Sep 23
Neither T is Silent
Please pronounce, out loud, the word important. If you’re pronouncing it correctly, it sounds something like, “im-POR-tunt.” You should be hearing both instances of the letter t. If, on the other hand, you pronounce it like a cardiologist who just appeared on CBS’s The Early Show, and it comes out like, “im-por-ANT,” please smack yourself upside the head until it sinks in that neither t is supposed to be silent. I can only hope her mastery of cardiac issues is better than her grasp on pronounciation.
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September 23rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Uh…hm. I say it “im-POR-(^)nt” where the (^) is sort of a light glottal stop at the top of my mouth. I think it’s pretty usual where I grew up (Colorado), and I prefer it to the ‘textbook’ pronunciation — which sounds teachery — and to “im-POR-dunt” (or “im-POR-d’nt”) — which I hear a LOT around here in the Midwest.
It’s funny; I was talking to an English relly last month about pronunciation. “Water” is the one that kills English-speaking people. How do you say it? He says it’s supposed to be “woah-tuh” though in reality he says “wo^-uh” eliding the “t” completely into a HARD glottal stop (or a grunt). Pretty much everyone around here says “Wad^-er” (light stop and absolutely NO hard ‘t’ sound). I don’t think I’ve ever met an American who pronounces the ‘t’ … unless they are thinking about it.
You might want to play around here, here or here.
[Can you tell I'm a reference librarian...?]
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Ditto, I pronounce it the same as Cat, and I am also a Coloradan.