“We don't pronounce our t's around here": Realisations of /t/ in West Yorkshire English

This paper explores how intervocalic /t/ is realised across West Yorkshire and aims to establish the extent to which this phonetic variable patterns with other varieties of British English. Although sociolinguists have extensively studied T-glottaling, and variation in /t/ production more generally, in numerous areas of the UK; there are no up-to-date studies which have examined /t/ in West Yorkshire. An auditory analysis of over 600 tokens of intervocalic /t/, from multiple syllabic and phonetic contexts, using recordings of speakers from three metropolitan boroughs within West Yorkshire (Bradford, Kirklees and Wakefield) is presented. The results of this investigation revealed that throughout all three boroughs, T-glottaling is common in certain, but not all, intervocalic contexts. Taking into account previous findings this result indicates that Tglottaling may be on the rise in West Yorkshire, in line with other Northern cities participating in the consonantal change such as Manchester and Hull.