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Comment by hughdbrown | Hacker News Reader

As a Canadian living in the US, this is the bane of my existence. The disappearance of Ts from so many words and phrases irks me:

- bouny hunner

- innerview

- alannic ciddy

- Rocky Mounins

- haunid house

- udderly

- budder (the bagel topping)

- winner (the season)

- bidder (the taste)

- invennive

- annie-American

- bedder

- odder (the cute wadder mammal)

The inventive ways that Ts are dropped in favor of:

- Ns

- Ds

- glottal stops

- nothing at all

are legion.

I've mused about publishing a compilation of these words with dropped Ts, but it's hit-or-miss whether the other person in America who cares would buy the book.

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> I've mused about publishing a compilation of these words with dropped Ts, but it's hit-or-miss whether the other person in America who cares would buy the book.

There are probably more people than that that care, but most of them would probably prefer something more like the broad description of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_Engl... rather than a catalog of words exhibiting one (or, rather, parts of a couple, related vy the starting sound) of the listed consonant shifts.

I wasn't thinking of a big long list. I envisage a project more like The Quintessential Dictionary: https://www.amazon.com/quintessential-dictionary-I-Moyer-Hun...

It's an amusing work of high-vocabulary words with an excerpt from actual usage with the definition and etymology. Catamite, for example, is memorably demonstrated with, I believe, the opening sentence of Anthony Burgess's "Earthly Powers":

"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."

I have a strong Jersey accent to the point where I need a separate "work voice". Mostly I just focus on neutralizing the vowels, which has the side effect of restoring the consonants a bit. What I didn't realize was the extent to which the consonants stand out to people.

Or "aydeen, nine-teen (nine-deen?), twenny".

Yesterday, I saw an automatic caption of a Youtube video that said "admission" instead of "emission" (which is what I heard the speaker say, and certainly was the intention). The line is very thin indeed.

The one I have most problems with is "Toronto". Every time I've heard it said out loud by somebody from North America, it has sounded like "Turrawnno", with the T's barely audible.

On the other hand, my (very Punjabi) family members who actually live there pronounce it "Turronto", with hard T's, rolling R's, and a heavy emphasis on the final T. If you've heard the most common form of the Indian English accent, you know what I mean.

So now I just call it "that city in Canada". I just know I'll mangle it if I say it out loud.

Fwiw this was highly amusing to read. All of these I read in isolation and thought "no I pronounce the t there" then said in a sentance and yeah... youre dead on

Every American YouTuber I watch in guiltier of dropping t's than any "bri'ish" person I know yet the meme exist somehow.

Did you forget ann ar?dic - for Antarctic. What is that ?d sound? WHY is that sound?

Oh and eeeand. The word and used to be monosyllabic.

I bet there are a list of words where the loss of each of the 26 letters can be lamented. For example (off the top of my head), the a in head, the b in dumb, the first c in necklace, the d in handsaw ...

At least there is a pattern, so it’s not exactly like “salmon”

Goodness. I forgot about exackly.

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