Why can't Taiwanese pronounce syllables that end with m, k, p, t

When there are words in Holo with those endings?

Seems like they can only pronounce -n and -ng.

Situations taiwanese use said letters at the end of things.

M: Mmmmmmm and Hmmmmmm
K: OK (arguably thats an ay)
P: L.O.P. (taiwanese but still, also argubly an .ee)
T: shit (arguably a hybrid of low gut e and huh grunt)

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Thanks for providing those examples. Appears that only one of them (t) is pronounced at the end of a syllable prefixed with a vowel.

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There’s nothing arguable about either of those. They both end in vowel sounds. If they ended in k and p sounds they’d be “oak” and “elope.”

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If you can make a dirty word with it, guaranteed people will try with all their might to learn it :wink:

I suspect English-language instruction in Mandarin-based educational settings and reinforced by input from many Mandarin speakers strengthens the influence of that language (which does not have final m p k t.)

I wouldn’t say “can’t” though, though I know what you mean.

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Those are ghosted consonants aren’t they? They’re not really “pronounced”.

I see what you did there

Still, it’s pretty analogous. Final “m” is pretty close, you wouldn’t think you’d end up with something like “ham-mu” for “ham”. And you might expect something a little better than “ja-kuh” for “Jack”, etc. For the p k t it is different as you say, so maybe not totally surprising.

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Really? I don’t see it! :slight_smile: What are you implying sir

Depending on the accent, most people don’t pronounce the T at the end of a syllable.

You said can’t so it seemed like a play on the word cause the word has the feature we are talking about while also meaning unable to

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In what language?

English.

I don’t pronounce the Ts at the end of a syllable.

So can’t and can sound the same? Or par and part? What accent would that be?

Ontario for sure.

No. The T makes an abrupt stop.

T-glottalisation is what google tells me.

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To be clear, your tongue goes into the correct position though, right? Like if you say “I’m all wet”, the tongue goes into t position, and it’s not like you’re saying “weh”.

Right.

Yeah. Like saying uh-oh.

It’s all we-

Found this video.

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“Cunt” definitely has a glottal stop.

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In some cases there’s not even ghosting. Think of a cockney saying “water”. The tongue makes no attempt to pronounce the t.

I can’t picture it. In NY it becomes a d/t sound.