Where did it go? I keep hearing people on the air saying “impor’ant” and “Brih’an” and I can’t help but wonder what happened to the T. Was it not considered important enough to say Britain?
I thought I might be the only person bothered by this, so I asked an expert. Ann Utterback is a longtime voice coach and author of The Broadcast Voice Handbook, now in its fifth edition. She’s noticed the same thing, which she calls dropped medial consonants.
Surely it can’t be hard to fix, right? The same people I hear saying “impor’ant” have no trouble at all saying the T in “terrorism.” Ann suggests recording yourself and listening for words like county, country, important, center, winter, picture, painting. Are you dropping the T? If so, follow Ann’s advice to get it back.
Why bother? Not just because your T deficit may bother some listeners but also because it can cause confusion. As Ann says, if you’re not careful, “‘winter’ becomes ‘winner’ and ‘center’ becomes ‘sinner.’ I don’t think any football center wants to be called a sinner!”
