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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsHave You Noticed People Not Pronouncing Their T's?
Dropping T's in words like "kitten," "Vermont" and "important" is a normal speech pattern, and there's even a name for it: T-glottalization!
Two of our listeners wrote in recently to ask about a speech pattern theyd noticed: the habit of people dropping the T-sound in words like Putin or mitten. They wondered if this was a regional dialect, a generational one, or something else.
Heres what we discovered.
The phenomenon itself is known as T-glottalization. It occurs when a speaker swallows the T sound in a word rather than speaking it aloud. We hear it when words like kitten and water are pronounced like KIH-en and WAH-er.
Lets talk about how this happens, and whether we should expect more of it.
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/pronouncing-T
I think I do this more than I thought I did. Ever evolving I guess.
Turbineguy
(37,206 posts)Rump.
MontanaMama
(23,238 posts)I hear it all the time. Drives me nuts. Maybe it shouldnt (shuh-unt) but it does.
GPV
(72,377 posts)bcool
(216 posts)It drives my wife & I crazy!
mitch96
(13,816 posts)Mount-en etc. She would also change the "T" to a "d" Pud-in Wadder
I find it interesting how the brits change the TH to an F.. Think? fink etc. YMMV
m
whathehell
(28,968 posts)What was wrong with "competence" and "relevance?
So stupid..I can understand the efficiency of shortening, abbreviating a word, but why would you ADD a syllable for no reason?
louis-t
(23,199 posts)It's one of those bad habits that tends to sweep the nation, 'know what I mean'?
walkingman
(7,507 posts)Ocelot II
(115,269 posts)Maybe it's a fad like vocal fry but I wish they'd stop. A baby cat is a kitten, not a ki'un. Those things on the front of your shirt are buttons, not bu'ins. Why have a letter at all if you're not going to use it? And that's letter, not le'ur.
Nittersing
(6,270 posts)letter still has a "t" in it.
At least when I say it.
Wow. I do this a lot!
Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)those have always had a dropped T. Letter always had the T pronounced though, Boathouse had the T, now it doesnt with this new fad
Anon-C
(3,430 posts)nocoincidences
(2,195 posts)My last name has a T in the middle so it is jarring to me to keep hearing my name with no T pronounced!
Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)Boathouse and Kitten are two good examples. Normally you would not pronounce the T in Kitten but would in Boathouse - this fad has these reversed so the T in kitten is pronounced, but the one in Boathouse is dropped.
What is the origin of this? Paging Deborah Tannen!
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)... like water and bottle seem to be replacing the "t" sound with "d" as in "wadder" and "boddle".
The glottal stop in those two sounds distinctly British to me. I've just never heard them in the U.S.
Tetrachloride
(7,721 posts)i noticed most of these T examples back in the 1980s.
VarryOn
(2,343 posts)The mangling of "important" with "impor-unt" is especially galling.
Ocelot II
(115,269 posts)sop
(9,945 posts)then it migrated to the general population. Now it seems just about everyone younger than a certain age is dropping their T-sounds. T-glottalization is the latest annoying thing. I imagine it stems from their need to look, act and sound like everyone else...you know, to be individuals.
Another thing that drives me nuts is hearing people beginning every sentence with the word "so." Now everyone being interviewed on tv - from political figures, media personalities, down to kids in elementary school - prefaces their responses with "So..." It's the new "like." And don't get me started on tattoos.
Shermann
(7,355 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)When you learn Arabic, the Cockney pronunciation of "bottle" is used to illustrate the use of hamza.
Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)Boston people with Cah (Car) and Ideer (Idea) take away an R and add it somewhere else
Jamaica people with the H - 'air (hair) and h'air (air) take away an H add it somewhere else
and now this T thing - take one away, add it in somewhere else. Its almost like the total number of t's in the universe needs to remain the same- any unpronounced T needs to be added back in somewhere else.
samnsara
(17,570 posts)tanyev
(42,356 posts)important as impordend. Scott McClellan. Drove me up a wall then, and Im getting some flashbacks right now just thinking about it. *shudder*
Skittles
(152,964 posts)it's so strange to hear regional mispronunciations
VarryOn
(2,343 posts)His grammar and use of language is the first impression he gets to make with most. Proper language can over a hot of other shortcomings. If you come across as uneducated, uncultivated and poor in language, it's a difficult impression to over come.
Improper noun/verb agreement, double negatives, "ain't", improper use of I versus me, "good" versus "well", are just a few I have spaoboxes on around here!
Patterson
(1,525 posts)Skittles
(152,964 posts)IMPORDANT - I will hear highly educated people pronounce it like that
Skittles
(152,964 posts)Last edited Sat Oct 2, 2021, 05:13 PM - Edit history (1)
it sounds ridiculous
another thing is incorrectly pronouncing contractions - instead of WOULDN'T they say WOULD-ENT
edited to add: I hear them say KIT - EN instead of KIT-TEN
ailsagirl
(22,837 posts)I'd have to slow it way down to enunciate the t sound
I'm sure there are many similar things I do, but I'd just as soon not know what they are!!