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In:Advances in Sociophonetics
Edited by Chiara Celata and Silvia Calamai
[Studies in Language Variation 15] 2014
► pp. 97–136

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Where and what is (t, d)?

A case study in taking a step back in order to advance sociophonetics

Published online: 12 June 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.15.04tem
The variable deletion of /t,d/ in word-final clusters in English has garnered much attention from sociolinguists and, more recently, phonologists, most of whom model it as a binary variable phonological rule. This paper examines in detail some (t,d) clusters in York English and compares them with other word-final singleton and cluster consonants. In the light of the general literature on English, it explores an alternative view, that in at least one variety of British English “-t,d deletion” is in fact one of the common connected speech processes which apply at the boundaries between words. It thus underlines the importance for advances in sociophonetics of taking a step back to examine critically the basic units of analysis of variable rules.
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2025. Searching for homophony avoidance in English coronal stop deletion. Phonology 42 DOI logo
Cohn, Abigail C. & Margaret E. L. Renwick
2021. Embracing multidimensionality in phonological analysis. The Linguistic Review 38:1 ► pp. 101 ff. DOI logo
MacKenzie, Laurel & Meredith Tamminga
2021. New and old puzzles in the morphological conditioning of coronal stop deletion. Language Variation and Change 33:2 ► pp. 217 ff. DOI logo
Baranowski, Maciej & Danielle Turton
2020. td-deletion in British English: New evidence for the long-lost morphological effect. Language Variation and Change 32:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Villarreal, Dan, Lynn Clark, Jennifer Hay & Kevin Watson
2020. From categories to gradience: Auto-coding sociophonetic variation with random forests. Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology 11:1 DOI logo
Farrington, Charlie
2018. Incomplete neutralization in African American English: The case of final consonant voicing. Language Variation and Change 30:3 ► pp. 361 ff. DOI logo
Tanner, James, Morgan Sonderegger & Michael Wagner
2017. Production planning and coronal stop deletion in spontaneous speech. Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology 8:1 DOI logo
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

audio

1. hot

2. eight

3. cut

4. sword

5. sword

6. did

7. pub

8. sick

9. cop

10. big

11. up

12.left

13. found

14. fucked

15. underground

16. left

17. told

18. think

19. ask

20. liked

21. pleased

22. knocked

23. reminded

24. delivered

25. vague

26. help

27. ask

28. landmarks

29. second-hand

30. booked

31. kept

32. left

33. first

34. stopped

35. saved

36. kept

37. left

38. old

39. thousand

40. unmanned

41. behind

42. told

43. secondhand

44. went

45. spoilt

46. knocked

47. like

48. help

49. camp

50. think

51. milk

52. project

53. except

54. contract

55. knocked

56. went

57. old-fashioned

58. old

59. lad

60. good

61. moved

62. lived

63. went

64. brought

65. sad

66. could

67. told

68. locked

69. sound

70. combined

71. last

72. kept

73. longest

74. shortest

75. cos

76. want

77. just

78. youngest

79. kept

80. found

81. pinched

82. lost

83. hand

84. handbrake

Footnote 25. weeks

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