Hiatus Resolution Strategies in Non-rhotic English: The Case of /r/-Liaison.

This paper looks at the different hiatus resolution strategies in potential cases of /r/-liaison in nonrhotic English. Potential contexts of /r/-liaison were identified in a corpus of BBC newscasts and analysed auditorily and acoustically for the occurrence of /r/-liaison, glottal stops, creaky voice or hiatus. The results show that /r/-liaison is a common hiatus-breaking strategy although there are significant differences between linking /r/ and intrusive /r/. They also show that glottal hiatusbreaking strategies are common and that creaky voice is more frequent than true glottal stops while hiatus is not very frequent. The discussion focuses on the reason why glottal strategies seem to be gaining ground as opposed to the use of /r/.