I suppose this mostly applies to North Americans and Australians, since we're the only ones that have flapping. I'm curious about flapping of word-initial /t/ in unstressed syllables. For example, the phrase "Get me to school" would often be [gE?.mi4@"sku.Uo]. Words like 'today' and 'tomorrow', however, always have [t_h] for me, though I've heard Americans on TV who use [4] here like in "Give it to me today" ["gIvi4@mi4@"deI]. Which one would you use in this situation?
Flapping
Get me to school [gI? mi 4@ skul] My "get" and "school" seem to be different from yours.
Give it to me today [gIv I? t_h@ mi t_h@de]
Give it to me tomorrow [gIv I? t_h@ mi t_hVmOr\o]
Give it to me today [gIv I? t_h@ mi t_h@de]
Give it to me tomorrow [gIv I? t_h@ mi t_hVmOr\o]
Josh: My treatment of word-initial /t/ seems to be similar to yours. I regularly flap the /t/ of unstressed "to" when it comes after a vowel.
"get me to school" ["gE? mi 4@ "sku5]
And at the same time, I never flap any other word-initial /t/ (eg, "today", "tomorrow", "tomato").
In your last example, I don't flap the /t/ of "to" because it doesn't come after a vowel.
"give it to me today" ["gIv It t_h@ mi t_h@"deI]
"get me to school" ["gE? mi 4@ "sku5]
And at the same time, I never flap any other word-initial /t/ (eg, "today", "tomorrow", "tomato").
In your last example, I don't flap the /t/ of "to" because it doesn't come after a vowel.
"give it to me today" ["gIv It t_h@ mi t_h@"deI]
I would say something like Givvita medaday, or even givvida medaday. Either way -- sometimes with the first T, sometimes with all T's converted to D's.
T's in the middle of a sentence aren't always treated the way they would be if they stood alone, initial letter or not.
T's in the middle of a sentence aren't always treated the way they would be if they stood alone, initial letter or not.
I also regularly flap the /t/ of unstressed "to" when it follows a vowel and sometimes when it *doesn't* follow a vowel. At the same time, voicing assimilation across morpheme boundaries involving "to" as a clitic IMD generally does not voice "to" but rather devoices any preceding lenis obstruent (unlike in some dialects in which voicing assimilation generally precedes the opposite direction with cliticized "to").
Additionally, I often flap word-initial /t/ in words with the unstressed word-initial morpheme "to" such as "today", "tomorrow", "tonight", and "together" when preceded by a vowel, in free variation with using [t_h] in such positions. Note, though, that I do not do it in other words like "tomato" which are not related morphologically. Furthermore, I also sporadically flap the /t/ in such words when not followed by a vowel at all.
Anyways, I have:
"Get me to school" : ["gE? "mi: 4@: "sku:M]
"Give it to me today" : ["gI:v "I t_h:@: "mi: 4@:"de:] or ["gI:v "I t_h:@: "mi: t_h@:"de:]
"Give it to me tomorrow" : ["gI:v "I t_h:@: "mi 4@~:"mA:Ro:] or ["gI:v "I t_h:@: "mi t_h@~:"mA:Ro:]
Additionally, I often flap word-initial /t/ in words with the unstressed word-initial morpheme "to" such as "today", "tomorrow", "tonight", and "together" when preceded by a vowel, in free variation with using [t_h] in such positions. Note, though, that I do not do it in other words like "tomato" which are not related morphologically. Furthermore, I also sporadically flap the /t/ in such words when not followed by a vowel at all.
Anyways, I have:
"Get me to school" : ["gE? "mi: 4@: "sku:M]
"Give it to me today" : ["gI:v "I t_h:@: "mi: 4@:"de:] or ["gI:v "I t_h:@: "mi: t_h@:"de:]
"Give it to me tomorrow" : ["gI:v "I t_h:@: "mi 4@~:"mA:Ro:] or ["gI:v "I t_h:@: "mi t_h@~:"mA:Ro:]
For the record, those instances above of ["mi] should have been ["mi:].