Data

Hi I'm American and I say data as DAYDA my British cousins tell me thats the American accent is that true?

It is true that "dayda" /'deid^/ is an American pronunciation.

The British pronounce the "t". Hence, "dayta" /'deit^/.

Some Britons may say "dahta" /'da:t^/ and some Americans may say "dada" /'d@d^/.

The "d" sound is not the same in the first syllable as it is in the second syllable. Otherwise, it would sound like somebody calling for their father in baby-talk. This is another case of the American T between vowels, which is a combination between the voiced 'd' sound and the unvoiced 't' sound.

Interestingly enough, you can hear the difference between these two pronunciations most clearly by watching old "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episodes. Picard always uses the British pronunciation where the "t" is clearly enunciated when he talks to Data the android, while Riker has a strong American accent and pronounces it with the combination d/t sound. They both use the long "a" pronunciation, of course. I think most Americans do nowadays, but I'm not sure about Britons.

Ryan

data, status, apparatus

The first vowel can be [ei] like in date, state, rate;
it can be [@] like in dat, stat, rat;
or it can be [a:] like in dart, start pronounced without the 'r'.

I obtained this information long ago from dictionaries and I have had many occasions to confirm it by listening to native speakers in movies.

I hear both "daytuh" and "dattuh" in American movies.

I would expect "dahtuh" only from someone who is intent on sounding clearly British.

The pronunciation of "t" in these words is a different matter and has nothing to do with these particular words.

Thanks to you guys.Yeah, sometimes I say dada too but most of the time its dayda

I did not think the British changed the "a" sound to "ah" before the consonant "t." Brits pronounce the word "cat" the same way Americans do, don't they?

Ryan

Ryan, there are exceptions to pronunciation rules in every language, English most of all.

Here in Australia most young people pronounce data as "dahtuh", while I've heard many older people pronounce it "dayta".

With an "a" like in "father?"

The data is broken into da-ta where the "da" is pronounced the way the Irish say da for dad. So, yes, with an "a" like in father.

When saying the alphabet, do Irish people pronounce the first one "AY" or "AH". I know it sounds obvious but an Irishman was once spelling something out to me on the phone and he used "AH" but he was on the continent. I've often wondered...