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Abstract
This study analyzes unstressed /tən/ in words like button, kitten, and mountain. In Utah, there are three variants: North American mainstream [ʔn̩], forticized [thɨn], and local [ʔɨn]. While previous work in Utah has focused on [ʔɨn], I use an auditory analysis of wordlist data from 117 Utahns to show that [thɨn] is the majority variant in Utah and is twice as common as in other regions. I argue that fortition is a hypercorrection in response to the stigmatized local variant, [ʔɨn]. This aligns with what other studies have reported about the correctness associated with /t/-release in other phonological environments and appears to be just one instance of a broader process of fortition in Utah English.
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