. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• English phonology
• North American English
• Australian English
• New Zealand English
• Splits and mergers in English phonology

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