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As far as I've understood there are these following rules for aspirating a plosive consonant:

  1. When it's word initital
  2. When it's in a stressed syllable

And it's not aspirated when:

  1. When preceeded by another consonant like s
  2. When followed by a fricative or a plosive

So by which rule is the second t in aptitude aspirated?

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For some speakers, voiceless plosives are not only aspirated at the start of a stressed syllable, but also at the start of an unstressed syllable. In American English, aptitude is pronounced something like /ˈæp.tə.tuːd/ (by contrast, it's /ˈæp.tə.t͡ʃuːd/ in British English); the t's are syllable-initial so they're aspirated for some speakers:

  • [ˈæp̚.tʰə.tʰuːd]

So it's no wonder you hear aspirated t at that position.

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  • if you listen to some of the pronunciation of the word here : youglish.com/pronounce/aptitude/english/us? you'll find that the first t is unaspirated in every single one of those while the second t is aspirated...so i've gotten confused a bit
    – user424161
    Commented May 25, 2021 at 14:40
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    @Richard It’s because there’s secondary stress on the final syllable: [ˈæp̚t̻̬əˌtʰud]. Notice also how the written ‹pt› pair mutates a little under assimilation so that its ‹p› is unreleased and its ‹t› uses more of the blade of the tongue than the second ‹t› does, along with a bit of voicing from the following vowel leaking into it, something that never happens to an aspirated stop.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented May 25, 2021 at 15:54
  • @tchrist so should i add "all ptk in seconday stress syllable onset are aspirated" to my list of rules?
    – user424161
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 5:48
  • @Richard: I'd say so because it still receives stress.
    – Rayan Khan
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 6:25
  • @tchrist Then why does it have secondary stress in the first place? (I'd say because the third syllable begins a foot and has a full vowel.) I find the type of explanation you give, which is unfortunately common, circular and incomplete because it doesn't give you derivable rules.
    – Nardog
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 13:28
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It is aspirated for the same reason it is aspirated in Edmonton, but not Badminton. When a syllable is stressed the initial consonants will tend to be aspirated and the vowels will not be diminished. If the vowel is diminished, you are dealing with an unstressed syllable. There are more stressed syllables than just the primary stress, especially in longer words.

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