Acoustic characteristics of flap productions by American English‐speaking children and adults

Abstract

Acoustic characteristics of underlying, intervocalic /d/ and /t/ flaps produced by a number of children and adults were studied to determine whether children's flaps showed similar properties to their other speech segments when compared with adults' productions. Closure durations of flaps and other consonents and a number of vowel durations were measured using a laboratory mini‐computer system. Contrasts such as “pudding/putting” and “writer/rider” produced in a carrier phrase were elicited using pictures so that no auditory model would be available for the children. Preliminary results showed that flaps from underlying /d/ were about 10% longer in duration than flaps from underlying /t/ for both the children and adults. Although stressed vowels preceding underlying /d/ flaps were longer in duration than those preceding underlying /t/ flaps for both groups, this contrast was substantially greater for the adults. It was also observed that flap durations were approximately 40% longer for the children than for the adults, while the durations of the children's vowels and nonflap consonant productions were more comparable to the adult's durations for those segments.