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I can't help that. I have also lived and worked throught the Miami Valley, and graduated from Sinclair and UD. I have certainly heard people pronounce Dayton the way you do. That does not mean I do, nor does it mean everyone does. Believe it or not, some Daytonians actually pronounce the T.
Oakwood High and Wright State U and I've always pronounced the 'T'.
Rather than Day-on with a glottal stop, I've often heard it as Date'n rather than Day-ton. I guess there is still a glottal stop there, but the 'T' is definitely there.
I often use the "axe" instead of "ask" - just to see if the person I'm talking to is actually listening.
Are you referring to the tendency of some people to pronounce "imported" and "important" exactly the same way?
I believe that type of pronunciation can lead to a lot of miscommunication.
Not exactly, both of those would be severely mangled compared to standard English but they aren't the same word. Important is pronounced m-por-uhn, lose most or all of the i, start with an m sound, lose both t's. Imported = m-por-itd, vowel sound in the third syllable is different and the d is retained but converted to the td sound. Now, whether either one would be understood by someone who spoke a different regional dialect of English...
The td thing is one of the many oddities about my dialect that was pointed out when my grad committee was critiquing a presentation, I had never noticed it but they were right, it's like td welded together into one consonant, exact same sound for both letters.
If you stop and think about it, we all do it, and it's always been present in at least one word in American English.
Say the word "Continental". Do you actually prounounce it "ConTinenTal"? Or do you nasalize the "o", dropping the "n", then use a stop in place of the first "T", skip the "I" and sort of grunt through it (lol), and half swallow the final "T"?
Pay attention now, and no cheating.
I pronounce Continental and Important just the way they are spelled. I do have a habit of pronouncing words with TH different than most people because of my poor Irish background. It started off as a joke but I can't seem to change it. Words like "Authority" comes out "Autority" and "Third" sounds like "Tird." My Dad's aunt spoke like that.
I would pronounce, for example, pudding and putting exactly the same way. If I said "putting" with a distinct "t" sound in the middle, I would feel like I was trying to sound all hoity toity. I'm sure I would get lots of funny looks.
Same with ladder/latter, udder/utter, bidder/bitter, etc.
I once knew a woman whose daughter was Greta. The mother always pronounced the "t" very distinctly, but it always sounded odd to my ear (and everyone else called her Gredda). I had never heard anyone else who truly pronounced t's in the middle of words, even though I've lived in several different states, in upper class neighborhoods.
I do, of course, pronounce the hard t as the beginning of words.
Regional diction is full of stuff like this, and so is differentiated diction among various social classes, socioeconomic groups, etc.
Where I am, replacing the dentated "T" with a glottal stop is not common. But other things are. There are portions of my city and the last one I lived in where you'll hear people say, "I'm finna go to the store," as a shorthand of "fixing to," which is in itself a colloquialism for "going to." Then there are other parts of the same city where nobody would say "finna," and also wouldn't say "fixing to," either.
As far as what the OP's mentioning, I remember it being emphasized in the movie "Clueless," where they had Brittany Murphy's character dropping the dentated "T" and using a glottal stop. It was meant to indicate that her character, the "new girl" at the rich high school, was lower class.
Oakwood High and Wright State U and I've always pronounced the 'T'.
Rather than Day-on with a glottal stop, I've often heard it as Date'n rather than Day-ton. I guess there is still a glottal stop there, but the 'T' is definitely there.
I often use the "axe" instead of "ask" - just to see if the person I'm talking to is actually listening.
Weird. I had no idea there were so many Daytonnians floating around C-D, specially since the Dayton forum is so dead. I wonder if we all know each other.
As for the axe thing, it practically gives me a seizure. I cannot stand it.
I pronounce Continental and Important just the way they are spelled. I do have a habit of pronouncing words with TH different than most people because of my poor Irish background. It started off as a joke but I can't seem to change it. Words like "Authority" comes out "Autority" and "Third" sounds like "Tird." My Dad's aunt spoke like that.
In my region, you'll year "continennal," but "important" sounds like it looks.
Is your Irish background from Dublin? That's where I heard the most dropping of the "th." Not so much in other parts of the country.
I tend to overpronounce compared to others in my region, but it's from years of choral singing. Classical choral training requires the overemphasis of consonants, especially, because when singing with an 80-100 voice ensemble, all singers don't have very crisp consonants individually(overly crisp, actually), everything sounds muddy from the audience. So you go very much the other direction, and it sounds normal in the end, after reverb and everything.
I would pronounce, for example, pudding and putting exactly the same way. If I said "putting" with a distinct "t" sound in the middle, I would feel like I was trying to sound all hoity toity. I'm sure I would get lots of funny looks.
Same with ladder/latter, udder/utter, bidder/bitter, etc.
I once knew a woman whose daughter was Greta. The mother always pronounced the "t" very distinctly, but it always sounded odd to my ear (and everyone else called her Gredda). I had never heard anyone else who truly pronounced t's in the middle of words, even though I've lived in several different states, in upper class neighborhoods.
I do, of course, pronounce the hard t as the beginning of words.
I went to college with a girl who overpronounced her name, "Britta," with a very sharp, clean "t." She HATED being called "Bridda" and wouldn't answer to it. It did come off as kind of prissy, but, hey, her name. Can't fault her for wanting it pronounced as intended.
Of course I pronounce the T in Day-ton, as do the people I know.
Most where I am would say, "Datin'."
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