A stop with no audible release, also known as an unreleased stop or an applosive, is a stop consonant with no release burst: no audible indication of the end of its occlusion (hold). In the International Phonetic Alphabet, lack of an audible release is denoted with an upper-right corner

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

() after the consonant letter: , , . Audibly released stops, on the other hand, are not normally indicated. If a final stop is aspirated, the aspiration diacritic is sufficient to indicate the release. Otherwise, the "unaspirated" diacritic of the Extended IPA may be employed for this: ''apt'' .

English

In most dialects of English, the first stop of a cluster has no audible release, as in ''apt'' , ''doctor'' , or ''logged on'' . Although such sounds are frequently described as "unreleased", the reality is that since the two consonants overlap, the release of the former takes place during the hold of the latter, masking the former's release and making it inaudible. That can lead to cross-articulations that seem very much like deletions or complete

assimilation Assimilation may refer to: Culture *Cultural assimilation, the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs **Language shift, also known as language assimilation, the progre ...

. For example, ''hundred pounds'' may sound like but X-ray and

electropalatographic Electropalatography (EPG) is a technique used to monitor contacts between the tongue and hard palate, particularly during articulation and speech. A custom-made artificial palate is moulded to fit against a speaker's hard palate. The artificial p ...

studies demonstrate that since inaudible and possibly-weakened contacts may still be made, the second in ''hundred pounds'' does not entirely assimilate a labial place of articulation but co-occurs with it. In

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...

, a stop in syllable-final position is typically realized as an unreleased stop; that is especially the case for /t/, but in that position, it is also analyzed as experiencing glottal reinforcement. Such sounds may occur between vowels, as in some pronunciations of ''out a lot''. The overlap there appears to be with a glottal stop, : the is pronounced, and since it is between vowels, it must be released. However, its release is masked by the glottal stop.'no (audible) release'
''John Wells's phonetic blog'', 2012 March 14. (See: T-glottalization, in some dialects). The term "unreleased" is also used for a stop before a

homorganic In phonetics, a homorganic consonant (from ''homo-'' "same" and ''organ'' "(speech) organ") is a consonant sound that is articulated in the same place of articulation as another. For example, , and are homorganic consonants of one another since ...

nasal Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination: * With reference to the human nose: ** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery ** ...

, as in ''catnip''. In such cases, however, the stop is released as a nasal in a ''

nasal release In phonetics, a nasal release is the release of a stop consonant into a nasal. Such sounds are transcribed in the IPA with superscript nasal letters, for example as in English ''catnip'' . In English words such as ''sudden'' in which historical ...

'' and so it would be more precisely transcribed .

Other languages

In most languages in

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

with final stops, such as

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, Malay, Thai, and West Coast Bajau, the stops are not audibly released: ''mak'' . That is true even between vowels. That is thought to be caused by an overlapping glottal stop and is more precisely transcribed . A consequence of an inaudible release is that any aspirated–unaspirated distinction is neutralized. Some languages, such as Vietnamese, which are reported to have unreleased final stops, turn out to have short voiceless

s instead. The excess pressure is released (voicelessly) through the nose and so there is no audible release to the stop.

Formosan languages

The

Formosan languages The Formosan languages are a geographic grouping comprising the languages of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, all of which are Austronesian. They do not form a single subfamily of Austronesian but rather nine separate subfamilies. The Taiwan ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

, such as Tsou and

Amis Amis may refer to: * Amis (surname) * Amis people (or ''Amis''), a tribe of Taiwanese aborigines * Amis language, an indigenous language of Taiwan * AMIS (ISP), an Internet service provider (ISP) in Slovenia and Croatia * Amis et Amiles, an old ...

, are unusual in that all

obstruent An obstruent () is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well a ...

s are released but not aspirated, as in Tsou "four" and "to pierce", or Amis "one" and "four". (The symbol for a release burst, , is acknowledged but not supported by the IPA.)

Gyalrong languages

Gyalrongic languages The Gyalrongic languages (also known as Rgyalrongic or Jiarongic) constitute a branch of the Qiangic languages of Sino-Tibetan, although some propose that it may be part of a larger Rung languages group, and do not consider it to be particularl ...

, plosives and nasal stops could be unreleased after a glottal stop,Page 27, ''A Grammar of RGyalrong, Jiǎomùzú (Kyom-kyo) Dialects: A Web of Relations'' Marielle Prins 2016, 9789004324565 for example: * > * >

Pirahã

In Pirahã, the only surviving dialect of the Mura language, there is a special register of speech using solely humming, which doesn't involve an audible release and may be transcribed as of different length and tone.

References

Sources

* * * * * {{refend

External links

'Unreleased'
(

John C. Wells John Christopher Wells (born 11 March 1939) is a British phonetician and Esperantist. Wells is a professor emeritus at University College London, where until his retirement in 2006 he held the departmental chair in phonetics. Career Wells e ...

)
'No (audible) release'
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'Unreleased stops'
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University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Plosives