Speech - how to approach nursery about dropped 't's!

[pasteldama]

I am not sure if anyone else is having this problem, and I don't want to seem like a snob or being discriminatory, but I think I might need to raise this with the nursery and I just wondered if anyone had any advice. My son is just over 2 and his speech is developing well. There have been a few staff changes at his nursery over the last couple of weeks, and since then he has started to say "matter", "better", "little", and things like "eat it" all with dropped 't's. We live in south east London so I am under no illusions that he will not pick up the sarf London accent at some stage, but I would prefer that it isn't during the early stages of learning words! None of my family or friends fall into this speech habit so it has to be that he is picking it up at nursery. We are gently correcting him without making an issue of it. I am not saying that I speak the queen's english but surely it isn't unreasonable of me to hope that he is taught the correct letter sounds this early in his development? Up until a couple of weeks ago he was saying these words fine. I am not sure if I should just let it go and make sure that what he hears outside of nursery is emphasised, or whether to speak to his key worker, in which case I am not sure how to broach it without sounding like I am being judgemental. I am really happy with the nursery otherwise - the staff I know are great. Any advice greatly appreciated.

A little linguistic point here - people who "drop" their "t's" are actually substituting them with a glottal stop. They have the same number of sounds in words like "little" or "butter", just different ones.

Scots on the other hand generally have an extra sound in "butter", i.e. the word-final "r" - so are Scots to be applauded for the extra effort?

My husband is constantly "correcting" my glottal stop and I (a) am utterly bored by it; (b) have not intention of doing anything about it at all. Not sure if he's aware... I agree that there's not much you can expect staff to do about their accents!

The 't' in LITTLE is pronounced very differently from the 't' in BETTER as well - just because its a double T with LE afterwards doesn't mean that it actually sounds the same. Of course, some people do make it sound the same - one of the people in my office that says 'fink' and 'free' (three) pronounces it with the same 't' sount as better....

I don't think you are being "a snob or being discriminatory".

Being able to communicate well is a vital tool in later life, I think you are right to defend it. I have interviewed bright people, who just sound well how can I put this, less bright than they are. It takes extra effort to make sure I fully understand them, not everyone makes that effort and thus can lead to discrimination.

In what way is the double t in little different to the double t in better?

And that's down to you SoloD isn't it?

YOU are being discriminatory - not some etheral mass known as "society"

Bonsoir - in better, the 't' is produced with the tip of the tongue starting behind your teeth, then leaving, giving a hard edge to the 't' sound, like the beginning of teeth, touch, tree. The 't' in little is done (by a lot of people, but not by all) without the tip of the tongue leaving the top of the mouth - the sound comes out more at the sides, and sounds more like the 'kle' of twinkle, but without the hard 'c' at the beginning of that... Then for choir we have to do 'soft' 't's for French pronunciations which is a different method again.

Hmm - my t in better and little is the same! Hard in both case.

Well, it's been really interesting and amusing and insightful to hear so many stories and opinions, and very helpful too. Unfortunately I also managed to offend along the way, but then perhaps there are people who just go on to threads on which they have no intention of offering any useful comments, just to get themselves in a tizzy...

i grew up in SE London and apparently aged about 3 asked my mum what a "mower" was - she assumed I meant "lawnmower" until I repeated the sentence I'd overheard and not understood at nursery school from another parent "I don't want it n'mower" (any more!!!!)

DD (2.5) speaks broad Derbyshire which horrifies my mum - "stand oop granny" being a classic example. I think it's inevitable and suspoect when she starts school it'll all settle a bit - she spends 3 days a week with 2 amazing nursery keyworkers who are very very derbyshire born and bred TBH she is so well loved and looked after I don't care what she sounds like

There is no point in mentioning it-it is the way they speak. I just correct at home by repeating- as in 'Na'erlie? Oh! You mean Natalie! (they were much older though and knew the correct pronunciation.
I would just leave it while he is little and speak properly yourself.

He's little. It's not going to stick with him all his life. Kids have a remarkable ability to completely change accent in a matter of weeks.