Dropping her T’s

@Yellowlife , she meant the birds in the garden. I was wondering why she was saying she liked looking at the boards in the garden.

@Differentforgirls , You're not reading it correctly.

i quite like an Irish accent but was confused when someone was telling me about the bords in her garden.

Possibly some rhotic vs non-rhotic confusion going on there @CrostaDiPizza?

My mum still tells me off if I don’t say my Ts properly. I am 44
Quite right of her! 😆 🤣

It's correct to judge people for how they say 't'?

No, it’s not. It’s correct.

I do not tolerate improper use of language so I’d be sternly correcting each time and issuing consequences if it didn’t improve. That sounds snobbish but I truly don’t care. I flinch at dropped letters and worse, anyone who says ‘haitch’ 😬 communication is so important.

My mum still tells me off if I don’t say my Ts properly. I am 44.

Do you genuinely not understand what's being said?

No one thinks it's snobby to pronounce a 't' in the middle of a word, that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Some posters think it is snobby to judge people who don't pronounce a 't' in the middle of a word, or to correct a child who doesn't pronounce a 't' in the middle of the word. The reason they think it's snobby is because it is.

I’m flummoxed that so many posters think it’s ‘snobby’ to pronounce a ‘t’ in the middle of a word! 😨

It doesn't suggest anything of the sort and I didn't say that. However, I would ask them to slow down a bit if it was so fast I couldn't grasp what they were saying. Perfectly normal interactions!

english with Yorkshire accent is fine but for me, slang is too far. Owt and nowt are Yorkshire slang - my personal issue is the shortening or words and phrases used rather than an accent itself. In the same way I would dress appropriately for the occasion, I think speech should be appropriate depending my on the setting. No use of slang words/terms in classrooms. I would happily say cuppa if casually speaking to a friend or at home with family but if out, I’d order a cup of tea. I don’t think it makes me a snob.

Yes. I l love them all. I live near Glasgow, one of my favourite colleagues was Geordie and one of my neighbours is Liverpudlian.

My daughter is a similar age and drops her t’s sometimes as we live in an area where many people do. I speak with a softer northern accent and don’t drop my t’s and I’m relatively ‘well spoken’. I do think that my daughters accent will also soften eventually and be a soft manc accent if this is where we stay. I personally try not to overthink it. It makes sense that she is emulating her peers and other adults at school.

I do think making a big deal out of your daughters accent could affect her self esteem and and actually exacerbate the issue as she may lean in to it in order to fit in as she gets older.

@AncientHarpy I hate the word literally. It is overused and usually weakens the sentence.

They have a neutral accent then. An accent that says they are educated and from England, but not whereabouts in England. Some accents are so strong can be matched to a postcode.

I'm neither deluded or under-informed and I'm pretty good at recognising accents.

@AnPiscin , you seem to have a chip on your shoulder about being Irish. i quite like an Irish accent but was confused when someone was telling me about the bords in her garden.

Where did I say you weren’t entitled to an opinion?!🤷‍♀️

Only in England have I ever come across anyone who is self-absorbed enough to think they don't have accent, as though theirs is the 'correct' or 'perfect' way of speaking and everyone else in the whole world is a deviation. It is extraordinarily small minded.

If you are from England you have an English accent. If you go to Ireland you will be the one who is not speaking 'properly' - you will sound very different to the voices around you and some people will not understand you. Because you have an accent, like every single other person in the entire world.

Literally everyone has an accent. You're deluded or under-informed if you think otherwise.

@ThisChicPinkRaven "On a broader note, you can make a reasonable argument that the purpose of language is to communicate thought."

So when a Londoner says "bas" are they talking about a method of transport or a type of beer?

In Norfolk "I loike moi boike" can be confusing.

The town of Saltfleetby in Lincolnshire is pronounced "Soloby" and Louth is pronounced "Loweth" - that fooled me for a while when I first moved there.

I'm sure there are many more...

@Differentforgirls , regional accents vary. Saying you understand all if them suggests that you haven't encountered any fast speakers with strong regional accents who are using dialect.

This topic reminds me of the lines sung by Henry Higgins in one of the musical numbers from 'My Fair Lady':

"An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him.
The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him"

When my DS was in nursery he came home and he wanted to 'go toilet', I corrected him to say 'go to the toilet', as 'go toilet' sounded awful to me. Yes, it was a class thing, but I didn't want him to say it, so I corrected him.

There may be readers who find the word 'toilet' awful, but I'm in NI and toilet is standard, but if a parent wants a child to say lavatory, that's their perogative.

We correct our kids when they're toddlers without destroying their self-confidence, how can they continue to learn if parents are afraid to correct mistakes?

If it's any consolation my 'natural' accent is like Peggy Mitchell doing a Danny Dyer impression, yet right now I'm roughly halfway through a successful career in commercial law and regularly advise many of the very largest financial institutions in the UK. Sure I probably put on a bit of polish when talking to clients, but having dropped Ts, Hs and committed all sorts of other linguistic faux pas as a child hasn't lead a life of penury.

Ah, thanks. I'd only heard the name, not seen it written. Edited.