Why Americans speak their language a little different?

When we say the word "important" or "written", most people who are not American, they pronounce "tant" or "tten" as /im-pawr-tnt/ and /rit-n/.
But American pronounce without /t/ before /nt/ and /-n/. Why do they do that?

<Why Americans speak their language a little different?>

Not only Americans, but many other English speakers all over the world also speak the language in different ways.

The same reason that any other language develops dialects: it just happens!

Partially it is the integration of various differnt languages. In the Southwest of America there is a mixture of Native Languages, Spanish, and English. It leads to an interesting dialect. In the Southern US you have African, Spanish, English, and Native. In the Midwest there is the mixture of the more norther European, English, some Lakota (Native) and French. Most of the time it depends on the ancestry of the locals. In the areas I grew up the "t" never came before the "n" sound. I also grew up in areas where it was common to hear Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish spoken by the older generations.

Americans pronounce intervocalic "t" as an alveolar flap...

I've noticed that American English speakers pronounce "Pentagon" like "Penagon", and "tomato" like "tomaro". Why do they pronounce "t" letter so weird? I prefer British English because it is easier to understand, specially Queen's English.

Guest,

If you think the British are overall easier to understand than (North) Americans, then you have obviously never been to the UK.....

I understand Tony Blair better than George Bush. This does not necessarily means that all the British speaks as well as Tony Blair and as bad as George Bush, but they speak standard British English and standard American English. Yes, I know that here on Antimoon British English has bad reputation when compared with American English, but I would say that is it quite the contrary, British English is clearer to me. Yes I've been to UK, and I must recognize that I had a hard time trying to understand the Scotish accent and Yorkshire accent to a lesser degree. But they do not represent Standard UK English.

Sorry.I wrote the message above too fast and I forgot some words in this phrase: This does not necessarily means that all the British speak as well as Tony Blair and all the Americans speak as bad as George Bush, but they speak standard British English and standard American English.

<<I've noticed that American English speakers pronounce "Pentagon" like "Penagon", and "tomato" like "tomaro". Why do they pronounce "t" letter so weird? I prefer British English because it is easier to understand, specially Queen's English. >>

Brits, on the other hand, pronounce that "R" letter pretty weird .... every accent has its little foibles.;)

The whole issue of accents and dialects and which is the easiest to understand and which the most difficult is one mega complex affair and that's for sure. To my mind that is exactly how it should be.....just think how boring, boring, boring it would be if we all spoke in accents and dialects (of English, of course) which came across to others with crystal clarity. There'd be no fun at all would there? - I mean, no chance of deliberately taking advantage of your own local accent/dialect by making yourself virtually unintelligible to people not familiar with it. We in Scotland, just as one example, love to confuse our dear friends (term used loosely) down here in England. Utilising our foibles in our verbals can have many funny consequences. And that's just within the British Isles with all our foible ridden accents and dialects.... Most non-Glaswegians, for instance, are more or less left completely flummoxed when confronted with many people from that city and especially so when the Glaswegians have had more than just a few bevvies.

The Anglophone American travel and linguistic writer (and now permanent UK resident) Bill Bryson will testify to that. Personally I never have difficulty with Glaswegian no matter from which gob it flows out of, and under whatever condition, but that's borne out of familiarity and the fact that I can give back to them in my own basic Edinburgh speak, both of which are more or less mutually understood anyway, although my own local *basic* Edinburgh accent/Scots dialect tends to be a wee bit less "crude", to put it mildly, than *basic* Glasgow...well, sort of. It all depends on circumstances.

Kate obviously had problems in the UK with the British accents - hardly a surprise is it? Certain British accents confuse some of the British themselves in other localities. Well, maybe confuse may not be quite the correct word to use - perhaps irritate may be more appropriate. There is a long standing saying that says a British person only has to open his (or her) mouth to make another British person despise him (or her, presumably). It goes without saying that a Cornishman with a broad accent would not always have a hazard free convo with a Geordie with a broad accent, or a Dundonian (from Dundee) with a guy from the Isle of Mull.

Before the majority of commercial/financial etc call centres were shipped out to India or wherever, many of them were based in Glasgow, incredible as that may seem. I don't know what degree of selection was used in the recrtuitment of these Glaswegians to man these centres, especially with regard to the local accent, and how strong it was or otherwise, but it caused a lot of annoyance and confusion among callers who, naturally, rang in from all parts of the UK. Many people in the South of England, for example, whinged endlessly about not being able to understand what the hell the call centre people were trying to say to them. "They may as well be speaking Swedish or Swahili for all we know!" was a common complaint to the various companies concerned.

Then when all these call centres were shipped out from Glasgow (and other areas as well, to be fair here, but I'm concentrating on Glasgow) to India the same problem persisted. "They may as well be speaking Glaswegian!" could well be the tone of complaints made after the transfers. Now it seems that a fair number of the call centres are being shipped back to the UK again because of all the complaints about incomprehension and confusion - not to Glasgow, presumably. But in a country like the UK no matter where they go people will always moan and whine and whinge about practically anything (it's a national pastime no matter what!) and, no matter where a call centre is located in the UK , unless the staff speak more or less standard British English as far as possible (of whatever kind) and making sure people with strong local accents are not employed, then it should be the basis of some kind of compromise, and there'll be more happy bunnies around.

The *standard* accent of the UK as a whole, the one most non Brits are familiar with I reckon, will always be the basic *educated* Southern English English RP - a pretty safe bet with that one - can't go too far wrong there, hopefully. Shame, but it has to be I suppose. We can't have too many unhappy, uncomprehending foreigners around can we?

Tony Blair - aye, we remember that guy - but he's history now. :-) Now we have my own compatriot in control. His Scottish accent is pretty well subdued (to my ears anyway) but being down in London as I am (until next week!) I find that a fair number of people down here don't care for his accent, or for the guy himself. But they wouldn't, would they? :-) I can't say I'm over impressed myself, with the man himself - nothing to do with his accent!