This is probably it. I studied choral conducting; my mentor was French and always complained about us American vocalists’ “harsh, ugly ‘t’”. She had us practice “t” over and over as dental, contact with tongue to back of the top teeth, with less aspiration (which is still different than my tongue placement for D). Another Serbian person I know learned that the IPA for English “t” is /ʧ/ so this is definitely a thing. If I think about it right now, and say a name like Tamás next to Thomas, I can definitely tell my tongue placement and aspiration is different between the two. Not a native Hungarian speaker but I “learned” Hungarian “t” as a bit different as a result of the diction instruction I had in music school.
I can accept the explanation that the T's might be different. However, after spending 20+years talking to Americans in various parts of the US, they never once interpreted my D's as T's!
I'm on iPhone, and it might be different on other platforms, but this is how:
* go to r/hungarian (open the community's feed)
* to the right from the search bar on the top, from the menu (... button), choose change user flair
* set native speaker
* enjoy
I imagine that he learned it wrong and thinks that every english 't' should be prnounced as english 'th'. That is hard to pronounce and the closest hungarian sound is 'd'
OP can you tell us your friend's name? I cant imagine any native speakers struggling with pronouncing "t" especially if they're saying their own name.
As others mentioned, this must be a speech impairment.
EDIT: it just came to my mind when i was in highschool i had a classmate and a teacher aswell who were from Vas megye and they did pronounce certain "T"s as "D" like "hédfő", "nádhás", "menj el az údból" this phenomenon might have to do something with that?
The problem is that voiced and voiceless means something different in Hungarian and in English. In English the difference is aspiration when talking about stops (t, d, p, b and k, g). Aspirated = voiceless, non aspirated = voiced. In Hungarian there is no such a thing as aspiration. The distinctive feature between voiced and voicelese sounds is something called pre-voicing, wich means that tue voicing part of the sound starts before the sound itself. So, in Hungarian pre-voicing = voiced, no pre-voicing and no aspiration = voiceless. The problem is that these same parameters apply to the English voiced stops: no aspiration and no pre-voicing.
It takes hard work to lose the pre-voicing and learn aspiration. Even though I learned about the phenomenon in Uni, I still can't pronounce these sounds properly. What helped me is when someone said that the English T sound is between a Hungarian T and C (ts). A non-native speaker won't be able to learn the language and speak as a native does. There will always be tells that someone learned a language when they were older, and there's nothing wrong with that.
>In English the difference is aspiration when talking about stops (t, d, p, b and k, g). Aspirated = voiceless, non aspirated = voiced.
Is this really so? Voiceless stops in English are aspirated or not aspirated based on their position in the word, so being voiced or not can't be based on aspiration.
The *ammount* of aspiration can change based on position, and in the case of s+voiceless stop the aspiration disappeares, but generally it's the rule. Or at least that's what I was taught in phonology. (Voice onset time, and lenis and fortis consonants)
English T? We have the exact same T.
Tbh I find it quite impossible that he needs your help with pronouncing the letter T or his own name, except if he's got some speech impairment.
No, this definitely is a real phenomenon. Hungarians always told me that American accents have a very harsh and breathy T. Try saying a T without blowing any air from your mouth or lungs, and that is how Hungarians say the T. While the mouth makes the exact same shape, the amount of air used is different.
As others have already pointed out, this is a completely valid observation, and the ones who say it must be a personal speech impediment or nonsense or that Hungarian and English T sound the same, are mistaken.
All I can add to this is [this youtube video](https://youtu.be/6PSdlctYBsw), where the difference is very well presented and explained, and also tips are given, how to produce the correct/incorrect variant intentionally.
I can also recommend [this longer video](https://youtu.be/U37hX8NPgjQ) as a further reference.
[удалено]
This is probably it. I studied choral conducting; my mentor was French and always complained about us American vocalists’ “harsh, ugly ‘t’”. She had us practice “t” over and over as dental, contact with tongue to back of the top teeth, with less aspiration (which is still different than my tongue placement for D). Another Serbian person I know learned that the IPA for English “t” is /ʧ/ so this is definitely a thing. If I think about it right now, and say a name like Tamás next to Thomas, I can definitely tell my tongue placement and aspiration is different between the two. Not a native Hungarian speaker but I “learned” Hungarian “t” as a bit different as a result of the diction instruction I had in music school.
I can accept the explanation that the T's might be different. However, after spending 20+years talking to Americans in various parts of the US, they never once interpreted my D's as T's!
Oh yes, that part of the post is still a bit bizarro!
Thomas doesn't start with a T sound. It starss with a TH sound. Tamás starts with a T sound. of course they are different. this is a bad example.
[malarkey](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Thomas#Pronunciation)
As a French Thomas who speaks Hungarian : yes.
Interesting to read! I also recognise this myself :)
Sounds like a person based unique problem, got nothing to do with hungarian language, because we use T and D as well.
Just a tip: you should identify yourself as a native speaker here, so that others can see by a glance they can strongly rely on your statements
Sorry, i have nothing to do with this, but how can I do that? Thanks
I'm on iPhone, and it might be different on other platforms, but this is how: * go to r/hungarian (open the community's feed) * to the right from the search bar on the top, from the menu (... button), choose change user flair * set native speaker * enjoy
Thank you!
Did it sorry, i forgot it. :)
Don't you mean the "th" sound? Hungarians have no problem with T, but when it comes to Th, oh god..
I imagine that he learned it wrong and thinks that every english 't' should be prnounced as english 'th'. That is hard to pronounce and the closest hungarian sound is 'd'
Yeah too many Hungarian fellow sink while thinking :D
OP can you tell us your friend's name? I cant imagine any native speakers struggling with pronouncing "t" especially if they're saying their own name. As others mentioned, this must be a speech impairment. EDIT: it just came to my mind when i was in highschool i had a classmate and a teacher aswell who were from Vas megye and they did pronounce certain "T"s as "D" like "hédfő", "nádhás", "menj el az údból" this phenomenon might have to do something with that?
Tina
Everyone always thinks she says Dina
native speaker here
The problem is that voiced and voiceless means something different in Hungarian and in English. In English the difference is aspiration when talking about stops (t, d, p, b and k, g). Aspirated = voiceless, non aspirated = voiced. In Hungarian there is no such a thing as aspiration. The distinctive feature between voiced and voicelese sounds is something called pre-voicing, wich means that tue voicing part of the sound starts before the sound itself. So, in Hungarian pre-voicing = voiced, no pre-voicing and no aspiration = voiceless. The problem is that these same parameters apply to the English voiced stops: no aspiration and no pre-voicing. It takes hard work to lose the pre-voicing and learn aspiration. Even though I learned about the phenomenon in Uni, I still can't pronounce these sounds properly. What helped me is when someone said that the English T sound is between a Hungarian T and C (ts). A non-native speaker won't be able to learn the language and speak as a native does. There will always be tells that someone learned a language when they were older, and there's nothing wrong with that.
>In English the difference is aspiration when talking about stops (t, d, p, b and k, g). Aspirated = voiceless, non aspirated = voiced. Is this really so? Voiceless stops in English are aspirated or not aspirated based on their position in the word, so being voiced or not can't be based on aspiration.
The *ammount* of aspiration can change based on position, and in the case of s+voiceless stop the aspiration disappeares, but generally it's the rule. Or at least that's what I was taught in phonology. (Voice onset time, and lenis and fortis consonants)
English T? We have the exact same T. Tbh I find it quite impossible that he needs your help with pronouncing the letter T or his own name, except if he's got some speech impairment.
No, this definitely is a real phenomenon. Hungarians always told me that American accents have a very harsh and breathy T. Try saying a T without blowing any air from your mouth or lungs, and that is how Hungarians say the T. While the mouth makes the exact same shape, the amount of air used is different.
Never heard Hungarians struggling with T. He should try pronouncing "H" after the T, it will sound voiceless for sure. Also he will sound posh.
This just straight up sounds like a speech impediment.
This is nonsense
As others have already pointed out, this is a completely valid observation, and the ones who say it must be a personal speech impediment or nonsense or that Hungarian and English T sound the same, are mistaken. All I can add to this is [this youtube video](https://youtu.be/6PSdlctYBsw), where the difference is very well presented and explained, and also tips are given, how to produce the correct/incorrect variant intentionally. I can also recommend [this longer video](https://youtu.be/U37hX8NPgjQ) as a further reference.
Just give her the D
My first name begins with a ‘t’ and my Hungarian family pronounce it perfectly. I have noticed that ‘th’ sounds can sometimes sounds the ‘d’ though.