Intervocalic

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

and

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

, an intervocalic consonant is a

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...

that occurs between two

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

s. Intervocalic consonants are often associated with

lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...

, a phonetic process that causes consonants to weaken and eventually disappear entirely. An example of such a change in English is ''

intervocalic alveolar flapping Flapping or tapping, also known as alveolar flapping, intervocalic flapping, or ''t''-voicing, is a phonological process found in many varieties of English, especially North American, Cardiff, Ulster, Australian and New Zealand English, whereby ...

'', a process (especially in

North American English North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...

and Australian English) that, impressionistically speaking, turns ''t'' into ''d'', causing (e.g.) ''metal'' and ''batter'' to sound like ''medal'' and ''badder'', respectively. (More precisely, both /t/ and /d/ are pronounced with the

alveolar tap Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * M ...

.) In North American English the weakening is variable across word boundaries, so that the /t/ of "see you tomorrow" may be pronounced with either tap or . Some languages have intervocalic weakening processes fully active word-internally and in connected discourse: e.g. Spanish /d/ regularly pronounced in both "all" and "the dune" (but if the word is pronounced alone). Phonetics Phonology {{phonology-stub