StAmE consonants

There are only a few notable StAmE consonantal practices aside from the issue of postvocalic r already covered with the vowels in the previous section. The most prominent concern /t/. Intervocalic t is most often realized as a tap or flap, frequently with voicing, so that latter/ladder are homonyms for educated Americans, as ; this pronunciation is transcribed as [lædə​r] in ODP, because the dictionary uses a restricted symbol set that does not include the . /t/ is also frequently voiced prevocalically in consonant clusters such as –kt–, –pt–, –ft–, and –rt–. /t/ is typically deleted from –nt– clusters between vowels (unless separated by stress), for example making homonyms of the words winter/winner. The palatal glide /j/ remains firmly in place in words like cure, music, but in other words like Tuesday, coupon, neurotic it is frequently lost. Postvocalic /l/ is vocalized more and more often by educated speakers, except before juncture, to yield pronunciations like alcohol, milk . Educated speakers sometimes voice other consonants as well, such as [εks-, εgz-] as variant pronunciations of the ex- prefix.