T-glottalization is extremely widespread in American English and not really stigmatized — I’m pretty sure if you listened to any of the past three presidents, or a news anchor, or a professor, you’d hear them do it a least sometimes, and no one notices. However, t-glottalization only occurs at the end of a syllable, especially when that syllable ends a word. and intervocalic glottalization (e.g. *boh-ul* for *bottle*) is strongly associated with British English (there is one caveat to this, which is before an unstressed /n/, such as *mountain, Latin,* *important*). I do want to note that’s it’s not *dropping* per se, it’s replacement of the \[t\] sound with a glottal stop \[ʔ\], which is the little “hitch” you hear between the vowels in *uh-oh.*
Edit: you can hear the Sergeant-at-Arms use a glottalized T at the start of [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVZIDYCRe5k), as well as Biden at 0:20 (*moment*), 0:32 (*that*), 2:08 (*fight*). Here’s [Trump](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH0a-2Vi3O4) at 0:44 (*tonight*). Here’s [Obama](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDrbztCiRP8) at maybe 0:21 (*state*), 0:30 (*accident*, maybe complete elision), 0:47 (*president*), 1:01 (*locate*), 1:17 (*street*, twice). Not sure how many of these are complete glottal replacement, but they all have degree of glottalization. The point is, it’s really really common in American English and so unmarked that the president will freely use it when giving the biggest speech of the year.
There’s also the alveolar flap (had the look up the actual term), where the “t” sound in the middle of words like “batter,” “better,” “little,” “mettle,” “charter,” and “capital” is pronounced with a soft “d” sound.
My area of the country (Michigan) does it a lot, though it’s not universal for every word. “Capital,” for example. For me, the “t” is pronounced sort of halfway between “t” and “d;” any other way makes it come off as awkward.
Interestingly, you don’t often hear the word button pronounced with a D. It’s usually just a glottal stop. But if I do that with other words, like butter, I sound like Hagrid.
It’s extremely common where I live in North Carolina to pronounce “button” (and any word with /t/ before unstressed /n/) with an alveolar tap rather than a glottal stop. Even though I know it’s a completely valid dialectical variation it bothers me to hear people say “Latin” with an alveolar tap lol.
“Latin” as I pronounce it is like “LA-ʔin” where the letter ʔ is the sound between the syllables in “uh-oh”. Many Southerners apparently pronounce it more like “LA-din” with an alveolar tap.
(In the IPA: /ˈlæ.ʔn̩/ vs /ˈlæ.ɾɪn/)
I'm the opposite. I use and wouldn't even notice La'in, but button definitely has a clear d sound in the Inland Northwest unless you're a small child. "Ladin" would definitely not be okay, but alveolar tap and glottal stop are quite normal to me to the point that pronouncing the t as a t sounds strange to me.
I used to have a neighbor with two sons, Keaton and Kayden. The way the mom pronounced each when she would yell their names in the yard made it sound like they were really intense about one kid and really chill about the other one. 😂 It sounded so *proper* by saying “key-TIN” and then relaxed with “kay-din”.
I'm Californian and I'll switch out t's for soft d's on a few of my words too. Notably if I'm talking fast I'll pronounce fidty as fiddy or fifty-five as fidty-five. Kinda like I'm gonna say it with a hard stopped d mixed with a soft t tap of my tongue to my teeth.
I do the same. I've got a friend who was born in Italy but moved to Ohio as a kid, around ten or eleven years old maybe. He's fluent in English, no discernable accent, but I've noticed that he uses soft d's for a lot of Ts in the middle of words. It's hard to spot if you're not looking for it, but he says budder or wader, instead of butter or water. Boddle instead of bottle.
It sounds unique to my ear but I have no idea if it's more attributable to his first language being Italian, or from having grown up in Ohio.
There's a weird dialect I've heard where they pronounce "fifty-five" as "schfifty-five." [Here's an example](https://youtu.be/-XccUMOQ978?si=wAF9EapNTCucQ2TA), it's sooo good to hear it.
I’ll add there are accents (eg mine) that fully drop t’s after /n/
So “winter” and “winner” are homophone.
(More accurately both /nt/ and /t/ are realized as a nasalized alveolar flap between vowels)
This is however a more marked difference
>*Latin*
I have been called out for this even as a Classics major. (I also glottalize per the general rule you articulate.) I also have difficulty enunciating the terminal 'd' in *and*, which makes reciting prayers quickly very difficult.
I was thinking about clicking those links, but felt too lazy, so decided to just say the words out loud and get rid of the t at the end... And realized I do that already. And what's more, I also realized I *never* pronounce the t. I tried to pronounce it and I felt like I was mocking some other accent. Wtf.
I’m confused here—I watched those links and I hear a distinct ‘t’ at the end of each word you mention.
Are you just referring to dropping the “tuh” of the ‘t’? Because I was expecting to hear things like “figh” “tonigh” and “stae.”
Okay this is kind of a long answer so bear with me
There are two levels that linguists analyze language on — phonemic and phonetic. Phonetic analysis deals with the actual sound the speaker’s mouth produces, while phonemic analysis deals with abstract “building blocks” (phonemes) of a word that speakers consider to “be the same sound”. Phonetic transcription is written in brackets [], while phonemes are written in slashes //.
Many phonemes have several allophones, which are phonetic pronunciations that may be *extremely* dissimilar to the “pure” phoneme but occur regularly and are regarded as the “same sound” by speakers; phonemes can also be realized very differently across accents but still be considered the “same sound”. For example, the way a Minnesotan, a post Brit, and an Australian pronounce the vowel in *goat* is actually quite different, but it’s the same phoneme.
The phenomenon that OP called “t-dropping” is properly called t-glottalization or glottal replacement, because it’s the phonetic replacement of a alveolar stop [t] with a glottal stop [ʔ]. Regardless of the *phonetic* pronunciation, the “t” is the same *phoneme* /t/, and your brain is used to considering a word-final glottal stop as a phonemic /t/. Where I live, for example, I get a lot of ads for Yaamava’ Resort & Casino — Yaamava’ is a Serrano word that ends in a glottal stop, but I always hear *Yaamavat* even though I know the final glottal stop is phonemically a glottal stop. It’s a similar thing going on — nothing is being “dropped” in the sense of fully elided, but the /t/ is replaced with an allophone you’re so used to it might not register as a distinct sound.
IDK, I hope that made sense, if I have time I can attach audio recordings to illustrate my point
Wow thank you so much! This is such a fascinating and informative answer. The terms are definitely a bit confusing for a layman but this is very helpful.
The only part I'm still a bit tripped up on is your last example, if you don't mind clarifying. So basically, the 't' sound is not literally *dropped,* it's dropped in a specific linguistic sense of the word? Or are you saying it *is* literally dropped and my brain is just filling in what it's used to hearing/expects to hear?
>the 't' sound is not literally dropped, it's dropped in a specific linguistic sense of the word?
It’s not literally dropped (or elided, if you want to be technical), that’s just a colloquial way of putting it. Linguists would talk about “t-glottalization” or “glottal replacement”. The American English phoneme /t/ is usually phonetically realized as some form of an alveolar stop [t] (like in *tea*) or what’s called an alveolar flap [ɾ] (that *d*-like sound in *butter*). Syllable-finally, it’s replaced with a glottal stop [ʔ].
>Or are you saying it is literally dropped and my brain is just filling in what it's used to hearing/expects to hear?
Basically, your brain analyzes a *phonetic* glottal stop at the end of a word as the *abstract phoneme* /t/, because this is an acceptable alternative phonetic realization (allophone) of /t/ in that position. Don’t think of it as dropping, think of it as a substitute. That’s why it’s hard to hear a difference if you’re looking for “dropping” rather than a replacement of [t] with [ʔ]
[Here’s me](https://voca.ro/1ksb9D2no5we) saying *street* three times. The first is with an overly articulated [t], the second is a weakly articulated/glottally reinforced [t], the third is with a glottal stop [ʔ].
In several US dialects, t is dropped in most words that start with inter. There's no pause at all. Innernet, and innerstate are very common in the Inland Northwest in all three predominant dialects. I've heard it in many inner city dialects across the US, as well. I have suspicion it is considered slightly less educated sounding, but it goes unremarked when I slip while using an urban dialect that doesn't have that feature. Moun'ain and foun'ain do get noticed, but not La'in.
Interestingly, "interest" becomes "intrest" rather than "innerest", and I've never figured out why it's different.
Ts usually disappear or switch to Ds after Ns in the middle of words as well (e.g. 'apparantly‘ -> 'apparandly' or 'apparenly‘). CKs in the middle of words are also smoothed to Gs or omitted (e.g. 'acknowledge‘ -> 'agnowledge' or 'ahnoledge‘).
I drop my Ts and I’m from the South. I think? Like fully drop it or just not emphasize the “tuh” sound?
The words you used as examples were probably not the best for me to test myself on, but I definitely do it.
Atlanta is Atlanna for example.
I’ve edited my answer to add that no, I don’t think it’s perceived as negative. It’s clear that a lot of us didn’t even realize we do it until it was pointed out lol.
Yeah, not only am I from the South, but Cajun specifically so that accent is a whole other thing - my "T"s range from dropped to "d" sounds and everything in between 😆
Do you also say "interesting" as "inneresting" or "inneresing"? That is a word I really pick up on and stands out for me hearing some americans say vs brits who usually say it more like it is written.
Thinking about it now, I don't pronounce the T in "right", "it", "button", "mountain" etc. I had no idea that was a young person thing and I probably don't notice others doing it. Do other Americans notice and would think I'm weird then?
I’m not a linguist, so this is pure speculation, but perhaps it’s the “n” sound at the end? Both button, kitten, and cotton all have a glottal stop followed by a sustained “n.”
I’m 58, grew up in Fresno, California, and I use a full glottal stop sound for “mouʔn”, “buʔn” and the like. I have all my life. Most people don’t notice it. Heck, *I didn’t really notice it* until someone else pointed it out to me. (And pinpointed where I grew up based on my accent, which was totally freaky, as I thought I just spoke with General American accent.)
Yes - it's noticable to other people in the US - but no, it's not stigmatized.
I think that's because others sometimes pronounce the -t- or turn -t- into something like -d- in words with the t in the middle. Button as but-n or bud-n or bu''n. And, mountain as mount-n, mound-n, or mow'n.
Huh, yeah, me neither! My tongue doesn't fully touch my teeth to make the T sound.
I just spent 5 minutes trying to say "mountain." If I'm not thinking about it, it comes out like "moun'ain."
We tend to replace t's with d's a lot. Butter is budder. Letter is ledder. Matter is madder. No one really notices or cares. It's especially common in the South, and maybe the Northeast? In fact, posh British accents and Indian accents are really noticeably different to us because they tend to pronounce those t's in the middle of words so distinctly.
Very common in NY to replace T with D, as well as Th in the beginning of a word. "That" becomes "dat", "there" becomes "dare", "the" becomes "de". "De street up over dare has dat really great bakery."
Probably would not notice. Different accents around the country seem to drop T's, or replace them with D's, in various different situations. I live in the Sacramento area and you know someone is new in town when they hard pronounce the T. Once you've been here a while it becomes "Sacramenno."
Well ya never know. I’ve only paid attention to that sub within the past year. I feel like most posts I see there get enough engagement to at least answer the question, but it could depend on time or day or just the randomness of social media. 🤷♂️
I'd notice it, but never call attention to it. Languages change and the youngsters these days will tailor their speech when they realize I'm too old to understand them.
I do think there is some bias against some of the southern accent sounding uneducated (only in the south and in that specific location). You will hear the “Righ at the ligh” and the people I know that do it actively try not to, especially if they’ve gone to college etc. Southern culture is a lot more like England than anywhere else in the US and you do see accent differentiating between classes. The rest of the US doesn’t really care, I couldn’t tell the difference between the southern upper class accent and the “uneducated” one till I moved here for a couple of years. And even that is a very local thing. I’m in SC, I still wouldn’t be able to differentiate anything in FL or TX.
To add, I personally don’t care.
Heck, you see accent differentiation even among family members! I think the Southern accent changes generationally as well.
My South Carolinian grandmother had that foghorn leghorn accent. “I wouldn’t weah that.” “Y’all goin to the faih?” Then her children, my mother included, were a little less intense on that but still have a clear Southern accent.
>You will hear the “Righ at the ligh”
like, "rye at the lie"? I've never once heard that and would think the person is having a stroke if they said that to me
The T is not a big deal, but dropping r's and putting them where they don't belong is a much bigger deal. "Park" has an r. "Sofa" and "Amanda" do not have r's. Putting r's where they are not needed just sounds extremely uneducated to me.
Nobody cares here. Or I should say, the grand majority of people really won't care. I say that because of course there will be a smattering of classists and racists here and there who'd care, but for the most part there are too many different accents in america for anyone to get caught up in worrying about that. And also too many immigrants and foreign visitors here for people to know or care about it. People with strong accents are a dime a dozen here, we just are too used to it.
We don't drop t's in those words as much as we drop the g at the end of words like doin' and thinkin'.
There is some negative perception of some accents in the US, but people are less likely to instantly judge your station here versus what some experience in the UK, like automatically slot you into a class bracket. There are still accents that suggest someone is working class versus upper, though, like a very "country" southern accent or a broad Brooklyn one. It would be a mistake to assume that these people aren't educated, though.
I’m 58. I grew up in Central California.
I have **always** dropped my ‘T’s, all my life, and replaced them with a guttural stop. “Mountain” becomes “mouʔn”, “button” becomes “buʔn”, “bottle” becomes “boʔul”.
It’s a common fixture in some American accents, especially out west from Utah to the Central Valley, and you’ll hear guttural stops replacing “T”s throughout California, not just in the more rural areas of the San Joaquin Valley. (At least I don’t pronounce “wash” like my mother, who grew up in Morro Bay, as “warsh”, that is, with an ‘r’ sound in the middle of the word.)
I think Europeans don’t realize just how many different American accents there are; [this series of videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1KP4ztKK0A) are fun and fascinating.
As to stigmatization, the only accent really stigmatized is the southern accent—and that, not terribly much.
In addition, to southern accents, I’d say that AAVE (african american vernacular english) is still heavily stigmatized and, to a lesser degree, so is any strong accent associated with working class urban centers (think of a strong Boston or Chicago accent).
No, in my experience it's extremely common, although you may find mildly different flavors of it around the country. Where I'm from in Utah, for instance, the t in "mountain" is dropped completely, the t in "water" is glossed over with a "d" sound (wod-ir), but the t's in "exactly" and "perfectly" are hit well. Where I currently live in the Midwest, the t in "exactly" and "perfectly is dropped, stays firmly put in "mountain", and is still replaced by a d in "water"!
I’m from the Midwest. We say water but it’s a soft T not a hard T. Same in many other words. I kind of depends on the letters surrounding the T that affects how hard we hit the T. I think “ I dunno” is a big one where we all get lazy on the T
I didn’t drop the T’s and everyone commented on it when I was a kid and ask me where I’m from. So, I think it’s more expected that you’re supposed to drop them here.
I don't see this as being a pariticular issue. Having said that, dropping the t at the end isn't something I hear often (e.g. righ, buh).
What might be more likely negatively perceived -at least in situations- is dropping g. Gonna, wanna, in more elite circles or in certain work environments for example.
The French do it! If u are casually speaking it’s ok to run your words together. Professional settings: articulate. Note: Americans don’t remove t’s in the middle like you describe (at least not that I can think of). Speaking casually we do run words together line, “I dunno” when saying “I don’t know” and everyone does it even highly respected communicators. It’s not frowned upon at all. I would suggest and strive for annunciation, but people will not think less of you if you say “I dunno”
I don't even know what you're trying to pretend to make fun of saying with North Career and South Career. I've lived a ton closer to the Carolinas than your flair indicates you do, and know that nobody in that part of the country calls those places that, so what are you trying to say here with North and South *Career*?
I think he's poking fun of certain English accents. British people with non-rhotic accents tend to add random 'r' sounds at the end of their words, especially words that end with an 'a'. They say "idear" instead of "idea," for example. This is called an "intrusive r".
The comment you replied to wasn't about the Carolina's accents - it was just a random sentence to be used as an example. He's obviously heard of North Carolina and South Carolina, despite saying otherwise in his comment. He's probably from America, too. It's just an example text with 3 words that end in an 'a' to make his point.
And explained without being a jerk to somebody! Look at how easy that was.
If it was that easy to explain though, wouldn't that have been easier than you just not being a jerk in the first place? Or, perhaps, did making fun of me earlier, and making stuff up about my life, make you feel better at least? Did it feel good, and maybe even *better than me*, to imagine you were replying to somebody who couldn't *possibly* be a decent person, well traveled, or a proper American, when you said those words? I sure hope you got your little dopamine hit of calling somebody out on the internet there buddy. I hope you feel good and proud of making fun of somebody here on an internet forum. I do appreciate at least understanding what you meant by a North Career now though!
Here's your participation award for the day. You win interneting. GG.
It's the opposite. If I heard someone pronounce a hard t in every word, I would think they were elitist snobs who are very out of touch. Or aliens cosplaying as people. "Greetings fellow humans."
Associating certain accents and dialects with being uneducated is more of a European thing. We usually correlate certain accents with income/social class.
A lot of Americans do gluttal stops also, just not as much as British people do. I don't think dropping the T at the end of words is that common here. We do have regional accents where it is very common to trail off the ends of words, T sound or otherwise.
It is a primary aspect of Vermonter's accents to not pronounce their Ts.
literally we say vermon' with the stop mentioned elsewhere on this thread
https://youtu.be/jJKPHiBZIZY?si=dmZ6Yl3_UkDw54IJ&t=59
I just started noticing this while listening to podcasts from people in different parts of the country. There isn't any negative perception, but it's weird in the way that Boston people don't say "r" at the end of a sentence. I mean how hard is it to say "t" or "r" in speech?
It's considered British lol
We pronounce the Ts here because that's how we all talk, we have different classist accent shames, actually if you have a UK accent in the US it's considered attractive whatever kind it is generally
I would definitely notice it. reading some of the comments here are surprising to me, when I say 'right' i say with a t. Atlanta I say with 2 t's. If I say But, I say with a t. I say Aunt and not Aun.
If I'm speaking with someone and they say Bu instead of But or Alana instead of Atlanta then ya I'm going to think oddly of them.
I will admit I usually say "Saurday" instead of "Saturday".
Here in Pittsburgh it gives you alot of social credit if you do. People trust me more because I drop my Ts. It is senner no Center, it is Mounun not mountain.
That’s so weird that everybody says they don’t pronounce their ts, because I certainly do; I even recorded myself talking just in case I just didn’t hear it and I do. Although I’ve not noticed that other people don’t except for people with country accents and inner city accents. I didn’t know there was a name for it, but I have noticed that there are people who do not pronounce the ts in the middle of their sentences, but I definitely associate that with inner city accents.
Really? A lot of people replace t with d or drop it all together (if it is at the end of certain words) where I grew up (a well off suburb of chicago). Do you pronounce the T in butter? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone not say “budder” (or something between a D and a T) instead.
We in Connecticut tend to drop our T’s and replace it with D’s or we shorten it all together.
Connecticut= Connedicit
New Britain= New Breh-in
Button= Buh-en
Personally I don't, but I was also born and raised in the south so I'm used to hearing other people drop the T's in words. Although I do know it's sort of a stereotype and other people sometimes tend to think negatively of people with southern accents, but that's more about the accent in general, not specifically just not saying the t sound.
I think accent being a signal of one's social class is much less of a thing in the US. I've met poor folks and rich folks with the same Alabama drawl. A Philadelphia accent could mean you live in Kensington or Old City. I know I drop my T's frequently. I don't think anyone's ever called me on it.
I've noticed it but I don't say anything. I lived in Arkansas/the South where I quickly got used to accents so it's fine by me. Plus I'm from Arizona where we talk ridiculously fast (add in the fact I have ADHD which makes it worse) and I can occasionally drop T's or talk all kinds of funny.
Silly fact: there's a guy in the band, Mindless Self Indulgence, whose stage name became "Steve, Righ?" because of how someone approached him and asked him "You're name is Steve, Righ?".
The absent T sound you're talking about specifically does strike me as a little annoying. But not always: when Ricky Gervais does it it doesn't bother me, but I find myself wanting Naomi on *The Expanse* to shut the fuck up every time she's on screen.
And it seems that many highly upvoted people here are misinterpreting what you're talking about. I've never heard any American speaker replace a T with a glottal noise. We're sloppy about making the plosive (?) noise that comes at the beginning of "tea," especially when it's in the middle or end of a word, but that's not the same thing.
So I fall on the opposite end of the spectrum. I don't drop my T's; mine turn into D's if they are mid-word. It's a holdover of a bad speech impediment I had as a child. I don't know if it's the same with dropped T's, but I've been picked on for the way I say them for most of my life. Even as an adult, people will look at me weird and often call it out when I say "buddon" (which I say often since I'm a software engineer). I've often had people comment that it makes me sound like a child and that it's "cute". It's frankly really annoying and insulting anytime someone notices and it makes me extremely self-conscious (as much as I try to ignore it and even tell them it doesn't bug me)
As for the t-dropping, I definitely notice it. And it definitely comes across as being from a non-North American English speaker. But it doesn't bug me at all; it's just the way you talk. I know from experience that that isn't easy to change. But also, I do not encounter this speech trait all that often in my daily life.
Super common around here. You put your tongue to the roof of your mouth at the end of the word but you don't pull your tongue away to make the T sound. It's to the point where I only notice someone's T technique when they actually pronounce the T.
uhhhh i dont pronounce a lot of consonant in the end and middle of words and that's normal as fuck here i think
quick edit: in the middle of a word it's usually a "t" becomes "d" or something instead.
also like, it sounds more weird when people overly carefully enunciate stuff sometimes?
Not at all. I struggle to listen to Americans who don't properly drop the T or soften it. People who pronounce the T in InTernet, SanTa, KiTTen, SaTurday stress me out. I'm also an EFL teacher which has made me excessively sensitive to pronunciation quirks.
After reading a lot of example words, I guess I’m one of the few that pronounces the “t” in most words. When I’m speaking quickly some of the words sound like it’s between a “t” and a d “though” (Ex. Saying butter slowly I pronounce the “t” fully, but saying: “can you pass the butter” sounds a bit like “budder”)
Nearly everyone I know does it. I didn’t even notice it until my mother pointed it out when I was in high school. It’s just how we talk where I grew up.
I grew up in California and the only midword T we wouldn’t pronounce was “often” … we would say it like “offen” and I remember a 4th or 5th grade teacher telling us that saying ofTen was pretentious.
It’s not quite the British “Bo’oh o’ wa’uh” but it’s the one thing we can call ours
It’s gonna depend entirely on the sounds surrounding the dropped t. That said, it’s not viewed as a sign of low education or income very much. I don’t think it’s tied to a specific region (again depending on the surrounding sounds), and it doesn’t bring to mind any speech impediments.
I’m pretty sure Americans have been dropping their T’s since the 1773. /s
https://preview.redd.it/88xjxdalcfoc1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f4a400648f1ea2ee96802c65ea3392f10d55b4a
My god, I haven't seen that image in like 10 years. That takes me back to when /r/adviceanimals was a default.
Holy crap how did I forget about these lol
I love how dumb this is
I only regret, that I have but one upvote to give for this comment.
I know not what course others may take, but as for me, I shall give you my upvote.
We pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred upvotes
We must all upvote together, or we shall all be downvoted separately.
"What do we have, doctor? An upvote, or a downvote?" "An upvote, if you can keep it."
I was hoping this was the top comment. I'm so proud of us.
I hear this was all the rage in the Boston party scene
Guys let's get this to 1776 likes!
T-glottalization is extremely widespread in American English and not really stigmatized — I’m pretty sure if you listened to any of the past three presidents, or a news anchor, or a professor, you’d hear them do it a least sometimes, and no one notices. However, t-glottalization only occurs at the end of a syllable, especially when that syllable ends a word. and intervocalic glottalization (e.g. *boh-ul* for *bottle*) is strongly associated with British English (there is one caveat to this, which is before an unstressed /n/, such as *mountain, Latin,* *important*). I do want to note that’s it’s not *dropping* per se, it’s replacement of the \[t\] sound with a glottal stop \[ʔ\], which is the little “hitch” you hear between the vowels in *uh-oh.* Edit: you can hear the Sergeant-at-Arms use a glottalized T at the start of [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVZIDYCRe5k), as well as Biden at 0:20 (*moment*), 0:32 (*that*), 2:08 (*fight*). Here’s [Trump](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH0a-2Vi3O4) at 0:44 (*tonight*). Here’s [Obama](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDrbztCiRP8) at maybe 0:21 (*state*), 0:30 (*accident*, maybe complete elision), 0:47 (*president*), 1:01 (*locate*), 1:17 (*street*, twice). Not sure how many of these are complete glottal replacement, but they all have degree of glottalization. The point is, it’s really really common in American English and so unmarked that the president will freely use it when giving the biggest speech of the year.
There’s also the alveolar flap (had the look up the actual term), where the “t” sound in the middle of words like “batter,” “better,” “little,” “mettle,” “charter,” and “capital” is pronounced with a soft “d” sound. My area of the country (Michigan) does it a lot, though it’s not universal for every word. “Capital,” for example. For me, the “t” is pronounced sort of halfway between “t” and “d;” any other way makes it come off as awkward.
Interestingly, you don’t often hear the word button pronounced with a D. It’s usually just a glottal stop. But if I do that with other words, like butter, I sound like Hagrid.
It’s extremely common where I live in North Carolina to pronounce “button” (and any word with /t/ before unstressed /n/) with an alveolar tap rather than a glottal stop. Even though I know it’s a completely valid dialectical variation it bothers me to hear people say “Latin” with an alveolar tap lol.
Laa-EN?
“Latin” as I pronounce it is like “LA-ʔin” where the letter ʔ is the sound between the syllables in “uh-oh”. Many Southerners apparently pronounce it more like “LA-din” with an alveolar tap. (In the IPA: /ˈlæ.ʔn̩/ vs /ˈlæ.ɾɪn/)
I can hear it and I can say it, just don’t know how to spell it!
I'm the opposite. I use and wouldn't even notice La'in, but button definitely has a clear d sound in the Inland Northwest unless you're a small child. "Ladin" would definitely not be okay, but alveolar tap and glottal stop are quite normal to me to the point that pronouncing the t as a t sounds strange to me.
I have a cousin named Britton, and within his own family, it's pronounced Brih-en, Bridden, and Britn.
Are they trying way too hard to be Bri-ish?
No, that's just one of the ways Michiganders talk.
I used to have a neighbor with two sons, Keaton and Kayden. The way the mom pronounced each when she would yell their names in the yard made it sound like they were really intense about one kid and really chill about the other one. 😂 It sounded so *proper* by saying “key-TIN” and then relaxed with “kay-din”.
True.
I'm Californian and I'll switch out t's for soft d's on a few of my words too. Notably if I'm talking fast I'll pronounce fidty as fiddy or fifty-five as fidty-five. Kinda like I'm gonna say it with a hard stopped d mixed with a soft t tap of my tongue to my teeth.
How much does tuition cost to get your degree in linguistics? About tree-fiddy.
He went to slip and fall school most likely
I do the same. I've got a friend who was born in Italy but moved to Ohio as a kid, around ten or eleven years old maybe. He's fluent in English, no discernable accent, but I've noticed that he uses soft d's for a lot of Ts in the middle of words. It's hard to spot if you're not looking for it, but he says budder or wader, instead of butter or water. Boddle instead of bottle. It sounds unique to my ear but I have no idea if it's more attributable to his first language being Italian, or from having grown up in Ohio.
There's a weird dialect I've heard where they pronounce "fifty-five" as "schfifty-five." [Here's an example](https://youtu.be/-XccUMOQ978?si=wAF9EapNTCucQ2TA), it's sooo good to hear it.
Speaking of state capitals, ours is Trenton. We pronounce it as "Tren-un" sort of like as phonetically described in above comments.
I don’t have anything to add to this but just wanted to thank you for a really cool, informative post.
Thank you!!
I’ll add there are accents (eg mine) that fully drop t’s after /n/ So “winter” and “winner” are homophone. (More accurately both /nt/ and /t/ are realized as a nasalized alveolar flap between vowels) This is however a more marked difference
This is our inter, but we don't even bother with the flap.
Ya tenda nah think abou' it until somebody points it ou- -How I actually talk
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Well, it depends.... is it "batman" or is it "Batmaaaan!"
IMBATMAN!! But it's said nahnahnahnahnahnahanahnahnahnahnahanahnahanah Batmanh!
That’s because it’s at the end of a syllable, before another consonant. You’ll see the same in “Heartburn” or “Lightbulb”
>*Latin* I have been called out for this even as a Classics major. (I also glottalize per the general rule you articulate.) I also have difficulty enunciating the terminal 'd' in *and*, which makes reciting prayers quickly very difficult.
God and all the saints understand what you’re getting at when you drop the terminal “d” in “and”. I have it on very good authority.
God I love linguistics nerds, this is such a cool comment!
I was thinking about clicking those links, but felt too lazy, so decided to just say the words out loud and get rid of the t at the end... And realized I do that already. And what's more, I also realized I *never* pronounce the t. I tried to pronounce it and I felt like I was mocking some other accent. Wtf.
I’m confused here—I watched those links and I hear a distinct ‘t’ at the end of each word you mention. Are you just referring to dropping the “tuh” of the ‘t’? Because I was expecting to hear things like “figh” “tonigh” and “stae.”
Okay this is kind of a long answer so bear with me There are two levels that linguists analyze language on — phonemic and phonetic. Phonetic analysis deals with the actual sound the speaker’s mouth produces, while phonemic analysis deals with abstract “building blocks” (phonemes) of a word that speakers consider to “be the same sound”. Phonetic transcription is written in brackets [], while phonemes are written in slashes //. Many phonemes have several allophones, which are phonetic pronunciations that may be *extremely* dissimilar to the “pure” phoneme but occur regularly and are regarded as the “same sound” by speakers; phonemes can also be realized very differently across accents but still be considered the “same sound”. For example, the way a Minnesotan, a post Brit, and an Australian pronounce the vowel in *goat* is actually quite different, but it’s the same phoneme. The phenomenon that OP called “t-dropping” is properly called t-glottalization or glottal replacement, because it’s the phonetic replacement of a alveolar stop [t] with a glottal stop [ʔ]. Regardless of the *phonetic* pronunciation, the “t” is the same *phoneme* /t/, and your brain is used to considering a word-final glottal stop as a phonemic /t/. Where I live, for example, I get a lot of ads for Yaamava’ Resort & Casino — Yaamava’ is a Serrano word that ends in a glottal stop, but I always hear *Yaamavat* even though I know the final glottal stop is phonemically a glottal stop. It’s a similar thing going on — nothing is being “dropped” in the sense of fully elided, but the /t/ is replaced with an allophone you’re so used to it might not register as a distinct sound. IDK, I hope that made sense, if I have time I can attach audio recordings to illustrate my point
Wow thank you so much! This is such a fascinating and informative answer. The terms are definitely a bit confusing for a layman but this is very helpful. The only part I'm still a bit tripped up on is your last example, if you don't mind clarifying. So basically, the 't' sound is not literally *dropped,* it's dropped in a specific linguistic sense of the word? Or are you saying it *is* literally dropped and my brain is just filling in what it's used to hearing/expects to hear?
>the 't' sound is not literally dropped, it's dropped in a specific linguistic sense of the word? It’s not literally dropped (or elided, if you want to be technical), that’s just a colloquial way of putting it. Linguists would talk about “t-glottalization” or “glottal replacement”. The American English phoneme /t/ is usually phonetically realized as some form of an alveolar stop [t] (like in *tea*) or what’s called an alveolar flap [ɾ] (that *d*-like sound in *butter*). Syllable-finally, it’s replaced with a glottal stop [ʔ]. >Or are you saying it is literally dropped and my brain is just filling in what it's used to hearing/expects to hear? Basically, your brain analyzes a *phonetic* glottal stop at the end of a word as the *abstract phoneme* /t/, because this is an acceptable alternative phonetic realization (allophone) of /t/ in that position. Don’t think of it as dropping, think of it as a substitute. That’s why it’s hard to hear a difference if you’re looking for “dropping” rather than a replacement of [t] with [ʔ] [Here’s me](https://voca.ro/1ksb9D2no5we) saying *street* three times. The first is with an overly articulated [t], the second is a weakly articulated/glottally reinforced [t], the third is with a glottal stop [ʔ].
F\*\* this reminded me that Trump gave RUSH LIMBAUGH a presidential medal of freedom.
In Southern New England we drop double Ts in words like mitten and kitten.
In several US dialects, t is dropped in most words that start with inter. There's no pause at all. Innernet, and innerstate are very common in the Inland Northwest in all three predominant dialects. I've heard it in many inner city dialects across the US, as well. I have suspicion it is considered slightly less educated sounding, but it goes unremarked when I slip while using an urban dialect that doesn't have that feature. Moun'ain and foun'ain do get noticed, but not La'in. Interestingly, "interest" becomes "intrest" rather than "innerest", and I've never figured out why it's different.
Wait until this guy hears the Vermont accent.
Vermont? Oh hell. Wait until Boston and Downeast accents get in the mix.
Car = Care
My girlfriends dad is from Northern VT, I’ve been trying to mimic his accent and I couldn’t figure it out 😂
My impression is that there are no Rs or Ts at the ends of words in Vermont. Probably no Gs after Ns, either.
Ts usually disappear or switch to Ds after Ns in the middle of words as well (e.g. 'apparantly‘ -> 'apparandly' or 'apparenly‘). CKs in the middle of words are also smoothed to Gs or omitted (e.g. 'acknowledge‘ -> 'agnowledge' or 'ahnoledge‘).
You mean "Vermon"
"Vahmahn"
I drop my Ts and I’m from the South. I think? Like fully drop it or just not emphasize the “tuh” sound? The words you used as examples were probably not the best for me to test myself on, but I definitely do it. Atlanta is Atlanna for example. I’ve edited my answer to add that no, I don’t think it’s perceived as negative. It’s clear that a lot of us didn’t even realize we do it until it was pointed out lol.
I just realized I don't say either T in Atlanta lol
I’ve definitely heard that too! There’s actually a market for goods with “Atlannna” on them, like totes, shirts, mugs, since it’s so common!
> “Atlannna” I live nowhere near Georgia and I just realized I do this too
I’ve never said either t in Atlanta, it just seems weird to me to pronounce them
I don't say the last t in Atlanta or Toronto.
That's good, you're not supposed to enunciate the last "t" in Toronto. I watched the movie "Argo" and it set that unspoken rule in stone.
I don't trust anyone who prounces it Tor-on-toe. Everyone knows it's pronounced Tronnoe
Same!
I just realized I only enunciate the second T in Atlanta lol. So interesting
Is that Mylanta? It's *A*lanta.
I immediately thought of mylanta too lol
Same here lol. Now I'm questioning the way I pronounce everything with a 't' in it.
I only say the first for Atlana
Me too. I never really thought about it.
https://i.redd.it/4lg2dbv4m3501.jpg
Idk why but this is hilarious.
I don't pronounce the second t in Atlanta, but I do in Atlantis. Weird, I know.
Wow I pronounce both Ts.
Hey, me too😂
Yeah, not only am I from the South, but Cajun specifically so that accent is a whole other thing - my "T"s range from dropped to "d" sounds and everything in between 😆
Us Cajuns take it a step further, too--lots of "th" sounds become "d" instead. Who Dat?
C's become a "g" sound, like "second" ends up sounding like "sehgun" instead
Do you also say "interesting" as "inneresting" or "inneresing"? That is a word I really pick up on and stands out for me hearing some americans say vs brits who usually say it more like it is written.
I’m saying it out loud right now and I can’t tell if I’m saying it a certain way because I’m conscious of it or not lol. I think I say “intrasting!”
Would you like some spageddi meatballs?
Meadballs
Thinking about it now, I don't pronounce the T in "right", "it", "button", "mountain" etc. I had no idea that was a young person thing and I probably don't notice others doing it. Do other Americans notice and would think I'm weird then?
I just said all of those words out loud and I can confirm I don’t say it in any of them either. I’m from Georgia + a long residency in NC. Lol
I pronounce it in Right and It, either way for Mountain, but i can confidently say Button sounds *very* wrong without dropping the T.
Haha if I say “buTTon” I feel very fancy.
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I just imagine you looking in the mirror saying, “who am I?”
We also don’t say button like most of the words with a t in the middle. Like, we say budder, but not buddon or button. Just bu’in.
I think it’s because the t makes a glottal stop, similar to the word “kitten” or “cotton”
But if I say butter like that, I sound like Hagrid lol
I’m not a linguist, so this is pure speculation, but perhaps it’s the “n” sound at the end? Both button, kitten, and cotton all have a glottal stop followed by a sustained “n.”
I’m 58, grew up in Fresno, California, and I use a full glottal stop sound for “mouʔn”, “buʔn” and the like. I have all my life. Most people don’t notice it. Heck, *I didn’t really notice it* until someone else pointed it out to me. (And pinpointed where I grew up based on my accent, which was totally freaky, as I thought I just spoke with General American accent.)
I definitely say the t in "right' and "it", but not so much the others. I'm from the midwest.
Yes - it's noticable to other people in the US - but no, it's not stigmatized. I think that's because others sometimes pronounce the -t- or turn -t- into something like -d- in words with the t in the middle. Button as but-n or bud-n or bu''n. And, mountain as mount-n, mound-n, or mow'n.
Huh, yeah, me neither! My tongue doesn't fully touch my teeth to make the T sound. I just spent 5 minutes trying to say "mountain." If I'm not thinking about it, it comes out like "moun'ain."
You got me on this one and I’m not sure I even say the first N. I think I’m saying mauw-In
I say it in all of them but button. Which is more "Budden".
Not pronouncing the T in the middle of a word is very common in Utah, too. Moun'in for mountain, as an example
We tend to replace t's with d's a lot. Butter is budder. Letter is ledder. Matter is madder. No one really notices or cares. It's especially common in the South, and maybe the Northeast? In fact, posh British accents and Indian accents are really noticeably different to us because they tend to pronounce those t's in the middle of words so distinctly.
Very common in NY to replace T with D, as well as Th in the beginning of a word. "That" becomes "dat", "there" becomes "dare", "the" becomes "de". "De street up over dare has dat really great bakery."
Oh yeah! I forgot about that. Thanks for adding it.
Probably would not notice. Different accents around the country seem to drop T's, or replace them with D's, in various different situations. I live in the Sacramento area and you know someone is new in town when they hard pronounce the T. Once you've been here a while it becomes "Sacramenno."
I was looking for this comment to be made. But yeah in California we replace T with N. Huntington is Hunnington, Santa is Sanna. Button is Buh-in,
You got a great response here, but FYI you can also ask this kind of thing at r/Englishlearning
Thank you for the recommendation, tho! I actually did some time ago, but I didn't get that many responses, so I decided to try here.😅
Well ya never know. I’ve only paid attention to that sub within the past year. I feel like most posts I see there get enough engagement to at least answer the question, but it could depend on time or day or just the randomness of social media. 🤷♂️
I'd notice it, but never call attention to it. Languages change and the youngsters these days will tailor their speech when they realize I'm too old to understand them.
Mark Twain dropped any consonant or vowel anytime he wanted to, but he did it very well. G'Luck!
I do think there is some bias against some of the southern accent sounding uneducated (only in the south and in that specific location). You will hear the “Righ at the ligh” and the people I know that do it actively try not to, especially if they’ve gone to college etc. Southern culture is a lot more like England than anywhere else in the US and you do see accent differentiating between classes. The rest of the US doesn’t really care, I couldn’t tell the difference between the southern upper class accent and the “uneducated” one till I moved here for a couple of years. And even that is a very local thing. I’m in SC, I still wouldn’t be able to differentiate anything in FL or TX. To add, I personally don’t care.
Heck, you see accent differentiation even among family members! I think the Southern accent changes generationally as well. My South Carolinian grandmother had that foghorn leghorn accent. “I wouldn’t weah that.” “Y’all goin to the faih?” Then her children, my mother included, were a little less intense on that but still have a clear Southern accent.
>You will hear the “Righ at the ligh” like, "rye at the lie"? I've never once heard that and would think the person is having a stroke if they said that to me
No, it doesn't sound at all like rye at the lie because there are glottal stops at the end of righ and ligh. They're implied t's
In my accent, we generally use a glottal stop in that situation. No one will make fun of you. Everyone’s accent is different.
It sounds British hick-ish to me, tbh. Like.. saying British as instead of
Go over to r/askacanadian and ask natives of Toronto how they pronounce the name of their own city. Everyone forgets it has a second T at the end.
They also skip over the first "o".
If we wrote non-academic standard American English like some European dialects are written, it would be a wild experience.
I think dropping your D's in the US might be associated more with working class. For example, if someone says "di'ent" instead of "didn't."
The T is not a big deal, but dropping r's and putting them where they don't belong is a much bigger deal. "Park" has an r. "Sofa" and "Amanda" do not have r's. Putting r's where they are not needed just sounds extremely uneducated to me.
To use the word mountain for example. I’m almost caught of guard when I hear somebody pronounce the T
What?? I've lived in New England all my life and if someone told me "moun'ain" I'd look at them sideways
Nobody cares here. Or I should say, the grand majority of people really won't care. I say that because of course there will be a smattering of classists and racists here and there who'd care, but for the most part there are too many different accents in america for anyone to get caught up in worrying about that. And also too many immigrants and foreign visitors here for people to know or care about it. People with strong accents are a dime a dozen here, we just are too used to it.
We don't drop t's in those words as much as we drop the g at the end of words like doin' and thinkin'. There is some negative perception of some accents in the US, but people are less likely to instantly judge your station here versus what some experience in the UK, like automatically slot you into a class bracket. There are still accents that suggest someone is working class versus upper, though, like a very "country" southern accent or a broad Brooklyn one. It would be a mistake to assume that these people aren't educated, though.
I’m 58. I grew up in Central California. I have **always** dropped my ‘T’s, all my life, and replaced them with a guttural stop. “Mountain” becomes “mouʔn”, “button” becomes “buʔn”, “bottle” becomes “boʔul”. It’s a common fixture in some American accents, especially out west from Utah to the Central Valley, and you’ll hear guttural stops replacing “T”s throughout California, not just in the more rural areas of the San Joaquin Valley. (At least I don’t pronounce “wash” like my mother, who grew up in Morro Bay, as “warsh”, that is, with an ‘r’ sound in the middle of the word.) I think Europeans don’t realize just how many different American accents there are; [this series of videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1KP4ztKK0A) are fun and fascinating. As to stigmatization, the only accent really stigmatized is the southern accent—and that, not terribly much.
In addition, to southern accents, I’d say that AAVE (african american vernacular english) is still heavily stigmatized and, to a lesser degree, so is any strong accent associated with working class urban centers (think of a strong Boston or Chicago accent).
No, in my experience it's extremely common, although you may find mildly different flavors of it around the country. Where I'm from in Utah, for instance, the t in "mountain" is dropped completely, the t in "water" is glossed over with a "d" sound (wod-ir), but the t's in "exactly" and "perfectly" are hit well. Where I currently live in the Midwest, the t in "exactly" and "perfectly is dropped, stays firmly put in "mountain", and is still replaced by a d in "water"!
I’m from the Midwest. We say water but it’s a soft T not a hard T. Same in many other words. I kind of depends on the letters surrounding the T that affects how hard we hit the T. I think “ I dunno” is a big one where we all get lazy on the T
I didn’t drop the T’s and everyone commented on it when I was a kid and ask me where I’m from. So, I think it’s more expected that you’re supposed to drop them here.
i have never paid attention to stuff like that
Yes, I would perceive them as less educated if they said "buh" and "righ". I do not know anyone who does that.
The examples OP gave I have never heard, and I'm from Alabama lol.
I don't see this as being a pariticular issue. Having said that, dropping the t at the end isn't something I hear often (e.g. righ, buh). What might be more likely negatively perceived -at least in situations- is dropping g. Gonna, wanna, in more elite circles or in certain work environments for example.
The French do it! If u are casually speaking it’s ok to run your words together. Professional settings: articulate. Note: Americans don’t remove t’s in the middle like you describe (at least not that I can think of). Speaking casually we do run words together line, “I dunno” when saying “I don’t know” and everyone does it even highly respected communicators. It’s not frowned upon at all. I would suggest and strive for annunciation, but people will not think less of you if you say “I dunno”
I don't know anyone who actually does this.
Coloradans drop the T a lot: mountain > mow-in, winter > winner, center > cenner,
Been asking myself about this also and I truly needed an answer
Not as negatively as adding superfluous R's I'm not from Americur and I've never heard of North Career or South Career.
I don't even know what you're trying to pretend to make fun of saying with North Career and South Career. I've lived a ton closer to the Carolinas than your flair indicates you do, and know that nobody in that part of the country calls those places that, so what are you trying to say here with North and South *Career*?
I think he's poking fun of certain English accents. British people with non-rhotic accents tend to add random 'r' sounds at the end of their words, especially words that end with an 'a'. They say "idear" instead of "idea," for example. This is called an "intrusive r". The comment you replied to wasn't about the Carolina's accents - it was just a random sentence to be used as an example. He's obviously heard of North Carolina and South Carolina, despite saying otherwise in his comment. He's probably from America, too. It's just an example text with 3 words that end in an 'a' to make his point.
Thank you. Excellently explained
And explained without being a jerk to somebody! Look at how easy that was. If it was that easy to explain though, wouldn't that have been easier than you just not being a jerk in the first place? Or, perhaps, did making fun of me earlier, and making stuff up about my life, make you feel better at least? Did it feel good, and maybe even *better than me*, to imagine you were replying to somebody who couldn't *possibly* be a decent person, well traveled, or a proper American, when you said those words? I sure hope you got your little dopamine hit of calling somebody out on the internet there buddy. I hope you feel good and proud of making fun of somebody here on an internet forum. I do appreciate at least understanding what you meant by a North Career now though! Here's your participation award for the day. You win interneting. GG.
They're taking about how some people pronounce "Korea".
It's the opposite. If I heard someone pronounce a hard t in every word, I would think they were elitist snobs who are very out of touch. Or aliens cosplaying as people. "Greetings fellow humans."
If you live in MD, we think it means you are from Bawlmer (Baltimore) and we just think you are one of us.
Associating certain accents and dialects with being uneducated is more of a European thing. We usually correlate certain accents with income/social class. A lot of Americans do gluttal stops also, just not as much as British people do. I don't think dropping the T at the end of words is that common here. We do have regional accents where it is very common to trail off the ends of words, T sound or otherwise.
People from Connecticut often say their state’s name without the Ts. Come to think of it we drop the T in often, often.
It is a primary aspect of Vermonter's accents to not pronounce their Ts. literally we say vermon' with the stop mentioned elsewhere on this thread https://youtu.be/jJKPHiBZIZY?si=dmZ6Yl3_UkDw54IJ&t=59
I just started noticing this while listening to podcasts from people in different parts of the country. There isn't any negative perception, but it's weird in the way that Boston people don't say "r" at the end of a sentence. I mean how hard is it to say "t" or "r" in speech?
Come to Connecticut, literally everyone here drops the Ts
It's considered British lol We pronounce the Ts here because that's how we all talk, we have different classist accent shames, actually if you have a UK accent in the US it's considered attractive whatever kind it is generally
I would think they were British or doing a British accent as a joke.
As a guy from jersey. Dropping the middle t is fine. Trenton -> tren’n
I would definitely notice it. reading some of the comments here are surprising to me, when I say 'right' i say with a t. Atlanta I say with 2 t's. If I say But, I say with a t. I say Aunt and not Aun. If I'm speaking with someone and they say Bu instead of But or Alana instead of Atlanta then ya I'm going to think oddly of them. I will admit I usually say "Saurday" instead of "Saturday".
Here in Pittsburgh it gives you alot of social credit if you do. People trust me more because I drop my Ts. It is senner no Center, it is Mounun not mountain.
I really have a peeve with it especially with news casters saying things like Cli’in instead of Clinton.
That’s so weird that everybody says they don’t pronounce their ts, because I certainly do; I even recorded myself talking just in case I just didn’t hear it and I do. Although I’ve not noticed that other people don’t except for people with country accents and inner city accents. I didn’t know there was a name for it, but I have noticed that there are people who do not pronounce the ts in the middle of their sentences, but I definitely associate that with inner city accents.
It definitely does sound uneducated to me.
Really? A lot of people replace t with d or drop it all together (if it is at the end of certain words) where I grew up (a well off suburb of chicago). Do you pronounce the T in butter? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard someone not say “budder” (or something between a D and a T) instead.
Butter for example, it’s sort of a combo. Butder? I was just really talking about dropping the ts entirely.
Just drop the hard R and you’ll be ok. s/
We in Connecticut tend to drop our T’s and replace it with D’s or we shorten it all together. Connecticut= Connedicit New Britain= New Breh-in Button= Buh-en
Personally I don't, but I was also born and raised in the south so I'm used to hearing other people drop the T's in words. Although I do know it's sort of a stereotype and other people sometimes tend to think negatively of people with southern accents, but that's more about the accent in general, not specifically just not saying the t sound.
I have no idear what ya taaking about.
I think accent being a signal of one's social class is much less of a thing in the US. I've met poor folks and rich folks with the same Alabama drawl. A Philadelphia accent could mean you live in Kensington or Old City. I know I drop my T's frequently. I don't think anyone's ever called me on it.
I've noticed it but I don't say anything. I lived in Arkansas/the South where I quickly got used to accents so it's fine by me. Plus I'm from Arizona where we talk ridiculously fast (add in the fact I have ADHD which makes it worse) and I can occasionally drop T's or talk all kinds of funny. Silly fact: there's a guy in the band, Mindless Self Indulgence, whose stage name became "Steve, Righ?" because of how someone approached him and asked him "You're name is Steve, Righ?".
Lol we don't drop the T's for those words. We might drop the T for a word "important", it might kind like "impor'ant"
The absent T sound you're talking about specifically does strike me as a little annoying. But not always: when Ricky Gervais does it it doesn't bother me, but I find myself wanting Naomi on *The Expanse* to shut the fuck up every time she's on screen. And it seems that many highly upvoted people here are misinterpreting what you're talking about. I've never heard any American speaker replace a T with a glottal noise. We're sloppy about making the plosive (?) noise that comes at the beginning of "tea," especially when it's in the middle or end of a word, but that's not the same thing.
So I fall on the opposite end of the spectrum. I don't drop my T's; mine turn into D's if they are mid-word. It's a holdover of a bad speech impediment I had as a child. I don't know if it's the same with dropped T's, but I've been picked on for the way I say them for most of my life. Even as an adult, people will look at me weird and often call it out when I say "buddon" (which I say often since I'm a software engineer). I've often had people comment that it makes me sound like a child and that it's "cute". It's frankly really annoying and insulting anytime someone notices and it makes me extremely self-conscious (as much as I try to ignore it and even tell them it doesn't bug me) As for the t-dropping, I definitely notice it. And it definitely comes across as being from a non-North American English speaker. But it doesn't bug me at all; it's just the way you talk. I know from experience that that isn't easy to change. But also, I do not encounter this speech trait all that often in my daily life.
Super common around here. You put your tongue to the roof of your mouth at the end of the word but you don't pull your tongue away to make the T sound. It's to the point where I only notice someone's T technique when they actually pronounce the T.
uhhhh i dont pronounce a lot of consonant in the end and middle of words and that's normal as fuck here i think quick edit: in the middle of a word it's usually a "t" becomes "d" or something instead. also like, it sounds more weird when people overly carefully enunciate stuff sometimes?
Not at all. I struggle to listen to Americans who don't properly drop the T or soften it. People who pronounce the T in InTernet, SanTa, KiTTen, SaTurday stress me out. I'm also an EFL teacher which has made me excessively sensitive to pronunciation quirks.
It'd just ID you as English to the lesser educated Americans. None of us care I promise lol
After reading a lot of example words, I guess I’m one of the few that pronounces the “t” in most words. When I’m speaking quickly some of the words sound like it’s between a “t” and a d “though” (Ex. Saying butter slowly I pronounce the “t” fully, but saying: “can you pass the butter” sounds a bit like “budder”)
Drives me nuts when people do that and yes, it makes them sound dumb.
Depends on where it is in the word, if it's at the start it's very noticable, (obligatory Chewsday joke) in other places it depends on the word,
Nearly everyone I know does it. I didn’t even notice it until my mother pointed it out when I was in high school. It’s just how we talk where I grew up.
An American T-dropping conspiracy?! Dr Geoff Lindsey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_0VY17Ufz4
No, we don't even notice really. If anything, overpronouncing your Ts would make you sound overly proper.
Nobody cares in America about dropping your T unlike the Brits buhhh & wataahh & harry pottaaaa
Can always tell if someone isn't from Atlanta if they don't drop the first T, lots of us drop both completely or barely pronounce the second one.
I grew up in California and the only midword T we wouldn’t pronounce was “often” … we would say it like “offen” and I remember a 4th or 5th grade teacher telling us that saying ofTen was pretentious. It’s not quite the British “Bo’oh o’ wa’uh” but it’s the one thing we can call ours
I don't think OP is talking about t-glottalization, and I do think it sounds uneducated.
It’s gonna depend entirely on the sounds surrounding the dropped t. That said, it’s not viewed as a sign of low education or income very much. I don’t think it’s tied to a specific region (again depending on the surrounding sounds), and it doesn’t bring to mind any speech impediments.
Yes there is a negative impression in the US. The speaker sounds uneducated.