Didn't as [dIdInt]

[Laurence Horn]

We did have some discussion of the "Oh no you didint" (or "Oh no you di'int"--cf. ) trope; this isn't the the same, since that one has a glottal stop, but it's parallel because of the [I] vowel in the (not completely) unstressed syllable.  Then there's the Connecticut shibboleth, which we've also discussed, for the corresponding voiceless cases like "kitten" and "(New) Britain".  In all these cases, there is what I'm thinking (with my untrained phonetician skills) is a glottal stop followed by [In] where I have (I think) a simultaneous alveolar + glottal closure followed by a syllabic n. (For the "di-int" meme and the Connecticut "Britain" there's no alveolar closure, just the glottal one.)  That's how I'd normally do "Milton" (alveolar + glottal followed by syllabic), but if I were repeating it for clarity I'd go with the [-t at n] pronunciation.  I think it's also a frequency thing; there's a town in CT that I almost never refer to but when I do it's [wIlt at n]. 

LH  

On Jun 24, 2014, at 7:59 AM, Charles C Doyle wrote:

> 
> 
> I hear this a lot, especially among the young.
> 
> Maybe a trend? In recent years, I've also noticed that young people often pronounce the (now) common forename Jordan with the final syllable [-dIn] or [-d at n] (probably actually a barred-I).  Could the awareness of spelling be a factor?
> 
> Perhaps not dissimilar is the varied pronunciation of the name Milton.  I (who am not young) regularly pronounce the final syllable as [-t at n], whereas many others just do that syllabic  [-n] thing.
> 
> --Charlie
> ________________________________________
> 
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> I've heard this only in very emphatic speech.  And not often.
> 
> JL
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 10:55 PM, Neal Whitman 
> wrote:
> 
> 
>> My father sent me this message. I hadn't noticed this; has any of you?
>> He lives in Houston, Texas, and the person he reports on grew up in
>> Corpus Christi.
>> 
>> Neal
>> 
>> 
>>    Hi Neal.
>> 
>>    I?'d like to hear your commentary on something I have noticed a lot
>>    lately.It annoys me to no end.Many people these days, at least
>>    around here and especially on TV (and [a guy he knows] does it) is
>>    to pronounce contractions like didn?t as didint, instead of the
>>    obvious ?did? followed by an ?nt? sound. Similarly they pronounce
>>    couldn?t as couldint and wouldn?t as woodint, etc.Is this a regional
>>    thing?Or a dialect of some sort?Or is it bad grammar or diction or
>>    some affectation or just plain ignorance?How long have people been
>>    saying this, and what is its origin if you know?
>> 
>>    Love,
>> 
>>    Dad
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