Several questions about American pronunciation

I was thinking about a couple of questions I had when talking with the American accent, and I wanted some native American speaker to clarify them for me, if possible.

1) The indefinite article "a" -- sometimes pronounced as "ey" (during deliberation or hesitation), and sometimes as a straight "e". I've noticed that many American speakers say "ey" even in fluent speech, rather than at a hesitant moment. What I do is, I say "e" to link fluent speech but "ey" when I'm not sure what will come next. Is this correct?

2) The sound of "t" -- imagine you're saying "iced tea." When saying the word "tea" in this phrase, you don't have a lot of time to puff the air out, with your tongue behind the teeth, as you would, for instance, if you were saying "to go." In both of these, I put my tongue on the ridge behind the front teeth, to make an American "t." But how much air I puff out varies. Is it correct to have two "t" sounds, one an exaggerated well-formed one, as in the beginning of a word, and one without the air puff, but STILL with the tongue in the same place, on the alveolar ridge behind the front teeth?

3) Is "situation" pronounced with a "t" or a "ch"?

4) Are the words "Lincoln" and "Malcolm" pronounced as "Lin-kun" and "Mal-kum" (without the next-to-last 'l')? It's very hard to pronounce both of these.

thanks

*Just to elaborate a little on the "t" question. What I'm talking about is the difference between these:

"two, tell, teeth, take" VS. "star, still"

Is it real? In the latter case, you can't really puff the air out.

So where would "iced tea" fit in this distinction?

(Are you familiar with IPA and X-SAMPA? If not, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-SAMPA .)

1. The indefinite article "a" is pronounced [ə] (a short neutral vowel) most of the time. There's no definite rule on when to pronounce it as [eɪ] (or "ay"); this pronunciation can be used when speaking slowly or deliberately, as you say, or when you're not sure what will come next, or just if you're speaking emphatically (for example, in a speech). But generally, in fluent speech, it's [ə].

2. You're correct in noting the difference between "two, tell, teeth, take" and "star, still" - the former group has aspiration and the latter group doesn't. This distinction (along with analogous ones like "park" v. "spark" and "car" v. "scar") is important if you want to sound native. In the case of "iced tea", the /t/ in "iced" is generally not enunciated at all, and the word is pronounced as if it were "ice tea": [ˌaɪs ˈtʰi:]. The word "tea" is pronounced the same as it would be if it were in isolation, with aspiration.

3. "Situation" is pronounced with [tʃ] (or "ch"). The same goes for similar words like "constituent", "actual", "factual", "infatuate", and also for words like "graduate" and "educate" which use [dʒ] (or "j").

4. Yes, in both cases the second L is silent. They're pronounced like "Linken" [ˈlɪnkən] and "Malkum" [ˈmæɫkəm].

Thanks a lot Lazar. I had a "gut feel" but just wanted to confirm.

By the way, I pronounce the words "actual" and "factual" with a SH-sound, rather than the "ch" that you mentioned. I say "akSHual," "fakSHual." Is this wrong? I could have sworn most people use the sh-sound for these.

Yeah, it's quite common to pronounce those words with [ʃ] (or "sh"), although dictionaries will list them with [tʃ] (or "ch"). So you've got no problem there.

<In the case of "iced tea", the /t/ in "iced" is generally not enunciated at all, and the word is pronounced as if it were "ice tea": [ˌaɪs ˈtʰi:]. The word "tea" is pronounced the same as it would be if it were in isolation, with aspiration.>
It's a widespread phenomenon that people drop the "d" in part particles when they're used in a compound phrase: "old fashion" instead of "old fashioned", "cut and dry" instead of "cut and dried" (something I disapprove of, but obviously that doesn't stop them from doing it). You should be careful, however, of dropping letters just because native speakers do so. It can eliminate redundancy that listeners may need to understand you if you have a significant accent.

<"Situation" is pronounced with [tʃ] (or "ch"). The same goes for similar words like "constituent", "actual", "factual", "infatuate", and also for words like "graduate" and "educate" which use [dʒ] (or "j").>
I would give the pronunciation of "situation" as either "sit-shoo-a-shun" or "sih-shoo-a-shun". Also, a note for foreign speakers: "graduate" has a different final vowel depending on whether it's a noun/adjective or a verb.

<Yes, in both cases the second L is silent. They're pronounced like "Linken" [ˈlɪnkən] and "Malkum" [ˈmæɫkəm].>
The band "Linkin Park" got its name from a phonetic spelling of Lincoln Park.

<<You should be careful, however, of dropping letters just because native speakers do so. It can eliminate redundancy that listeners may need to understand you if you have a significant accent.>>

But if you're aiming for real fluency, I think you should try to emulate native speakers. In the case of "iced tea", I think it would really be prohibitive to try to enunciate both /t/s.

<<I would give the pronunciation of "situation" as either "sit-shoo-a-shun" or "sih-shoo-a-shun".>>

No, I disagree: the historical sequence [tj] has become an affricate [tʃ], not merely a sequence of [t.ʃ]. "Sit-shoo-a-shun", as a phonemic analysis, strikes me as off. The same goes for "sih-shoo-a-shun" - that's definitely non-standard and learners should avoid it.

>><<You should be careful, however, of dropping letters just because native speakers do so. It can eliminate redundancy that listeners may need to understand you if you have a significant accent.>>

But if you're aiming for real fluency, I think you should try to emulate native speakers. In the case of "iced tea", I think it would really be prohibitive to try to enunciate both /t/s.<<

Hmm - In the dialect here, at least, it is very much normal to keep such cases as geminates rather than to reduce them, with the only place where such geminate-reduction occurs commonly at all being "had to". Of course, then, the dialect here is very much non-standard overall.

<But if you're aiming for real fluency, I think you should try to emulate native speakers. In the case of "iced tea", I think it would really be prohibitive to try to enunciate both /t/s.>
"Perfection is the enemy of the good". Speaking just like a native speaker is the ultimate goal, but speaking differently but clearly is better than speaking similarly but unclearly. If you're learning to ski, you shouldn't emulate Olympic skiers; do so, and you'll almost definitely get killed. Pronouncing both "d" and "t" would slow a speaker down, but that could be a good thing. I didn't say that learners should never do this, only that they should be careful. At the very least, learners should be conscious that they're giving a reduced pronunciation, and be able to give the full pronunciation if it appears that they are not being understood.

<<You should be careful, however, of dropping letters just because native speakers do so.>>

And how the heck a normal person is supposed to pronounce /st/ + /t/? Anything but just /st/ would be practically impossible (unless you are Travis, LOL). The pattern is the same and one t is dropped unless you try to pronounce each word separately (which is never done in any natural kind of speech):
- iced tea
- used to
- just to

ESB, the reason why the T in "tea" is aspirated even though there's an /s/ sound before it is that "tea" is part of a different word or syllable. In "star", the /t/ and the /s/ are in the same syllable, unlike in "iced tea". That's why these two are different:
- Mike's top
- Mike stop

Ironically, in the phrase "iced tea," it's the same situation as in "star" -- you have a /t/ after an /s/, which means it can't be aspirated.

>><<You should be careful, however, of dropping letters just because native speakers do so.>>

And how the heck a normal person is supposed to pronounce /st/ + /t/? Anything but just /st/ would be practically impossible (unless you are Travis, LOL). The pattern is the same and one t is dropped unless you try to pronounce each word separately (which is never done in any natural kind of speech):
- iced tea
- used to
- just to<<

Actually, the common pattern here is for /stt/ to become /sst/, even though such is not entirely consistent.

<<Ironically, in the phrase "iced tea," it's the same situation as in "star" -- you have a /t/ after an /s/, which means it can't be aspirated.>>

No, that's not the case. As Johnny said, the /t/ in "iced tea" is aspirated because it's not in the same syllable as the /s/. Aspiration is only inhibited when the /s/ and the /t/ occur in the same syllable. Compare:

"star" ["stA@`]
"iced tea" [%aIs."t_hi:]