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As far as I've understood there are these following rules for aspirating a plosive consonant:

  1. When it's word initital
  2. When it's in a stressed syllable

And it's not aspirated when:

  1. When preceeded by another consonant like s
  2. When followed by a fricative or a plosive

So by which rule is the second t in aptitude aspirated?

2 Answers2

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For some speakers, voiceless plosives are not only aspirated at the start of a stressed syllable, but also at the start of an unstressed syllable. In American English, aptitude is pronounced something like /ˈæp.tə.tuːd/ (by contrast, it's /ˈæp.tə.t͡ʃuːd/ in British English); the t's are syllable-initial so they're aspirated for some speakers:

  • [ˈæp̚.tʰə.tʰuːd]

So it's no wonder you hear aspirated t at that position.

Decapitated Soul
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  • if you listen to some of the pronunciation of the word here : https://youglish.com/pronounce/aptitude/english/us? you'll find that the first t is unaspirated in every single one of those while the second t is aspirated...so i've gotten confused a bit –  May 25 '21 at 14:40
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    @Richard It’s because there’s secondary stress on the final syllable: [ˈæp̚t̻̬əˌtʰud]. Notice also how the written ‹pt› pair mutates a little under assimilation so that its ‹p› is unreleased and its ‹t› uses more of the blade of the tongue than the second ‹t› does, along with a bit of voicing from the following vowel leaking into it, something that never happens to an aspirated stop. – tchrist May 25 '21 at 15:54
  • @tchrist so should i add "all ptk in seconday stress syllable onset are aspirated" to my list of rules? –  May 26 '21 at 05:48
  • @Richard: I'd say so because it still receives stress. – Decapitated Soul May 26 '21 at 06:25
  • @tchrist Then why does it have secondary stress in the first place? (I'd say because the third syllable begins a foot and has a full vowel.) I find the type of explanation you give, which is unfortunately common, circular and incomplete because it doesn't give you derivable rules. – Nardog May 26 '21 at 13:28
  • @Nardog There is no particular rhyme or reason to why syllables are or are not stressed. But you can tell in English that a syllable is stressed, even if it is not the primary stress, by listening to the vowel quality. If it is diminished, that is an unstressed syllable. Since the word is not pronounced as "aptitudd" we can determine that the final syllable is stressed, albeit a secondary stress. And if there is a dialect that pronounces the word "aptitudd" they likely won't aspirate the second T. – GArthurBrown May 28 '21 at 14:03
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It is aspirated for the same reason it is aspirated in Edmonton, but not Badminton. When a syllable is stressed the initial consonants will tend to be aspirated and the vowels will not be diminished. If the vowel is diminished, you are dealing with an unstressed syllable. There are more stressed syllables than just the primary stress, especially in longer words.

GArthurBrown
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