Glottalalia

I had to chuckle at Bryan A. Garner’s column “Stop Those Glottals!” (September 1). A couple of family members and I find this development a bit humorous, although disappointing. Suddenly it’s being heard all over the place.

What I find, however, is not that certain /t/s have become silent but that they have ceased to link two syllables as previously. For instance, when I say that I live in the mountains of southern California, my pronunciation of my environment is “MOUNT-tins.” I use the double /t/ here to emphasize that it connects the two syllables. What I’m hearing from the Millennials and others is “MOUNT-ins.” There’s thus a clear break between the two syllables, but the /t/ is definitely there and joined to the first, followed by that glottal pause, concluding in what almost becomes a second word separated unto itself. My thought is, why does the subsequent syllable need to be segregated from its predecessor, as if the /t/ makes its associated letters a syllable non grata to its successor?

This is “syllablist” discrimination at its worst! These nouveau glottal-stop speakers need to be trained in “elocution equity.” Maybe someone should introduce into schools a new CDT manual (critical diction theory). Let the Brits talk their own way — American English is devolving on too many fronts. An end needs to be put to this.

Rick De Prisco

Twin Peaks, Calif.

Bryan A. Garner responds: An excellent observation. But I feel sure, Mr. De Prisco, that you don’t actually say /MOUNT-tinz/. You say /MOUN-tinz/, with the /t/ connected to the second syllable. Millennials have started saying, essentially, /MOUN-inz/, without an audible /t/ before the second syllable. Once the /t/ is sounded, with the tongue at the roof of the mouth, the second syllable becomes unobjectionable to traditional speakers–regardless of whether the /t/ is regarded as part of the first or the second syllable. I’m certain (but not /SUR-in/) of it.

Correction

The Week (September 13) stated that Dante Alighieri died in 1221. In fact, he died in 1321.