Variable Pronunciation of Words

A number of words have variable pronunciations. The pronunciation can vary depending on the context. Let us look at a few examples.

The Spanish word dos means two. The initial segment is a plosive. However, in certain contexts it can be a fricative. For example, Ella me dió dos libros means She gave me two books. The preceding word has a word-final vowel. This creates an intervocalic environment for the initial segment of dos. The result is that it is pronounced as an interdental fricative.

The word made ends with a plosive. However, in the sentence She made a cake, it is natural for Canadians and Americans to produce an alveolar flap. The reason is that the segment is between two vowels and the first one is stressed.

In Swedish (also in Norwegian) the combination of an r and an s in the same syllable produces a retroflex sibilant fricative. However, this sound never occurs word-initially. It is possible, though, across word boundaries. For example, in the sentence Jag har så många böcker (I have so many books), the word-final segment of har and word-initial segment of så can coalesce into a retroflex sibilant fricative.

In Received Pronunciation and other dialects of English, the lateral is velarized syllable-finally but not syllable-initially. The word sell has velarization, but in the sentence I want to sell it the word sell lacks velarization because the lateral is resyllabified to become the first segment of the final syllable in the sentence.

The definite article the is pronounced with a schwa in isolation and before consonants, but with a high front unrounded vowel before vowels. Compare the phrases the banana and the  apple. This avoids the sequence of schwa and vowel, a sequence which is not allowed in English. This can be analyzed as a syllable structure process.

The pronunciation of words can vary depending on the environment. Many words are pronounced differently in isolation and in phrases. Many sound changes occur with word-initial and word-final segments.