something else to **** about, dropping the t and n in your words

scottyboy76

When was the first time you heard someone drop the t in their words.

I was working at home depot almost 20 years ago, a nice, sharp well spoken young lady from rhode island came to work in our phone center,after about 3 months she started paging people this way, obviously with great effort.

Example, important, becomes impora.

Now news anchors do this, usually seeming to do it very self consciously, and to me it sounds like an anchor clanking down from 30 feet.

Yes im old.

mhardy6647

I am an inveterate mumbler - I don't pronounce much of anything when I speak :-P
(I do try to practice good diction when I give a presentation, though)

That said, I appreciate both precise speech and precise writing -- I just don't practice what I preach!

tonyb

A mumbler huh...me too. Constantly talking to myself in a low mumble. Must be an age thing, god knows the repercussions if people actually heard what I was mumbling to myself.

scottyboy76

But this is a trendy thing,even news anchors adopting obviously affected speech to be cool.

stsrted with young people, as in the case with saying "like" several times in each half sentence.

tonyb

scottyboy76 wrote: »

But this is a trendy thing,even news anchors adopting obviously affected speech to be cool.

stsrted with young people, as in the case with saying "like" several times in each half sentence.

Now that would bug me immensely. TV puts up with such down there ? Talk about lowering the bar.

westmassguy

I was born and raised in Western Massachusetts. Western Mass and Northwest Connecticut are supposedly the one area of the country where American English contains the least amount of Inflection and or Flection (so called "Cultural Differences" aside). When I moved to NYC, where I lived and worked for nearly 20 years, my speech was constantly made fun of. On the reverse, I was truly amazed by the "Brooklyn-ease" I heard from at least 75% of those who were raised with-in a 50 mile radius of The City. Rs were dropped and a vowel added, and in the plural form, rs was changed to z. A slipper is slippa, and sisters is pronounce sistiz. This current change in pronunciation, is all part of the dumbing down of society, laziness, and learned affectations to fit in with whatever crowd you're speaking to, IMHO. A prerequisite for a news anchor, or someone who works the phones, should be the ability to enunciate the English Language clearly.

Dawgfish

tonyb wrote: »

Now that would bug me immensely. TV puts up with such down there ? Talk about lowering the bar.

Yeah it's only a southern thing.......give me a fricking break!

scottyboy76

Im talking about the national news, last night it was a cnn anchor, nice try though tony.

After 3 years in the army, i had heard many dialects, and speech patterns, and when it was naturally how they talked, found it interesting.

But when you know someone does not speak a certain way, and all of a sudden takes on affected speech?

Things such as "like" every other word, dropping t and n, and "voice frying" by girls, where you drop the very last part of words to the lowest voice you can are just more about the fitting in that is all that counts anymore, and when national news anchors, grown women for the most part, have to do things like this to feel in with what starrted as a silly teen thing.

It seems more and more our society is driven by the whims of the youngest, least serious elements among us.

mhardy6647

My current peeve is with folks (on media interviews) responding to an interviewer's question by starting with the word "Sure." -- and then answering.

That particular affectation really bugs me (and it seems to be growing ever more common).

More on-topic - while I am (rather obviously) empathetic to the original post's lament -- the differences, sometimes subtle, between regional accents is actually something to be treasured. ... and I say that as a person who originally hails from a region with, arguably, the least mellifluous accent in the US -- that'd be Baltimore, hon. ;-)

cnh

I can't say that I mumble much or ever, unless I'm tired. Because of my work I tend to speak as though I am ALWAYS in front of an audience. Sometimes, the volume becomes inappropriate to the setting. As for diction, etc. My speech, like my writing here, ranges from the more formal to my working class roots in what used to be industrial Pa. You'll see some of the "regionalism" that mhardy mentions above, from time to time in my posts when I'm trying to be one of the guys.

The other problem with this is that many educated women have sensitized me to lowering my "volume" as they feel it is too aggressively male even though that is the farthest thing from my mind.

I don't really know what a Baltimore accent would sound like?

cnh

oldmodman

I am extremely careful about my diction and pronunciation.

They are the first to go when senility hits.

Then you start buying Wall Mart speakers.

nooshinjohn

I speak the proper "King's English" in my home, though laced with a heavy cockney accent....

schwarcw

I speak too much, too loud and too often!

mdaudioguy

I have never heard a news anchor, nor anyone else, say impora, instead of important. Are you sure your ears aren't cuttin' out?

Now, I must admit, I often drop the g with most words endin' in ing. Drove my father crazy.