Subtitutes for English /T/ and /D/

I just heard an old sketch on the radio, by the late Wim Kan
(http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Kan ) where he talks about a
(hypothetical, I suppose) violinst named Kenneth Johnson. Then he says
(in a folksy accent) "dat mot een kennis van Johnson wezen" (= "that
must be an acquaintance of Mr. Johnson"). Dutch kennis (/k'En@s/ =
acquaintance. In other words, he speculates that his Dutch audience
hears Kenneth as kennis and would themselves pronounce Kenneth the
same as kennis.

Now this was a rather old recording (1960s? 1970s?), the joke would
not be very funny any more now, because younger people learn English
in school, including pronunciation, whereas older people learnt to
read and write, but little else. Many people now often use a correct
[T] (but not a correct /D/!). But if they do substitute it bu anything
alse, it is by [s], not [t].

--
Ruud Harmsen
http://rudhar.com

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Subtitutes for English /T/ and /D/
    ... violinst named Kenneth Johnson. ... hears Kenneth as kennis and would themselves pronounce Kenneth the ... East Essex where that is common. ... French features and Estuary ones. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Subtitutes for English /T/ and /D/
    ... violinst named Kenneth Johnson. ... he speculates that his Dutch audience ... hears Kenneth as kennis and would themselves pronounce Kenneth the ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Subtitutes for English /T/ and /D/
    ... violinst named Kenneth Johnson. ... acquaintance. ... hears Kenneth as kennis and would themselves pronounce Kenneth the ...
    (sci.lang)