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I've looked up the pronunciation of "countdown" in a few different dictionaries and they all give it as some variation of
/ˈkaʊntˌdaʊn/.

However, the "t" is clearly not pronounced as /t/ in casual speech because of the following /d/ which is another stop differing only in voicing. The "t" is only pronounced as /t/ when said as two very separate words. I can't work out if it's:

  • /ˈkaʊnt̚ˌdaʊn/ (no audible release)
  • /ˈkaʊnʔˌdaʊn/ (glottal stop)
  • something else

Are either of my guesses correct? Both in different environments? Neither?

apaderno
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CJ Dennis
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1 Answers1

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Stops like [n, t, d] are said to consist of up to three phases: approach, closure, and release. And only the closure phase is essential. So the tongue tip need not leave the palate before or after /t/ in countdown and only voicing and nasality may change, and that's in fact the dominant pronunciation I believe.

It can be summed up in a diagram like this, which is often seen in a phonetics textbook:

                k aʊ n t d aʊ n

nasal passage   _/‾‾‾‾___/‾‾‾‾


coronal closure ____/‾‾‾‾‾__/‾


dorsal closure  ‾_____________


voicing         /‾‾‾‾\/‾‾‾‾‾‾

In running speech /t/ may be voiced through assimilation (so that /td/ is realized as a long [d]) or elided completely. I don't think glottalization is common here given the /t/ is surrounded by voiced alveolar stops, leaving little motivation for glottalization (in other words, it doesn't ease the articulation). But I could be mistaken.

Nardog
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  • How do you have a long [d]? As a stop, it is plosive. The air is either released, or it isn't. You can delay the onset of the release, but I don't think it's possible to lengthen the release itself. "coundown" sounds different from "countdown" (at least the way I say it). – CJ Dennis May 22 '21 at 01:39
  • Why would the release be lengthened? A "long [d]" means, yes, "delay[ing] the onset of the release", and there's no other possibility. That's how gemination works in many languages and in English nighttime etc. So in the "/td/ is realized as a long [d]" scenario, only voicing would be different in the diagram, staying active throughout after the first /k/. – Nardog May 22 '21 at 02:58
  • If you thought a "plosive" necessarily involves the release phase, it is a misconception. See John Wells’s phonetic blog: unreleased and no (audible) release. – Nardog May 22 '21 at 02:59
  • There's an audible difference between "it's nigh time" and "it's night time" (at least for me). My tongue doesn't touch my alveolar ridge at the end of "nigh" but it does for "night" even though no plosive is produced. Even in casual speech, the difference between the two is clear to me. I mentioned "no audible release" in my OP. – CJ Dennis May 22 '21 at 04:47
  • Who said there isn't? In nighttime the first vowel is shorter (and possibly raised, if you have Canadian raising) and the consonant in the middle is held longer than in nigh time. And again, a "plosive" doesn't mean it has to be released. A plosive with no audible release is still a plosive. – Nardog May 22 '21 at 05:15