How do you pronounce ''quart'' and ''quarter''?

<<Come to think of it, Kirk, I don't think MY D in "drive" really sounds like a D at all, as in your example:

"drive" [dr\aI:v]

Mine's more like "jrive". And it seems to happen for all my "DR-" words.>>

That's interesting. I don't have that at all, tho I do have "chr" for some of my "tr" words (about half of "tr" + vowel environments can go to "ch" for me, the other half don't).

<<Kirk, actually, in the dialect here, one can get [4] both word-finally and word-initially in words that are either followed by words starting in vowels or preceded by words ending in vowels, respectively.>>

Yeah, it's the same here, as in my "the bed is" which I wrote with [4], which obviously is word-final but followed by a vowel. Also, as you said, I can have [4] word initially when following a stressed vowel.

<<And, of course, there is the overlooked case of /t/ or /d/ following a non-vowel sonorant, which is in turn following a vowel, and preceding an unstressed vowel, where [4] is also used in most cases.>>

Oh yeah, thanks for pointing that out--that's like in "party" ["p_hAr4i].

>>I believe this "d" or "flap t" feature originated from Irish English dialects principally, which is why it's so common in American, Canadian and Australian accents. It seems that most other British English dialects, especially from England, generally don't have this feature. ("true t" is consistently pronounced in t-initial words, e.g. tap, trap, top, etc.)

Would that be a fair surmise?<<

It's interesting that you mention the word "trap" here. So are you also stating that /t/ does not palatalize before /r/ in at least most English English dialects, whereas at least in most NAE dialects that I know of, word-initial palatalization of /t/ as [tS] before /r/, if not palatalization of it in all positions, is the rule.

Travis,
Maybe I should have been more pedantic by simply saying that "flap t" doesn't apply to t-initial positions, e.g. tap, trap, top, where a "true t" is often used instead.

When /tr\/ occurs in my speech, there is a little bit of a transitional palatal sound, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was [tSr\]. When I make the cluster [tSr\], it sounds noticeably different from the way I pronounce /tr\/.

The post at the top of the page was by me.

<<It's interesting that you mention the word "trap" here. So are you also stating that /t/ does not palatalize before /r/ in at least most English English dialects, whereas at least in most NAE dialects that I know of, word-initial palatalization of /t/ as [tS] before /r/, if not palatalization of it in all positions, is the rule.>>

I'm an English English speaker, and I'd say I have [tS] (and even /tS/) in "trap", and similarly [dZ] and /dZ/ in "drive". I can use "real" /tr/ and /dr/ in loanwords and foreign names.

<<When /tr\/ occurs in my speech, there is a little bit of a transitional palatal sound, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was [tSr\]. When I make the cluster [tSr\], it sounds noticeably different from the way I pronounce /tr\/. >>

A similar thing goes for how I pronounce /tr\/.

I definitely say "chrap" for trap.

Lazar, calm down, buddy! Just think of the Yankees being out of the playoffs and cheer up! When I saw that phonetic New England spelling, I immediately thought of my relatives in Massachusetts -- looks just like something they would say.

<<Lazar, calm down, buddy!>>

Why are you telling Lazar to calm down?

<<Lazar, calm down, buddy! Just think of the Yankees being out of the playoffs and cheer up! When I saw that phonetic New England spelling, I immediately thought of my relatives in Massachusetts -- looks just like something they would say.>>

Okay...

*Serenity now*, *serenity now*....

There, that's better!