"duck tape" vs. "duct tape"

Tavorian   Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:24 pm GMT
Which do you use? I personally only ever call it duck tape. "duct tape" is extremely difficult to say to me.
Lazar   Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:32 pm GMT
I pronounce it ["dVk %t_heIp] or "duck tape", but I think I would still write it "duct tape". Dictionary.com actually gives some precedent for this: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/duct%20tape .
Rick Johnson   Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:18 pm GMT
Duck tape is a brand name isn't it?

I think I would call it duct tape, insulation tape or electrical tape.
Guest   Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:42 pm GMT
<Duck tape is a brand name isn't it?>

Must like Scotch Tape and also Sello Tape both brand names.
Travis   Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:27 am GMT
I likewise pronounce it ["dVk%t_hep] but write it "duct tape" myself as well, for the record. This seems to be a very common pattern overall, likely due to the sequence [k.t_h:] being phonotactically unfavored (while English dialects definitely have long consonants phonetically, having a short plosive adjacent to a long plosive seems strongly unfavored phonotactically in most English dialects).
Liz   Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:44 am GMT
It's originally "duct tape".

"Duck tape" is a brand name, a play with words, making use of the colloquial pronunciation of "duct tape". Practically no-one pronounces "duct tape" as "duct tape" as it would be a real tongue-twister. So, most people pronounce it as "duck tape" unless they work for the BBC. :-)

Correction: unless they used to work for the BBC 30 years ago.
Guest   Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:55 am GMT
I call it "ducting tape".
Jim   Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:06 pm GMT
Don't forget the wider and thicker goose tape, the prettiness of swan tape and drake tape for the manly man.

I guess it's much like "want to", "used to", "like cats", "rob banks", etc.
Josh Lalonde   Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:04 pm GMT
I think almost everyone would say 'duck tape' in regular conversation. For me though, this isn't only because of the following /t/, because I often have final cluster simplification; 'test' is usually /tEs/ for me, except before a vowel.
For some of Jim's examples, I think I would use a geminate consonant, since final stops are generally unreleased in my dialect.

want to [wQ~tu] (stressed) or [wQ~4~@] (unstressed)
used to [j}stu] (stressed) or [j}st@] (unstressed)
like cats [l6I?k:ats]
rob banks [r\Qb:eNks]

No geminates on the first two, maybe because final /t/ is [?] for me, and is simply elided in this case. Unvoiced stops in final position are pre-glottalized, though I don't usually transcribe that narrowly.
Travis   Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:48 pm GMT
I have a relatively similar pattern of gemination, except that I seem to degeminate less in more careful speech, having:

want to ["wQ~?t_h:u] or ["wQ~4~@:]
used to ["just:u:], ["justu:], or ["just@:]
like cats ["l@I?"k_h:E{ts]
rob banks ["Ra:"b:e~Nks]

(Note that the glottalization of postvocalic fortis obstruents marked here is systematic in my dialect, but I normally just do not transcribe it.)
Guest   Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:24 pm GMT
So "like cats" and "light cats" are pronounced identical for you, Travis?
Travis   Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:30 pm GMT
>>So "like cats" and "light cats" are pronounced identical for you, Travis?<<

No, as the two differ with respect to consonant length and glottalization (the glottalization in "light cats" is stronger than that in "like cats"):

like cats ["L\@I?"k_h:E{?ts]
light cats ["L\@I?"k_hE{?ts]

(The above is somewhat corrected relative to my previous post.)
Guest   Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:58 pm GMT
<<No, as the two differ with respect to consonant length and glottalization (the glottalization in "light cats" is stronger than that in "like cats"):

like cats ["L\@I?"k_h:E{?ts]
light cats ["L\@I?"k_hE{?ts]

(The above is somewhat corrected relative to my previous post.)>>

Okay. I don't think I'd be able to hear the difference though.
Peña   Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:08 pm GMT
I call it a duckling tape
19LA   Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:18 am GMT
Ah, duct tape - the handyman's secret weapon as Red Green would say.

I seem to remember one character on Royal Canadian Air Farce - was it "Mike from Kamloops"? - who always exaggerated the words as "duck-teh [pause] tape."

None of this will mean a thing to non-Canadians, I suppose.