In fast-paced American English speech, I've observed that the 'd' sound in certain words containing -rd- consonant clusters such as 'hurdle' and 'border' seems to be pronounced as a voiced retroflex flap [ɽ] rather than a voiced alveolar flap [ɾ] or the standard voiced alveolar plosive [d]. I'm curious to know if this phenomenon is acknowledged by linguists. I've heard that in some North Germanic languages like Swedish, the combination of /r/ with dental consonants results in retroflex consonant realizations. Could a similar pattern be present in American English?
Asked
Active
Viewed 39 times
1
-
Also see Place of articulation of /t/ and /d/ in words like "part", "cord", "weird" in Standard AmE – Stuart F Jan 31 '24 at 12:08
-
It depends on whether the speaker retracts the chin when producing the {vowel}+ /r/, I think. – TimR Jan 31 '24 at 13:55