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button--&gt; bu-n'  student--&gt; stu-n't  Do you pronounce that way?  Pastel

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

It's considered careless enunciation in my neighborhood, Pastel, although the central /t/ or /d/ is characterized as a 'stop-t/d', that is, it is not allowed to explode like the aspirated /t/ or /d/ which ends sentences. (I'm not sure that voiced consonants can be considered aspirated, but here the /d/ seems to perform similarly to the /t/ ).

There is also a good range of individual variation. I would write normal pronunciation as: /'bu(t) n/ and /stoo(d) nt/ . (That is, using the keyboard figures available to me. I am still looking for a set of IPA characters that I can use here.)

CalifJim · Answer

In American English, when an ending "-an", "-en", "-in", "on", "-ain" (not "ing") occurs after intervocalic "t", "tt", or "rt", the sound pattern /.tN/ is formed. When one of these endings occurs after intervocalic "dd", "d", or "rd", the sound pattern /.dN/ is formed.

The /.t/ and /.d/ are unreleased forms of /t/ and /d/. The /N/ symbolizes "syllabic N", which is simply the sound of /n/ without any vowel before or after, extended to form its own syllable. It is the 'unreleasing' of the /t/ or /d/ which leaves the tongue in position for the /N/ without requiring any vowel sound to escape between the /.t/ and the /N/, or between the /.d/ and the /N/, which would occur if the /t/ or /d/ were released.

mitten, hidden, rotten, sudden, maiden, bitten, brighten, kitten, cotton, sodden, laden, written, Satan, widen, gotten, Biden, brighten, button, carton, harden, garden, Burton, Dayton, Clayton, lighten, Gordon, burden, Jordan, Horton, Latin, satin, curtain, certain

The same pattern can occur after intervocalic "nt": mountain, fountain.

Note that the pronunciation illustrated above occurs only in the transition from a stressed syllable to an unstressed syllable, not the reverse. The t's in the following, for example, are ordinary aspirated t's: attend, attentive, attune, pretentious, portend

Following the pattern of the preceding section, "-ant", "-ent", "-ance", "-ence", "-ancy", "-ency", and so on, become /N.t/, /Ns/, and /NsE/ in the same contexts.

/N/ and /N.t/ are similar in sound. The difference is that the /N.t/ seems to be shorter and seems to be cut off suddenly, but the /N/ seems last longer and does not seem cut off.

prudent, student, ardent, mutant, important, cadence, credence, potency, latency,

Note also: gelatinous, scrutinize, concatenate.

Certain contractions have the same phonetic pattern as the "-ent" words. All have /.dN.t/ endings.

didn't, wouldn't, couldn't, shouldn't, hadn't

PASTEL · Answer

How about this?

(1)He asks a lot.
(2)He aks a lot. (Matathesis is its coat.)

Have you ever say #2? What other common examples of matathesis can you think of? Thank you in advance.

Pastel

Mister Micawber · Answer

No, matathesis is a result of poor education or speech impediment, in my opinion. I try not to think of it at all, Pastel, although occasional slips of the tongue happen to all of us: 'I may have had tee many martoonies, but I'm not as drunkle thinkle peep I am.'

'Revelant' for 'relevant' springs to mind as a common case. I'm sure that other members can supply other examples.

CalifJim · Answer

I'm told that as a child I said "ephelant", "vigganer", and "pasketti".

This 'matathesis' is not the same as 'spoonerism', then?

PASTEL · Answer

So I come to the conclusion that "spoonerism" is considered slips of tongue, which is understandable. Matathesis, however, is error analysis.

In class, one of the students said,
"May I go to the restaurant?" I was like

but I thought she wanted to go to the restroom. She didn't realize her booboo. After a few minutes, she came back and I said,

"Did you enjoy you food?" She was like

"Teacher, I went to the restaurant!!!!!"

"I know. So how's the food?"

"Food?"

"So you didn't go there! You were in the restroom."

Is this Spoonerism?

Mister Micawber · Answer

spoonerism \SPOO-nuh-riz-uhm\, noun:
The transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of words.

Some examples:

* We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish ["half-formed wish"] inside us.
* The Lord is a shoving leopard ["loving shepherd"].
* It is kisstomary to cuss ["customary to kiss"] the bride.
* Is the bean dizzy ["dean busy"]?
* When the boys come back from France, we'll have the hags flung out ["flags hung out"]!
* Let me sew you to your sheet ["show you to your seat"].

malapropism \mal-uh-PROP-iz-uhm\, noun:
The usually unintentionally humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound; also, an example of such misuse.

At 15, Rachel, the whiny would-be beauty queen who "cares for naught but appearances," can think only of what she misses: the five-day deodorant pads she forgot to bring, flush toilets, machine-washed clothes and other things, as she says with her willful gift for malapropism, that she has taken "for granite."
--Michiko Kakutani, "'The Poisonwood Bible': A Family a Heart of Darkness," New York Times, October 16, 1998

He also had, as a former colleague puts it, "a photogenic memory"--a malapropism that captures his gift for the social side of life, his Clintonian ability to remember names of countless people he has met only briefly.
--Eric Pooley and S.C. Gwynne, "How George Got His Groove," Time, June 21, 1999

A malapropism is so called after Mrs. Malaprop, a character noted for her amusing misuse of words in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy The Rivals.

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