to not know how to explain the pronunciation of 'little' and 'britain' in RP?

[shutyourlittleface]

You know the little nasal stop used in 'Bri()an' and the little mouth click in 'li()le?

Can anyone help me out?

This has nothing to do with the show Little Britain either by the way!

Glottal stop?

A have a vague recollection that it's called something like a gluttal stop, but I'm reaching back in the the dusty long memory of a-levels, so could be wrong.

X-post

But a glottal stop is more like the cockney/Essex way of saying it isn't it. I'm thinking more Teresa May

Yep, glottal stops.

Do you not just pronounce the T's?

Essex 'little' sounds completely different to Jacob Rees-Mogg's 'little'

Iirc it's t tapping. You tap your tongue on the roof of your mouth which makes a stop.

The hyper-aspirated "T" sound that is somewhere between a "t" and an "h", I'm guessing is what you mean...

This British Library page seems to touch on it, in a few different ways...
www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/connected-speech/

On the other hand, I'm unsure if it's canonical RP, but I'll admit my RP training is murky at best.

Thanks @zinrepus I've just read that and they still don't explain the RP pronunciation of Britain! It's like a stop and then the air comes out of the nose. A glottal stop, the air comes out of the mouth after the stop

And T Tapping sounds different to the clicky sound I'm thinking of in 'little'

T tapping sounds like it's referring to the American style of saying 'little'

Little is quite similar to the Welsh Ll, but not as pronounced. You're right, it's very hard to explain!

Also glottal stops can be used for getting, little, nettle, netting.

But the RP click noise would only work for little and nettle out of my list above!

At drama school I was taught the sound in the middle of “little” “kettle” etc is a lateral plosion

Definitely glottal stops. To throw in another term - the 'd' sound in words like suddenly is called nasal plosion.

Which makes sense to me as you can feel the air going sideways between the sides of your tongue and your side teeth

I think it's a lateral plosive, in the case of the '-ttl-' of 'little'. It's a bit like the start of a Welsh 'll'.

In 'Britain', I think it's a glottal stop with another consonant overlaying it, but I'm not sure.

I don't think it's Glottal stops - they're more Essex innit? I think I know the sound you're referring to, it's that rather breathy lispy "t" sound. What it's called? No idea.

YES!!!! Nasal and lateral plosives!!

THANK YOU

Little uses a lateral plosion and Britain uses a nasal plosion.

I can sleep now.