This study investigates the claim that flapping patterns in American English are subject to phonetic paradigm uniformity constraints based on the phonetic feature [extra short closure], as proposed in Steriade (2000). The results of this study reveal that speakers do not maintain uniform paradigms with regard to flapping and that [extra short closure] is not an invariant acoustic cue for flap identification and therefore a questionable candidate for a phonetic uniformity constraint in the first place. American English flapping patterns therefore do not support a collapse of the phonetic and phonological components of grammar, as argued in Steriade (2000).

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