As others have pointed out, these words are homophonous in most North American English dialects, but for more context, this is due to a phenomenon called flapping.
Basically, even though /d/ and /t/ are phonemic (that is, contrastive; speakers can use them to distinguish words and hear them as different sounds) in English, in certain positions in the middle of a word (specifically when placed between a stressed vowel and an unstressed vowel), both the /d/ and the /t/ become a different sound, flap/tap. See, e.g. butter, bottle, writing, riding, wedding, loader, etc.
And, since they both become flap in this position, the contrast between them is neutralized, meaning that they are pronounced identically and speakers can no longer tell them apart, creating many sets of homophones in the process like “latter” and “ladder”.
There are further interesting complexities in flapping across English dialects, in particular the interaction of flapping with Canadian Raising, so if anyone has any questions or wants me to go into more detail, let me know!
As others have pointed out, these words are homophonous in most North American English dialects, but for more context, this is due to a phenomenon called flapping.
Basically, even though /d/ and /t/ are phonemic (that is, contrastive; speakers can use them to distinguish words and hear them as different sounds) in English, in certain positions in the middle of a word (specifically when placed between a stressed vowel and an unstressed vowel), both the /d/ and the /t/ become a different sound, flap/tap. See, e.g. butter, bottle, writing, riding, wedding, loader, etc.
And, since they both become flap in this position, the contrast between them is neutralized, meaning that they are pronounced identically and speakers can no longer tell them apart, creating many sets of homophones in the process like “latter” and “ladder”.
There are further interesting complexities in flapping across English dialects, in particular the interaction of flapping with Canadian Raising, so if anyone has any questions or wants me to go into more detail, let me know!
And in some accents you may get a full glottal stop where the /d/ and /t/ go. Those letters can get real crazy pronunciations depending on accent.
That seems crazy to me
Latter vs ladder and butter/bottle/wetting vs wedding have a big difference to my ear
Does that mean you can guess where my accent comes from?
I mean, as a speaker of a dialect where the comic’s joke worked, but also as a nerd who loves letting people nerd out, I’d love to hear more.