2. ASPIRATED STOPS IN ENGLISH
VICTORIA ACCOMPLISH APPEARANCE
Prof. Felipe I. DeGracia P.
3. Aspirated Stops in the English Language
Not all stops are pronounced the same way. Native speakers of English produce the voiceless stops
[p, t, k] as aspirated in some environments, but unaspirated in other environments. This unit deals
with the systematic, predictable environments in English where aspiration occurs on voiceless stops.
The vocal folds start vibrating at almost exactly the same time as the stop closure is released, so
voiced stops in English are unaspirated. The diacritic to indicate aspiration on a stop is a little
superscript h, like so: [ph, th, kh].
It’s not all voiceless stops that get aspirated in English – only voiceless stops at the beginning of
a stressed syllable. In words like appear and attack, the voiceless stop isn’t the first sound in the
word, but it comes at the beginning of a stressed syllable so it gets aspirated. [əphiɹ] [əthæk] But in
the words apple and nickel, the voiceless stop comes after a stressed syllable and before an
unstressed syllable, so it doesn’t get aspirated. [æpəl] [nɪkəl]
We don’t aspirate voiceless stops at the ends of words, like in brick. [bɹɪk]
4.
5. Puff of Air
◦ We know now that we can use the IPA to transcribe speech sounds, and that our transcription can be
either broad or narrow. When we make a narrow transcription, we’re including as much detail as
possible about how speakers produce sounds, which often means including diacritics.
To illustrate what aspiration is, I’m going to ask you to say a silly sentence: The spy wanted to buy a
blueberry pie.
Now say it again and hold your hand in front of your mouth. The spy wanted to buy a blueberry pie.
For native speakers of English, the word pie is produced with a little puff of air as the [p] is released.
That puff of air is called aspiration. English speakers systematically produce aspiration on voiceless
stops at the beginning of a stressed syllable, but not on voiced stops. To understand why, we have to
think about voicing and about the manner of articulation.
6. WHEN ASPIRATION OCCURS
When you’re transcribing words with the voiceless stops [p t k], your challenge will be to figure out
if the stops are aspirated or unaspirated, so you can indicate the aspiration in your narrow
transcription. In most varieties of English, aspiration happens in these predictable environments.
◦ Voiceless stops are aspirated at the beginning of a word, and at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
◦ Voiceless stops are unaspirated at the beginning of an unstressed syllable. They’re also unaspirated
in any other position, like at the end of a syllable or the end of a word.
◦ And even if a syllable is stressed, a voiceless stop is unaspirated if it follows [s].
◦ In English, voiced stops are never aspirated. They’re always unaspirated.
One thing that I want to emphasize is that this pattern of aspiration is particular to the grammar of
English, but stops behave differently in other languages.
