words like 'badge' and 'budget'

abc   Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:38 pm GMT
Do Americans pronounce the 'd' when it comes before a 'g'?
Dictionary.com says no. But today I heard Obama say these two words and I'm pretty sure he pronounced the d's.
Slow   Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:43 pm GMT
They are pronounced more or less as Baj and bujit. More reasons why English needs a spelling overhaul to reflect actual pronunciations.
Slow   Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:47 pm GMT
You can treat the dge as a j in all cases though. I'm sure someone will come on say they pronounce it differently in their accent.
AJC   Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:56 pm GMT
There'd be a "d" pronounced even if the words were spelled without one. I'd be surprised if anyone pronounced *two* "d"s though.
Leasnam   Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:53 pm GMT
The 'd' in 'badge' and 'budget' only serve to make the aforecoming vowel sounds short, similar to older spelling rules governing 't' before 'ch' ("hatch" vs "teach")

Otherwise, without the 'd', 'badge' /b{dZ/ would be 'bage' /beidZ/ and rhyme with 'age'.

Worse, 'budget' would be 'buget' /bjudZIt/ and rhyme with 'Puget'
Jason L.   Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:38 pm GMT
The j sound in English is really a d plus a zh (the "si" in "vision"). In non-artificial rapid speech, "bad genre" and "badge ahnra" will sound more or less the same. So it's impossible to say a j sound as in "badge" and "budget" without pronouncing a d. This is true for U.K. speakers as well--I'm not aware of any major English dialect that pronounces "badge" as "bazh".