The clues in the gap- fill exercise for this song, Communication by the Cardigans, can help you recognise linking features of connecting consonants to vowels and identify flap or tap t, /ɾ/, in order to understand speech better, so that you don't have to disconnect!
- In General American, International English and colloquial British English, /t/ can be pronounced as the so-called flap or tap t, /ɾ/, which sounds like a short d or, more precisely, like the quick, hard r sound heard in Spanish pero. So letter can be heard as /leɾə/.
Within words, /ɾ/ must be followed by a weak unstressed vowel, i.e. /ə, i /. The /t/ is tapped in átom /ˈæɾəm/ , but not in atómic /əˈtɒmɪk/.In connected speech, across words, this stress-sensitivity ceases to exist, and /t/ followed by any vowel undergoes this t- to- r process; not only do we find tapping in get alóng /ˈɡeɾəˈlɒŋ/ , where the next vowel is unstressed, but in get úp /ˈgeɾʌp/ too.
- Listen to the song and do the gap-fill exercise while listening. Click on the clue button to get a phonetic transcription of the missing letters. Be aware that in the gap you have to write the ending of a word, a space and the next word or beginning of it.
