Super reduced pronunciation of the affix "anti"

Question

Listen to this clip at 00:13 and 00:30, and you will hear the word antihistamine. The pronunciation of anti is super reduced, just like this post described. I think the IPA should be like this: /anə/. The letter T has been silenced in the word.

Have you ever heard this pronunciation in America? What's the cause of it?

The short vowel /ɪ/ is the default in some anti- words eg antithesis, antipodes, antimony (note that it's not always a clear difference between /ɪ/ and /ə/). And a /t/ after an /n/ is often reduced especially in the US: see this question. So there doesn't seem anything too surprising here: the cause is people speaking casually or fast. — Stuart F, Jul 26 '23 at 10:49
@StuartF But it would be mind boggling if it happened in most of the words in your example. Try it in antithesis, for example! That would be impossible in English. (Thus, the rationale isn't sufficient to explain why it can happen in OP's example). — Araucaria - Him, Jul 27 '23 at 11:40
@Gio It depends which Cambridge dictionary you look in. If it was as that description says, then we wouldn't really expect that pronunciation. See this transcription, also from Cambridge, which seems more plausible (the /nt/ cluster is within the same syllable). — Araucaria - Him, Jul 27 '23 at 11:49

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 28 '23 at 02:44

6

This is an example of flapping (see Wiki). In American English, in certain positions /t/ and /d/ can get replaced with the voiced alveolar flap sound [ɾ], and (as here) /nt/ can get replaced with the nasalized flap [ɾ̃], which can also be a realization of /n/. This can create interesting sets of homophones: for some American speakers, winner and winter sound exactly alike.

This generally occurs at the end of a stressed syllable when it is followed by an unstressed one, so it applies to antihistamine but not to antithesis. The rules are a bit more complicated than that, particularly when flapping occurs on word boundaries; that Wiki page goes into some more detail.

edited Jul 28 '23 at 02:44

Araucaria - Him

47,146

answered Jul 26 '23 at 11:27

alphabet

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@Araucaria-Nothereanymore. I know the basic rule--that it happens after a stressed syllable and before an unstressed one. That allows it in antihistamine but disallows it in antithesis. But I have a feeling you'll tell me that the actual rule is a thousand times more complicated. – alphabet Jul 27 '23 at 22:58
@Araucaria-Nothereanymore. There's secondary stress on the first syllable, and no stress on the second one; I assume that explains it? – alphabet Jul 27 '23 at 23:03
(I did edit my answer to include that information, by the way!) – alphabet Jul 28 '23 at 01:53

Super reduced pronunciation of the affix "anti"

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