Lost in Translation--US vs UK English words

[OC Richard]

I know this isn’t strictly word differences as such, but one thing I’ve noticed in American films and TV programmes (programs ?), particularly teenage actors on the Disney Channel, is the word “second”, as in “Wait a second”, seems to get pronounced “seckint” rather than “seckund”.

Is this a general thing in America, or regional or a young persons’ fad ?

Well, strictly speaking "second" wouldn't end with a d-sound or a t-sound, because English has a feature called "unreleased final stops".

Say "pop". The p at the beginning and the p at the end are completely different. The initial p is plosive, capable of making a popping noise in a microphone or blowing out a candle at close range, but the final p is not "released", but swallowed in a way.

When I say "second" I notice I that my tongue is in the position for d/t at the end. D and t have the tongue in the same position, the only difference between "dog" and "tog" is that the vocal chords are switched on at the beginning of "dog" but switched off at the beginning of "tog".

In any case, my tongue is at the d/t position but that stop in unreleased, in other words I don't actually pop out a d or a t.

To hear the difference between a released intitial t and an unreleased final t say "tot". Now, if you're self-consciously saying it you might artificially pronounce the final t like the initial t, but in actual conversation that would sound odd, and the final t isn't actually spoken.

(t/d, k/g, and p/b are pairs of stops, the first in each pair being voiceless, the second being voiced, in word-initial position. They are unreleased in word-final position. Funny things happed in word-medial position to these stops: the medial t in "bottle" turning into a d or a tongue flap in most American dialects, but turnining into a glottal stop in many British dialects etc.)