Irish English has a feature known as th-stopping. This means that the interdental fricatives of there and thanks are pronounced as plosives. In the English of Northern Ireland, however, th-stopping does not apply because the fricatives are used instead.
The Irish language lacks the interdental fricatives of English. This explains their absence in Irish English. However, words such as thin/tin and then/den are not pronounced identically. The reason is that the words with th are pronounced with a dental plosive and those with a t or d are pronounced with an alveolar plosive.
Th-stopping is a feature of Irish English. Words such as this and thick are pronounced with plosives rather than fricatives. The voiceless fricative is pronounced with a voiceless plosive and the voiced fricative with a voiced plosive. Words with th have a dental pronunciation, and words with d and t have an alveolar one.
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4 comments:
Great blog, very interesting to read. It helped me a lot with my language studies. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for your comment!
Ancient history now, I’m afraid, but I’ve only just come across your interesting blog.
You’re providing the standard phonetics interpretation, but I wonder if it’s entirely accurate.
Firstly, the consonant you describe as a voiceless interdental stop does absolutely occur in Ulster English, especially before “r”. In fact, it’s the way it’s realised by most rural speakers in exactly that word (“Ulster” – where it’s sometimes voiced rather than aspirated) as well as in “tree” and “train” and in Scots words such as “thrawn”. It’s true though that the interdental fricative is pronounced the same way as in standard English.
Secondly, the sound you’re talking about is the way “t” is realised in Irish, which lacks either the interdental fricative or the alveolar sound. In the dialects of Hiberno-English most influenced by the Irish language – Munster and Connacht – this is the sound that is used for both the standard English sounds, and there is no distinction. Just listen to a Galway man saying “Anthony”.
Finally, is an interdental plosive even possible? Can you really manufacture a stop with the tip of your tongue between your teeth? I don’t think you can unless the blade is against the alveolar ridge and the tip against the back of the teeth.
That is, it’s not an interdental stop at all, but a denti-alveolar plosive.
I agree that the voiceless interdental stop occurs in Ulster English. In fact, it can also occur in the Republic of Ireland because there are speakers there who also produce interdental fricatives. My observations are general and do not apply to all speakers.
I was not aware that the word "Ulster" can be produced with a voiced plosive. Thank you for mentioning it.
I don't believe an interdental plosive is possible. At least, I've never heard of it. It's clear that you have a background in phonetics and phonology. Thank you for your reply.
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