My second grader daughter and I have come up with a new game for when we are driving in the car. It’s called Spod The Word. I try as hard as possible to ignore it, but cannot. The way that words are mangled on the main news and current affairs radio station to which we listen is getting to me, and, by extension, getting to my daughter.
Here is the problem. It seems that all of the NPR commentators and their guests are incapable of uttering the letter t. As they would say it, “the ledder t” (or it sometimes sounds like ‘the leather t’). In trying to help my child get command of our native language, we find ourselves repeating the words and phrases that we hear each day. Sometimes, the t is transformed into a d; at other times, it is omitted.
Here is a sample that we collected during our twenty-minute drive to school this morning.
- “We are going to have an inner view (interview)”–I wished that I had a TV rather than having to listen on the radio to experience this better.
- “We had a swede (sweet)…”
- “We need to analyze the dayda (data)”–Maybe checking the numbers day-to-day.
- “Let’s find what’s in store for the wedder (wetter, weather)”–Nothing to do with one of the married couple, presumably.
- “Can we bed her (better)”
- “We see this bidder (bitter) rivalry between the candidates”–I’ve heard about the candidates bidding to be elected, so now I understand better.
- “Who do you see beading (beating) or defeeding (defeating) President Obama”–String us along as we are hungry for more analysis.
- “We will try to laid her (later) today”
- “We will be riding (writing) on it later”–Sidesaddle?
- “Nod at all (not at all)”–Come one, come all for your greeting.
- “AD ate(eighty-eight)“ –What happened to BC, I wonder?
- “Odder man (Ottoman)“–What else for a man who lives in Turkey?
- “My colleague’s mad (Matt)” —Is he?
- “Mini soda (Minnesota) is very nice at this time of year”–No supersizes in Minneapolis?
You get the drift. It’s kept us really amused over the past few days, and it seems that can go on endlessly. Try it yourself, but don’t let frustration or annoyance get to you.
Grasshopper Eyes The Potomac 
You made me smile. This is so funny. As I read your post, I kept repeating the mispronounced words with a d. It did not sound right. Maybe it’s the accent people have in the area where you live.
When I am in the car, my game it to try to make words or sentences with the letters on the license plates from the cars around me. That can be funny too.
I think the accents do matter, and an understanding of how the language works may make it permissible to make these changes. Perhaps, native speakers do similar things in other languages.
I will try your game on our next car ride. Thanks.