Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 15:09:36 -0400

From: Ron Butters RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: so who tightened your velopharyngeal portal?



Garland writes:



We're talking about an alveolar nasal with the rapidity of

articulation that makes it a tap or flap rather than a stop. Thus, for

me,"sentence" has a nasal tap/flap while "penance" has a nasal stop. For

some people, this phenomenon might be a nasalized vowel and a "regular"

(non-nasal) alveolar tap, but for me it's definitely a nasal tap.



Given (I think that this is true) that most speakers of American English keep

their velopharyngeal ports open unless they HAVE to close them, aren't all AE

flaps more or less "nasal(ized)"?