Abstract This study analyzes unstressed /tən/ in words like button, kitten , and mountain . In Utah, there are three variants: North American mainstream ʔn̩, forticized t h ɨn, 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 t h ɨn 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.
Joseph A. Stanley (2026) studied this question.