We have the same number of basic sounds.

Student or Learner
Hello
Which one has more stop consonants, British or American accent?
Thanks
We have the same number of basic sounds.
I was not talking about the number of sounds. I was asking about the consonants which are not pronounced as American /t /in what or tighten,
Let's rephrase the question, which one tends to use more stop consonants?
I am not sure exactly what you're after with your question- a stop consonant is a sound made by stopping the flow of air, like /p/, so it doesn't necessarily mean consonants that are not pronounced as I understand it.
In the UK, the glottal stop (not pronouncing the /t/ in bottle, etc) is regional, so there's no clear national pattern- it's associated with London dialects, though its use is wider, but not universal. Dialects, which are still strong in British English, do things sufficiently differently to make it pretty difficult to make a national variant pattern. Other than this, we tend to change sounds to make them easier in connected speech so /t/ can become /d/, etc. It's also affected by factors like age- the glottal stop is becoming more widespread among younger speakers outside places like London.
Last edited by Tdol; 30-Sep-2010 at 06:13. Reason: Typo
Here's a complete list: (A stop is a plosive)
Stop consonant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English stops
[p], [t], [k] (aspirated word-initially, tenuis in clusters with s)
[b], [d], [ɡ] (in most dialects: partially voiced word-initially, fully voiced intervocally)
[ʔ] (glottal stop, not as a phoneme in most dialects)
Thanks you. I knew what they were but I think the OP could mean something else by it...
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