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Whenever a plosive like p,t,k follows a consonant in the final position, it is always released or else it can't be heard at all. For example: lamp, act, thank, etc. Yet in the word lamppost, the first 'p' is unreleased. Shouldn't this 'p' be released lest the word be perceived as 'lam-post' instead of 'lamp-post'? It is also along this line of reasoning that affricates can't be geminated after all: 'which chair' should be pronounced with two 'tʃ' sounds or else it will be heard as 'which air'. Does this mean that we should only geminate a plosive at the end of a word when it is preceded by a vowel and apply the same rule for affricates when it is preceded by a consonant ?

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    The premise of your question is wrong; the /p/ in the word lamppost is geminated in English, and this makes lamp post distinguishable from lamb post — it's even one of the examples in the Wikipedia article on gemination.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Apr 9, 2023 at 10:43
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    The difference can be subtle to hear, but it's very rarely ambiguous unless you live on a street with both lighting and tethered sheep.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Apr 9, 2023 at 10:54
  • Is it possible to differentiate between 'lamb' and 'lamp' with an unreleased stop ? I know the context might be enough but I'd appreciate it if you could elucidate me on the technical details. I can't tell 'lamppost' and 'lamb post' when I pronounce them myself. Also the transcription on the wiki indicates the geminated 'p' is an unreleased one followed by an aspirated one.
    – Brack Bruno
    Commented Apr 9, 2023 at 11:57
  • @BrackBruno: the difference is not between lamb and lamp (with an unreleased stop) but between lamb post and lamp post. In lamp post the /p/ is longer — this is what geminated means. I don't know if anybody can hear a difference between lamb and lamp with an unreleased stop; this distinction is certainly irrelevant to English.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Apr 9, 2023 at 12:05
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    @PeterShor Erm, surely not true. If one can hear the difference between lamb and lamp (and one can!) then that surely is as good a cue as any for the difference between lamb post and lamp post! Incidentally, Brack Bruno, not only can we hear the unreleased stop at the end of lamp, the voiceless stop causes pre-fortis clipping making the vowel + [m] much shorter in lamp than in lamb.
    – Araucaria - Him
    Commented Apr 10, 2023 at 23:06

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