Alright already, enough of the only one "t" sound in the word important.

[jaxexpat]

I absolutely lose 90-99% of my respect for someone's message when they tell me how imporunt it is to hear what they have to say. Why is this happening? Is it to associate oneself with something cool? What is the game? Do we understand that the punch line for this perversion of the English language includes the perpetrators laughing behind our backs at how "hook, line and sinker" gullible and "grab shiny thing" groupyesque this proves us to be?

Is it really important enough to artificially and intentionally alter your speech to conform with another stupid fad? Please, somebody disabuse me of this aggravation. Explain why it shouldn't bother me when I am assailed with evidence proving that the species is ever accelerating in its relentless self-debasement and well-deserved extinction.

[RandomNumbers]

1. I have no idea what you are talking about?

I guess I'm missing some imporunt stuff by staying mostly away from social media these days?

Or is there some other important context to this that whizzed by me?

[viva la]

39. Younger people mostly.

I teach college students (stu-ens, as they would say), and I have to hold myself back from correcting the ones who skip the middle consonants.
But we all have our speech idiosyncrasies, I know.

[claudette]

78. Me, neither - not all of it

Except I think the letter "t" is pronounced twice in the word "important." If it's pronounced correctly.

[Shermann]

2. I don't think it is inentional. nt

[Fla Dem]

3. I don't even know how you would say it....

Impor ant

Or

Impo rant

To be honest, I've never heard either variation used.

[niyad]

30. I sometimes hear it pronounced "im poe ' end".

[Rebl2]

67. Same

[LudwigPastorius]

4. "...enough of the only one "t" sound in the word important...evidence proving that the species is ever accelerating

in its...well-deserved extinction."


That escalated rather quickly.

[jaxexpat]

7. Get back with me when you're sure it's really nothing after all.

That's what I need to hear.

[LudwigPastorius]

10. I'm just afraid to ask you...

what you think people who don't pronounce the first "r" in February deserve to get.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. Depends

Just chiming in for levity's sake.
If it's a kid at a school where I'm subbing, I correct them.
If it's an adult they deserve to be ignored!

[viva la]

41. I'm afraid I'll have to look that up in the libary.

It is interesting how most of us drop that R in FeBEWary.

I remember from linguistics class that letter combos that are hard to pronounce quickly often evolve. So "IN" before "P" becomes "IMP"== impending, impressing. And the T before CH is seldom emphasized, so "witch" sounds like "which".
For that matter, we're supposed to have an extra whoosh of breath when we speak "wh".
But... most of us don't bother.

(BTW, why do the Brits say the letter H as "Haich", but then often don't pronounce it-- "Hugh" is 'You"-?)

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. You're listening to a cliched 1940s Cockney if you're hearing "haitch" and "you"

It's been a joke for decades.

The 't' of 'tch' is never emphasised, though, in British English. In what accent is it?

Well done for mentioning the "hw" pronunciation of "wh", which ought to make a difference between "whales" and "Wales", "where" and "wear", "what" and "watt", and so on.

[viva la]

54. I remember the linguistics prof making us all pronounce:

Mary
Marry
Merry


We midwestern students all pronounced them identically. Seriously, none of us knew they're supposed to sound different!

[muriel_volestrangler]

60. Ah yes, I've heard that one before

A normal British accent says them all differently; but the ultra-upper-class, Royal accent says them with a short 'e' - "marry merry Mary" becomes "merry merry Merry".

[Foolacious]

69. They're not "supposed" to sound different.

They sound different in some dialects, not in others.

[mahina]

65. plus, fertogrphfy

[jaxexpat]

98. It's a thing to ponder, for sure.

[sl8]

106. "It's pronounced 'aitch' " (Mitchell & Webb)

Youtube / Dvdmitch

[Hermit-The-Prog]

99. They should be stuffed head-first into a hot chimley.

[HAB911]

5. I think it is something akin to valley talk

American English is malleable to the extreme. My pet peeve?

I mean, when did every spoken sentence begin with, "I mean......"?

[jaxexpat]

8. Like, you know, uh, duh. C'mon man. That's so far out it gags me with a spoon. Cool?

But what about the silent t's? There's no way that's anything but somnolent cult shit. What's next, splitting the ends of the tongue for that "true lisp" experience?

[dhol82]

61. It's very common in Brooklyn and Bronx

Probably even in Queens but I would-t know fa shu.

[Marthe48]

34. I'd rather hear I mean, than so

I don't drop into every conversation, even if so at the beginning of a sentence gives that intimation. And on written posts, when someone deliverately adds the unnecessary so, I get het up

[Diamond_Dog]

109. I'm with you on the "So", Marthe.

I’m a regular Jeopardy watcher. In the contestant interview segment, host Ken Jennings will lead a contestant to tell a story about themselves, and 90% of the time, the contestant begins his or her anecdote with “So…”. I know in the grand scheme of things hearing SO much SO is a trivial matter, but it does annoy me. It seems to be a “thing” now.

[viva la]

53. I've noticed that too! It's a younger person thing, I think.

"I mean" should logically come AFTER something you need to translate or explain.


I have to admit, however, that I very often start a sentence with "So..."

"So where are you going on vacation?"

"So I never did get all my grading one."

"So" is supposed to show some causal relationship--

"So that's why I never married."
But I use it almost like "Well...."

[Qutzupalotl]

6. I di-un notice.

In seriousness, I first heard the speech pattern you're referring to in the inexplicably popular phrase, “Oh no, you di-un.” I share your view that they both sound stupid.

[jaxexpat]

9. Bless you!

[mcar]

11. Makes me crazy when announcers and reporters do that

Impor'ant, Pu'in, Cli'in.

[jaxexpat]

12. It's like they've joined a club or something.

[GenThePerservering]

13. I recall a whole NPR piece

which went on about politicians dropping the 'g' at the end of (generally) gerunds.

The writer drove into the ground something people have been doing for hundreds of years and assigned it some dire social meaning. I don't think they predicted the extinction of our species, though - those are big words for small things.

[gulliver]

14. In Texas, it's very impordant to support the awl industry

I kid the Texans. I have family there.

[SARose]

107. It's the awl bidness

Please don’t tell my Mama I work in da awl bidness - she thinks I’m a piano player in a whorehouse. 😉

[Ms. Toad]

15. It's been happening for years.

I haven't figured out if it is a local dialect (like "needs fixed" rather than needs to be fixed."

But it certainly isn't an affectation - it is how most of the people they hear speak sound - they swallow the initial t. The pause for it is still there - it is just that the sound vanished.

[jaxexpat]

16. Its more an intentional disruption of normalcy than an affectation. It is political.

You'll know when they've robbed you of your digni-y. Replacing it with a "help wan-ed" sign.

[Ms. Toad]

25. All I can tell you is that it has happenned around here for years - at least a decade.

I hear it in every walk of life, In both Democrats and Republicans (If I had to put a prevalence, I hear it more from Democrats than Republicans). I first noticed it repeatedly from NPR personnel.

In the same way that people in Western Pennsylvania and NE Ohio omit "to be" between needs and a future perfect tense verb.

Nothing political at all about it.

[jaxexpat]

100. Only in the broadest terms. in a village astride a stream there were the Wests and the Easts.

They shared and had commonality in all things but sunrise and sunset over the stream. And that insignificant difference was the factor needed to differentiate, recognize and nominate, that difference. In the mid-summer, when the stream ran dry it took a conscious effort to remember who-was-who. Thus, the gathering of those who were already identical, the essence of politics.

[obamanut2012]

125. I am in my 50s, and I drop the middle T most times

Important, dentist, and also some other Ts, like in Sacramento. Many Sac nattives slur the T btw.

For me, it is a learned regional thing from where I grew up. Not unusual.

[Diamond_Dog]

110. I hear local TV newscasters say things like "needs fixed" instead of "needs to be fixed."

[John1956PA]

138. That idiom is popular here in Western Pennsylvania.

Recently, I was surprised to find someone in North Carolina using it.

[Hekate]

17. The emergent glottal stop in the broader American sphere...

[jaxexpat]

20. If only..........

[Hekate]

85. The pronunciation of Clinton as Clin'on was driving me buggy. Then I decided that's all it was, as I realized there were

….lots of other examples. I just don’t know enough about regional American accents East of the California border to say if this has always been part of, say, Appalachia or what, and maybe spreading through television programs.

Hawai’ian has a lot of glottal stops and macrons, tho they weren’t being written out when I was a kid on O’ahu. But my Mom always taught us standard English and insisted on the pronunciation in Webster’s. Clin-ton. Whhhale.

[happybird]

119. Whhhale made me think of this:

[Hekate]

120. Had a funny experience in a grad seminar with an English prof. I said "whale" with the H...

He said I “sounded like a schoolmarm” — suddenly I laughed and said “I come from five generations of schoolmarms! “ It was a great line, I guess, because people were startled. One of my great-greats taught in a sod hut in Nebraska.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. lol jesus

I suppose some folks were mad when we stopped pronouncing the k in knight and know back in the 1700s.

"All right" is generally written as two words, by the way, although common practice has been trying to make "alright" happen for decades. Language is a blast.

[jaxexpat]

24. Colloquial culture, even dialectical differences, okay.

But this has the ring of social media experimenting with items beyond its ability to appreciate. For lucre! Experimental consumer based analysis of influences on the credit card laden American teenager gone amok. Why the "t's"? It's just too arbitrary to be organic.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

26. "Too arbitrary to be organic." Yeah welcome to linguistics. Organic is arbitrary.

Do you have any evidence of this "experimentation" or "consumer based analysis," other than the fact that it really bugs you?

[Rebl2]

73. I dunno

I do not have a clue as to why they are dropping the “t”. There are people I can barely understand who live in the south. Sorry southerners if I just insulted you. Know this, my mother was from Arkansas and as a youngster, I sometimes did not understand the family when we visited. My mother lost her southern drawl after she moved away.

[John1956PA]

142. Thanks for the "dunno." That made me smile.

Years ago, in a DU thread, a poster replied "Thanks. I must of got lost somewhere down the line." when the OP was about the improper substitution of the word "of" for the word "have."

As an aside, I am a fan of the J. Geils Band which is from New England.

[obamanut2012]

128. I am in my 50s, I do that, everyone i know does

It isn't some experiment lol

Good grief.

[obamanut2012]

127. I am in my 50s and do not say that middle T

In any word. It is a regional dialect. I do not get the OP.

[Torchlight]

19. As bad if not worse than the mispronunciation of 'pecan'

That conscious and willful malignancy wrought upon this nation, this people, and this land by barbarians, the uncouth, the debased, and the wicked; in short, anyone who doesn't speak as I do.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. Yeah! What Torchlight Said!

Funny post!

[Xavier Breath]

33. I always pronounce "pecan" the same exact way

as these guys. Am I close?

[LeftInTX]

43. These are pee-cans:

[Xavier Breath]

48. I see.

I promise from now I will pronounce it as "puh-

[SarahD]

52. I'm not getting involvedmin that one.

I pronounce it pee-KAHN but there is no way I will.say PEE-can or peh-CAN or anything else is wrong. It's a regional thing. I just bake the little buggers into pies and collect the compliments.

[Torchlight]

72. I don't blame you. I avoided my own pronunciation on purpose

Said about four different ways in my neck of the TX woods, and I figure they're all about right 'cause we all now what it means. But we still sit around the table and laugh at the way we each say it.

[betsuni]

23. I watch "The View." Whoopi pronounces "yesterday" as "yestaday," Sarah's "always" has no L, Sunny

gets in a mood and has the weird affectation of pronouncing "s" as "sh" -- "similar" becomes "shimilar" and so on, and Alyssa constantly waves her arms around and points with her little fingers.

I'm annoyed and then get annoyed with myself for being annoyed.

[Raven123]

27. Well then you must be apoplectic over the mispronunciation of nuclear

How many times did we hear President George W. Bush say “nucular?”

[dpibel]

49. As much as I despised the Shrub

and as much as the pronunciation gives me the willies, I could never get too accusatory when Bush did it, because Jimmy Carter also said "nucular." And he was trained as a nucular engineer.

[Skittles]

28. In the south is often IM-PORDANT

very irritating

[Alpeduez21]

36. awwww, well bless your heart being so open with your opinion

You must think you don’t have an accent. You do have one and I’m sure some effete highbrow is as irritated by yours as you are of mine.

[vanlassie]

46. The dropped T is NOT an accent.

It started with rappers. It was cool. It spread through a 20-30 year old age group. I witnessed it with horror.

[Skittles]

56. it's not an ACCENT

it is a MISPRONUNCIATION

[Alpeduez21]

89. A whole region (the south) has a mispronunciation? That's not the result of an accent?

What is it then? I am gen-u-whinely confused. Does New England mispronounce park?

[Skittles]

121. I said SOME, not every here mispronounces

yes, I live in TEXAS

I'll put it this way - if I say pe-CAN and you say PE-can, that's accent - if either one of us says pe-DAN or PE-dan, that is not pronouncing the word correctly

DONE HERE

[piddyprints]

58. I've hear it as

“Impordint” as well. it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

123. MTG says impordant and it drives me up a wall.

[niyad]

29. Every time I hear someone say that singular "t", I am reminded of a very old

joke: a guy is going to have a vasectomy, and he arrives at the clinic wearing a tuxedo. The doctor, quite puzzled, asks him why he is wearing a tuxedo to have a vasectomy. The guy replies, "If I am going to be im po tent, I am going to look im po tant."

[happybird]

31. Yes!

The first time I noticed it was several years ago on a PBS commercial. It was a mother talking about how excited and surprised she was to see an autistic kid character on the cartoon Arthur, and how important it was for her autistic son to see a character like him. Near the end she reiterated, “It’s so impoor-ent, so impoor-ent.” With strange emphasis on the -ent.

That pronunciation drove me bonkers! And that commercial played allll the time. Figured it was maybe a regional thing and they didn’t hail from my area? But now I’m starting to hear it everywhere. Arg!

(She’s right- Arthur is a great show!)

Edit: My bad, it was Aspergers, not autism. Trying to find the commercial on YouTube but no luck yet.

[Think. Again.]

32. English has some silent consonants...

What REALLY bugs me is when people add sounds when they don't exist. I physically gringe when someone says "hithe" when the word they they meant to use is "height".

[Xavier Breath]

35. Many of my family members like to add an S where none exists.

I'm going to run over to Meijers and see if they have it. If not, I'll head over to Krogers.

Maybe it's just a grocery store thing

[LeftInTX]

45. Same with my in laws. So, annoying...New Braunfels became News Braunsfels

I'm going to Walmarts...

[Diamond_Dog]

111. I have heard

“We’re having macaronis for dinner. I bought them at Walmarts.”

[Blues Heron]

62. That one has a long history and is regional

I looked up the history of it a few years ago when a luthier referred to the heighth of the strings.

[Think. Again.]

66. I always thought...

...it had something to do with people using "heighth" in conjunction with "width".

[Blues Heron]

74. Good article on the history of height vs. heighth here

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/the-height-of-mispronunciation2014or-not

[Think. Again.]

75. Thanks!

[jaxexpat]

101. Never had Luthiers in my village. Never even saw one un-il I was at the universi-y

[Alpeduez21]

37. I have often benefitted greatly by hearing what people say

rather than assuming the worst of them by how they say it

[viva la]

38. I've been noticing that too.

It's fairly common for British speakers to slide over middle consonants. But I'm hearing it a lot more here now, among young people. "Dint" instead of "Didn't" and "cou-ent" for "couldn't."

People have different accents and speech habits, but this is one that seems unhooked to region or accent or class. For some reason, I get annoyed by it more than other pronunciation issues. It's like that "vocal fry".

[bigtree]

40. if you can understand what they're saying

...I really can't see the problem.

Language is fungible.

[0rganism]

42. Everyone's entitled to a linguistic pet peeve or three, and I understand that it's important to you.

My personal gripe triggers when people say "begs the question" when they really mean "raises the question", practically the opposite of what they just said. It's not just personal talk or social media, some of my favorite shows include this mistake and it pisses me off for about 5 seconds every time.

Anyway, I recommend a proportional response that avoids unnecessary catastrophizing. Language abuse is pretty common, and frankly English harbors enough resilient irregularity to get abused repeatedly while remaining quite popular.

[Jim__]

44. OK, here's a six and a half minute video on the pronunciation of "important".

[Aristus]

47. A lot of people in the South pronounce it "impordant".

Mrs. Aristus, living her entire life in the Pacific Northwest, says "impor-tint".

[Alpeduez21]

51. Nobody tell'em about interest or interesting n/t

[yorkster]

83. Or "genelmen" or the ad where the woman

says "anacid after anacid". I've been hearing this for "twenny" years.

[Scrivener7]

55. You pronounce the first T? Are you trying to sound British?

Most Americans don't pronounce it. Just like we don't pronounce it in "lightning."

[SarahD]

57. Try removing the "r."

Just for fun.

[Blues Heron]

59. There is an ad for Kuhl clothes where the voiceover has a fairly extreme case of what you are noticing

Puh’ (for “put) and M’ow-in (for mountain)

definitely a trend, maybe impor’id from Scotland?

[Pinback]

63. Negociations are in progerse. (nt)

[mahina]

64. It bugs me when empty G says 'impordent"

She sounds like an illiterate goon, which she is.

[WarGamer]

68. And how... after centuries... has "lose" become... LOOSE???????

[Thunderbeast]

70. Prolly a lost cause...

[Bettie]

71. At high school choir concert earlier this year...

"Purple Mountain Majesties" instead of "Purple mountains' majesty" .....high school.

ETA:: Also, the (the kids in school) say important that way all the time.

[Stardust Mirror]

76. ImporDant

is how people from Georgia seem to pronounce it

[Easterncedar]

77. Dropping the first R in infrastructure...

Gah. And the first N in environment. Everyone does it. I need to develop selective hearing. I’m getting crankier all the time.

And don’t get me started on the glottal stop in place of the Ts in mittens and mountains.

[Happy Hoosier]

79. That kind of dropped T is a super common feature

… of English dialects.

It’s quite common in British dialects.

Language evolves. We don’t speak now the way we did 100 years ago.

[obamanut2012]

130. An American, in my 50s, I drop that middle T

Most people I know do. All educated people. It is regional dialects, etc.

The OP is perplexing

[claudette]

80. Worse than that is

when "mass" and "quantity" are not spoken of correctly. Drives me nuts!

For example, the ad for siggi yogurt on TV - they say "LESS calories"- it should be FEWER calories (quantity) not less. They say "less" sugar (mass) which is correct, but make my blood run cold with the "less calories" mistake!!! It's a GRAMMAR school English lesson.

[SarahD]

82. Little Miss Persnickity Language Person here.

I.know, right? I used to correct people who blundered off the true path of less vs. fewer. But I was losing friends too quickly, so I blew it off. I get along better with people, but there is a little part of me, deep down inside, crying to be let out and go all OCD on grammar and usage offenders.

[claudette]

95. I keep wondering

if that is Even still taught in schools!! Other languages know the difference!!😊

[jaxexpat]

102. You rule!

[intrepidity]

81. I gave up awhile ago

after "nuclear" was repeatedly mangled by people who should've known better, and reading Merriam Webster defend alternate pronunciations of words as a valid evolution of language. So now I just try to not care.

[dobleremolque]

84. Feb-you-erry. (Shudder emoji) n/t

[Iggo]

86. Do you hate it a little or a lot?

That question works way better in a live setting…lol.

And, just so you know I do have a dog in this fight, I pronounce it:

impor’nt….that’s three syllables with a glottal stop where the apostrophe is and no vowel sound for the 3rd syllable, just ‘nt.

[jaxexpat]

103. Maybe you're alright, maybe. It's the "im-por-unt" that's offensive,

[Stinky The Clown]

87. "One T's" first cousin imporDant is my pet earburn.

[Patterson]

88. I know exactly what the OP is saying.. .

and it bugs the crap out of me.

[GenThePerservering]

90. You pernickety people must be a real gas at parties.

[BlueSpot]

91. Might it be a result of texting?

That was my thought. Leave out a letter here and there to make it easier. People can figure out words from fragments. I'm making this up as I go along but why couldn't a texting thing turn into a spoken language thing? Language evolves. Technology evolves even faster.

What dost thee think?

[jaxexpat]

104. Hmmm, a language based on auto-correction programming.

[flamingdem]

92. I'm confused. As a oldster I never pronounce the second T

Is that a regional thing? New Yawkers dropped the extra T I believe.

I think it sounds so forced and so ... youth fad ish .. to say impor"T"ant.

My theory was that this extra emphasis was due to speakers of Spanish influencing youth.

Have I been sounding like an idiot all along.....????

[Silent3]

93. Are you talking about absolutely no "t" sound at all...

...or "stop t", as described in this video someone else poster in this thread already?

Do you prefer/expect two fully-pronounced "t" sounds, which is and has been uncommon for decades?

[jaxexpat]

97. Excellent point and no. There is no "t" sound to start the "tant" in "important" in my experience.

But there is a subtle pause which seems to hang over and through the "an", making way for a resounding "t" at the end. I've heard some languages make "important" into a 4 syllable word, adding an additional e at the end, pronounced "ahntay". So, no, my gripe is not with common and traditional usage.

I only speak English and as poorly as most, I'm sure, but this abomination smacks of intentional disregard, if not an all-out assault on a language based on an attempt to disrupt the societal norm. A sabotage, if you will. Entertaining in that light but when it begins to be spoken in confident tones by otherwise educated and presumably erudite people it has gone too far. Are they deaf to my disgust? At my patience's end, I must and hereby declare in the company of fellows, I am one among the host who says "TEE", we embody those who proudly say "TEE".

We are the knights who say Tee.........., of course, who wouldn' have seen that coming?

[JoseBalow]

94. Pedantifico!

[canetoad]

96. It doesn't bother me

Neither do grammar and spelling bloopers on DU.

[John Shaft]

105. umm . . .

You ok?

[doc03]

108. I have no idea or care what this is about but apparently 107 people do. nt

[malaise]

112. I used to think this was. Miami problem

I corrected my two Florida nephews over and over

[ColinC]

113. It could be worse than skipping a consonant

We could be living in an era where two of the most politically influential people in the country are the hosts of The Apprentice and Fear Factor.

Thank god that hasn’t happened!

[MineralMan]

114. Do you pronounce the "t" in "often?"

People are lazy about speech. It's a bit difficult to get the "t" in there after the "r" in "important." It requires some movement of the tongue. So, people drop the "t" or use some other vocal stop to indicate it. There are lots of words like that. Some people make the effort, but many others do not.

I do pronounce the "t" in "often," at least most of the time. I don't hear it often, though, from others. My wife, for example, is slightly bothered by my pronunciation of that word.

In the end, it doesn't matter much. I'm far more annoyed by the non-rhotic speech of the British. Of course, it is their language, but "received pronunciation" just annoys me. I don't make a thing of it, though. It really doesn't matter.

[jaxexpat]

116. Depends, that "t" is usually expressed as a subtle* pause not followed by the tongue tapping "tuh" sound, similarly...

to the first "t" in important.

Perhaps, as a matter of stress on the importance of the word, the first "t" might receive a full blown "tuh" sound, im-por-Tant. "It is important to steer the car away from oncoming traffic.", or, "We interrupt this program for an important message from NOAA about a tornado in your front yard." I would have a very difficult time lending credibility to any full-grown person saying imporunt when advising about imminent public danger.

*"subtle" is, clearly, a word that deserves mockery. It's, obviously, the result of a misprint which the original printer was too ashamed/narcissistic to correct. At this point, "subtle" would be over-the-moon to be pronounced "sub-ul" or even "su-ul" (the latter of which is fast on the way).

[LeftInTX]

118. I don't pronounce the "b" in "subtle".

[jaxexpat]

122. Of course you don't. but............Would you, though, if all the cool kids in the gang were doing it?

[obamanut2012]

132. You have been releatedly told this isn't a socisl media Zoomer thing

Most of us do it. Educated, older Americans do not say those Ts.

No different rhan not saying the B in subtle.

[jaxexpat]

135. So, then, what? I was repeatedly told we were protecting America with our war in Vietnam,

from educated and older Americans, no less. The consensus-trap of accepting/adapting deleterious things hasn't changed much since. You haven't been paying enough attention to get what I'm talking about. A, not so kindly, reminder of how others think is not likely to tune my radar. Nor should it anyone else's.

[LeftInTX]

117. No. I even spelled it: "offen" the first time I wrote it. (I usually got 100's in spelling)

I was shocked to see it spelled, "often". It was my first experience with a "silent" letter. It may have been the first word that I mispelled. I even remember asking my mom about it. I must have been in first grade.

[yorkster]

115. How about T as D. "Liddle" for little.

I call it the Anderson Cooper effect, as he does it quite often and I hear it consistently all over the airwaves, so to speak.
Along those lines, my father upon seeing someone on the telly who was jowly or had a sagging neck, would start to softly sing
"What"ll I do, when you are far away", etc.
Of course he would intentionally pronounce what"ll as wattle. Subtle but clear, and amusing.

[Emrys]

124. Such matters of accent don't bother me

The English language has always changed, as they all do, and elision of consonants that makes a word easier for some to pronounce is commonplace.

What used to bother me was Bush Jr's pronunciation on atomic matters: nukular rather than nuclear.

For years, I couldn't figure out why on earth he did that. Then I realized he was seeing the word differently to me: nucle-ar rather than nu-clear.

That wasn't the worst thing he did.

[obamanut2012]

126. I am in my 50s and do this and always have

The middle Ts in dentist and important are slurred, no final T in Sacramento (whicj is also how many Sac natives say it, too).

Not a Zoomer thing, it is a regional dialect thing. Not a big deal, not some teen rebellion.

To me, saying DENTisT or IMPORTanT sounds odd.

[Blues Heron]

131. They add a whole stop though so it sounds like Deh ist - they take out the T and the N

[obamanut2012]

133. IWho is "they"?

I have never heard that in my life, and I am around Zoomers all day.

[Blues Heron]

134. whoever is doing it - its mostly a hipster youtube thing in my experience

I think its probably inspired by English and Scottish modes of speaking, feels like an international affectation sometimes. Watch for the Kuhl ad on youtube - thats a good example of the NT-dropping and also a plain T dropping (Mountain and Put)

[Blues Heron]

129. Couple more - comfortable pronounced come-fer-ta-bull

instead of comf-ter-bull

and the millennial-era singer`s R - which sounds slightly speech-impedimenty. Prob. inspired by Jeff Buckley? Its a hard one to emulate, sort of like a W with a little warble. (along with lengthening vowels so words like Bed sound like Bayed)

[mucifer]

136. Lots of people don't like the fact that language is fluid. But, it is.

[marble falls]

137. You'd love it here in Texas!!!!!!!! Seriously, though, this is one mechanism for language to evolve, you don't ...

... want to put Linguists out of business, do you? I actually miss the regional twists in English. You'd have been even more outraged just 50 years ago. Y'all have good day, y'hear.

[tom_kelly]

139. Lately, I've been noticing that a lot contributors on NPR

are talking in a slow, valley-girl tone, and are also ending sentences with that scratchy voice. It seems to be younger women. It shouldn't bother me but I feel that someone with such an audience should be more aware of how they're speaking. It doesn't sound good to this old guy

[AllaN01Bear]

140. i will continue to use the t wrd as i see fit , i cant even stand the use of his name. and there we are .

[jaxexpat]

141. Sounds about perfec_.

[GreenWave]

143. Why about those who think a zero is an "oh"?

There are going to get somebody killed someday!

[Emrys]

144. Take it up with James Bond n/t

[3catwoman3]

145. During a recent 5 day hospitalization, I was asked my birthdate...

...by every person who came into my room. It happened so often that by the second day, if someone even appeared in the doorway, I'd immediately say, "Oh four, two four, XXXX." It was quicker than "zero."

With my street address, however, I always say, "Two zero XX."