The link between syllabic nasals and glottal stops in American English

Abstract

Examples of syllabic nasals in English abound in phonological research (e.g., Hammond, 1999; Harris, 1994; Wells, 1995), but there is little explicit discussion about the surrounding consonant environments that condition syllabic nasals. This study examines the production of potential word-final syllabic nasals in American English following preceding consonants including oral stops, glottal stops, fricatives, flap, and laterals. The data come from a laboratory study of read speech with speakers from New York and other regions, a corpus of read speech with speakers from the Pacific Northwest and Northern Cities, and a spontaneous telephone speech corpus. Acoustic analysis indicates that [n̩] is only prevalent after [ʔ], with some extension to [d] or [ɾ]. Variation in rates of [n̩] versus [ən] is found across the speakers in a group, not within individual speakers. An articulatory sketch to account for the prevalence of [n̩] after coronal and glottal stops is laid out. To link this realization to the presence of the [ʔ] allophone in pre-syllabic nasal environment, previous analyses of acoustic enhancement proposed for glottally-reinforced [tʔ] in coda position (e.g., Keyser & Stevens, 2006) are extended to the syllabic nasal case.