"di?nt" (with glottal stop)

[David Bowie]

From:    "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>

: A question from a friend in Boston:

: ---------- Forwarded message ----------

: I was on the Green Line, and there were a couple of African-American
: teenage girls talking loudly to one another (they were about twenty
: feet away, almost out of sight, but I could hear every word they said).
: And it occurred to me as I was listening that there's a linguistic
: artifact that I've only heard from urban African-Americans my age or
: younger, mostly girls.  It's a sort of glottal stop used in place of
: t or d; eg. di-unt instead of didn't.  Do you know where this might have
: come from?

: =====================

No idea where it comes from, but it's not limited to African-Americans--my
white self does it, too.

David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
    Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
    house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
    chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.