Simply an observational post here: I met a guy from Liverpool while on vacation and while we were joking around about various things, he observed that Americans don’t pronounce T’s unless the T begins the word.
I think this theory has holes, but he did bring up some good examples. We pronounce Little as liddle; Option as Opshun; etc. It’s still bogus because we pronounce Presentation as Presentashun, don’t as, um, don’t, street as street, etc.
The irony was as he was talking, he pronounced little as li-el… Dropped two T’s.
Please, my dear British friends, don’t point out our “inaccurate” prononciation. :)
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My personal pet peeve is the way most Americans pronounce “butter”. It’s not “budder”. Please.
My personal pet peeve is the way most Americans pronounce “butter”. It’s not “budder”. Please.
For many speakers of American English, the /t/ is actually pronounced as a tap (IPA: [&638;] or [&027E;] (I hope these codes work the fist uses decimal, the second uses hex). For many speakers of British English, your Scouser and myself included, the /t/ is not dropped, but glottalised, or replaced with a glottal stop [&660;] or [&0294;]. (A stop is a sound where the articulators (tongue, teeth, etc.) completely block the passage of air. A glottal stop is one made in the glottis, defined by the late Peter Ladefoged, who was an eminent phoneticist, as “the space between the vocal folds” (Ladefoged, 2001).)
He states the rule for pronouncing certain /t/s as taps for many speakers of American English as:
(ibid.). (An alveolar stop is a stop that involves the alveolar ridge, which is the ridge behind the top teeth.) Note that Ladefoged does not say anything about whether the first vowel is stressed or not. This covers cases like divinity.
He also restates the rule slightly for those speakers that pronounce winter and winner the same way:
(ibid.). (An alveolar nasal is one where the alveolar ridge is involved and the air flow is through the nose, not the mouth.)
Ref: Ladefoged, Peter (2001) "A course in phonetics" 4th edition. Harcourt College Publishers
Oops, the symbols in my previous comment should be:
[ɾ] or [E;] for the tap, and:
[ʔ] or [Ħ] for the glottal stop.
Sorry about that!
I should also have mentioned that neither is the incorrect pronunciations;l they are just different pronunciations. Allophones, if you want to be technical ;)
For many speakers of American English, the /t/ is actually pronounced as a tap (IPA: [&638;] or [&027E;] (I hope these codes work the fist uses decimal, the second uses hex). For many speakers of British English, your Scouser and myself included, the /t/ is not dropped, but glottalised, or replaced with a glottal stop [&660;] or [&0294;]. (A stop is a sound where the articulators (tongue, teeth, etc.) completely block the passage of air. A glottal stop is one made in the glottis, defined by the late Peter Ladefoged, who was an eminent phoneticist, as “the space between the vocal folds” (Ladefoged, 2001).)
He states the rule for pronouncing certain /t/s as taps for many speakers of American English as:
(ibid.). (An alveolar stop is a stop that involves the alveolar ridge, which is the ridge behind the top teeth.) Note that Ladefoged does not say anything about whether the first vowel is stressed or not. This covers cases like divinity.
He also restates the rule slightly for those speakers that pronounce winter and winner the same way:
(ibid.). (An alveolar nasal is one where the alveolar ridge is involved and the air flow is through the nose, not the mouth.)
Ref: Ladefoged, Peter (2001) "A course in phonetics" 4th edition. Harcourt College Publishers
Oops, the symbols in my previous comment should be:
[ɾ] or [&#027E;] for the tap, and:
[ʔ] or [Ħ] for the glottal stop.
Sorry about that!
I should also have mentioned that neither is the incorrect pronunciations;l they are just different pronunciations. Allophones, if you want to be technical ;)
I have trouble getting mad about the way any people pronounce everything. Being from the east coast of America myself, and living in Texas, I’ve seen polar opposites in the way people pronounce English words. Does it upset me? Not in the least.
There are as many different dialects and pronunciations as there are places in the world. Might as well get used to it and enjoy the variety.
I have trouble getting mad about the way any people pronounce everything. Being from the east coast of America myself, and living in Texas, I’ve seen polar opposites in the way people pronounce English words. Does it upset me? Not in the least.
There are as many different dialects and pronunciations as there are places in the world. Might as well get used to it and enjoy the variety.
I agree with Leroy. Even within the US there’s so much variance. For example, the Boston accent sounds probably closest to British while the Southern accent sounds nothing like either one.
“For example, the Boston accent sounds probably closest to British”
What are you on?! :p
I agree with Leroy. Even within the US there’s so much variance. For example, the Boston accent sounds probably closest to British while the Southern accent sounds nothing like either one.
“For example, the Boston accent sounds probably closest to British”
What are you on?! :p
Picturing the Queen: “Roah-baaaat, please bring me a plaaaaaah-taaaaah of loab-staaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.”
Not really working for me, Vin. Care to demonstrate the British/Boston thing? ;-)
Picturing the Queen: “Roah-baaaat, please bring me a plaaaaaah-taaaaah of loab-staaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.”
Not really working for me, Vin. Care to demonstrate the British/Boston thing? ;-)
Again with those symbols! Ignore the second one in each case; they didn’t come out right at all.
With respect to what Vinnie said, I suspect he wasn’t saying the Boston accent sounds (exactly) like a British accent, but simply that out of all the accents in the USA, it is the most similar to a British accent. Having said that, Loyd Grossman comes from Boston, and he doesn’t sound like any British person I’ve ever heard. Saying that, though, when I first heard him speak, I didn’t know where he was from, but the USA certainly didn’t spring to mind.
You also have to remember that there are many British accents – we don’t all talk like the queen.
Again with those symbols! Ignore the second one in each case; they didn’t come out right at all.
With respect to what Vinnie said, I suspect he wasn’t saying the Boston accent sounds (exactly) like a British accent, but simply that out of all the accents in the USA, it is the most similar to a British accent. Having said that, Loyd Grossman comes from Boston, and he doesn’t sound like any British person I’ve ever heard. Saying that, though, when I first heard him speak, I didn’t know where he was from, but the USA certainly didn’t spring to mind.
You also have to remember that there are many British accents – we don’t all talk like the queen.
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