Is "the /t/ sound" and "the /j/ sound" pronounced as "ch sound" in all the words?

Hi
Sorry I didn't know how to insert the phonetic transcription of the sound so I used the letter to mean the sounds. For example in a word like "opportunity" is it OK to pronounce it as opprCHunity? I'm used to pronouncing it like this. However, today I was looking up the word in the dictionary but neither in CALD nor in LAAD I could find this phonetic transcription. The only thing I found was /oppertjuniti/ or /oppertuniti/.

Thanks a million.

Both the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary and the Cambridge English pronouncing Dictionary give the /ʧ/ (CH) version as a possibility. It's common, though 'careful' speakers try to avoid it.

It would sound very odd to me to hear "ch" in "opportunity.

There is a difference between the BrE and AmE pronunciations of the word even without the "ch" sound.

BrE - opp-uh-t-you-n-uh-ty (I don't do phonetics!)
AmE - opp-uh-too-n-uh-ty

I've tried pronouncing it the AmE way, using the "ch" sound, but it's very difficult and sounds very unnatural. In BrE, however, it's very common and becomes "opp-uh-choo-n-uh-ty".

The "ch" sound is very natural to me and I am a BrE speaker.

For some reason, the hard "T" pronunciation conjures up visions of an American or a Canadian with a gay lisp - it bugs me no end.

When "eyechunes" becomes "eyeToons" and "Antony Hopkins" becomes "AnTHony Hopkins" - do you not sense the overtly clean and anodyne quality of the spoken words? Or is that just me?

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Originally Posted by magimagicE

For some reason, the hard "T" pronunciation conjures up visions of an American or a Canadian with a gay lisp - it bugs me no end.

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I think it might be an idea to be careful suggesting that a particular way of speaking is "gay" and I really don't see how the use of "t" as opposed to "ch" could have anything to do with having a lisp, which is simply the inability to pronounce the sibilant "s".

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AmE

- opp-uh-too-n-uh-ty

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That's not even close to how I would say it.

I would include an "r." Opp-ur-toon-i-ty

It depends on which dialect you are aiming for. For instance, I hear my Australian colleague saying "chune" for tune. He also says choonity when he utters opportunity. The context: palatalization in the stressed onsets. In American dialects at least, it is not the case.

Then there are L2 speakers, who have a mishmash of phonetic and phonological features from all dialects.

I find that /t/ and /d/ change to /tʃ/ (ch) and /dʒ/ (j) respectively when it occurs before a /j/ (y) + a vowel. I believe it's because when articulating /j/, you move your tongue to the hard palate – near to where you articulate /tʃ/ & /dʒ/ – and the alveolar stop becomes a post-alveolar affricate in the cross-over.

[Not a teacher]

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Originally Posted by SoothingDave

That's not even close to how I would say it.

I would include an "r." Opp-ur-toon-i-ty

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A couple of hours after I posted it, I ran through an American pronunciation in my head and realised that my "uh" should have been your "ur" but by the time I came back to the forum, I couldn't find the post. Thanks for pointing it out.