-ity suffix Stress and Pronunciation
The noun-forming -ity suffix is relatively straightforward compared to other derivational suffixes in English. This suffix typically does not attach to other derivational suffixes, nor do other derivational suffixes attach to it. Since the -ity suffix creates nouns, it does have the inflectional -s suffix added during the creation of plurals, but that is as complicated as this suffix gets.
-ity suffix pronunciation
One of the patterns that lead to the t sound being pronounced as a quick d sound (also called the alveolar tap) is when the t is not the first sound of a stressed syllable and occurs between vowel sounds. Since the -ity suffix fits within this pattern, the consonant sound of this suffix is almost always pronounced as the quick d sound (transcribed as /t̬/).
-ity suffix stress pattern
The -ity suffix is a stress-controlling suffix and causes words that include it to be stressed on the third-from-last syllable.
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