American D For T

priddy, wadder, etc. Can anyone point me to some advice, techniques, and so on, for training myself to STOP talking this way? (It's embarrasses me.)

It embarrasses you to talk like everyone around you? Do you think they have special expectations of you that they don't have of everyone else?

This is how these words are pronounced in American English. They are spelled as they are because the spelling hasn't kept up (which is in many ways a good thing, avoiding further divergence between our spelling and the spelling used by English speakers elsewhere in the world). People would wonder about you if you DID pronounce these words with clearly unvoiced a "t" sound, just as they would if you pronounced "answer" with a "w" sound, "Wednesday" as "wed ness day", "make" to rhyme with the last two syllables of "Osaka", and "light" like its German equivalent "licht", closer to the pronunciations these words had centuries ago, that are still reflected in their spelling.

priddy, wadder, etc. Can anyone point me to some advice, techniques, and so on, for training myself to STOP talking this way? (It's embarrasses me.)

It embarrasses you to talk like everyone around you? Do you think they have special expectations of you that they ... its German equivalent "licht", closer to the pronunciations these words had centuries ago, that are still reflected in their spelling.

Or, perhaps worse, they might think you were English.

Alan Jones

: both /t/ and /d/ are widespread dialect variants in such words, but /'mAk@/ for is, so far as I know, strictly historical.
Brian

It embarrasses you to talk like everyone around you? Do you think they have special expectations of you that they don't have of everyone else?

Embarrassment needn't derive from the expectations of others; one's own expectations can be sufficient.

I think "embarrassment" implies at least a projection of one's own expectations onto others. It would be difficult to be embarrassed by something, IMO, if one genuinely understands that the perception of shortcoming is only one's own.

This is how these words are pronounced in American English. ... DID pronounce these words with clearly unvoiced a "t" sound,

Let's say that they would probably notice; 'wonder about you' seems a bit strong.

A little projection on my part. *I* would certainly wonder what an American who walked around saying "preTTy" and the like was up to.

just as they would if you pronounced "answer" with a ... had centuries ago, that are still reflected in their spelling.

No, these aren't comparable to the use of (t) in words like : both /t/ and /d/ are widespread dialect variants in such words, but /'mAk@/ for is, so far as I know, strictly historical.

The case of a historical pronunciation that has been replaced IS the case of dialectal variations, just at a later stage where the preponderance of the newer variation has reached 100%. The English Great Vowel Shift was once just a dialectal variation, after all. And certainly all English speakers didn't drop the /w/ in "answer" all at once.

priddy, wadder, etc. Can anyone point me to some advice, techniques, and so on, for training myself to STOP talking this way? (It's embarrasses me.)

It embarrasses you to talk like everyone around you? Do you think they have special expectations of you that they don't have of everyone else?

I don't live in the USA now.

No, these aren't comparable to the use of (t) in ... for is, so far as I know, strictly historical.

The case of a historical pronunciation that has been replaced IS the case of dialectal variations, just at a later stage where the preponderance of the newer variation has reached 100%.

But synchronically using an early Middle English
pronunciation of is a very different thing from replacing one's native /'prIdi/ with /'prIti/. One may sound a little odd; the other is largely unintelligible. It is simply not true that people will react to them in the same way, which is what you implied.
Brian

Then I think that you and I just have a different definition for the word "embarrassed".

*I* would certainly wonder what an American who walked around saying "preTTy" and the like was up to.

Probably just as well that you've not heard me.

Granted, if I were emphasizing the word I'd have (t). "Hey, that's PRETTY good!"

The case of a historical pronunciation that has been replaced ... the preponderance of the newer variation has reached 100%.

But synchronically using an early Middle English pronunciation of is a very different thing from replacing one's native /'prIdi/ ... It is simply not true that people will react to them in the same way, which is what you implied.

I see why you inferred that, but the point I was making was that having a sound that's current in one's speech community but that doesn't seem to match the spelling isn't a problem, and in the examples of other apparent spelling/pronunciation mismatches I gave, I ignored the difference between the case where another speech community still has the old pronunciation and the case where the old pronunciation is gone altogether because it didn't strike me as pertinent to the general principle that pronunciation changes, and it's OK.

It embarrasses you to talk like everyone around you? Do you think they have special expectations of you that they don't have of everyone else?

I don't live in the USA now.

Well, in that case, is it your goal to adopt the accent of your neighbors altogether? Or do they seem to look down on just that one element of your speech? Is it any comfort that they talk funny too?