Reconcilable Differences252: Briefly, It Was the Future https://relay.fm/rd/252
zack@RecDiffs I am a (young? Middle?) millenial and overall apologist for what I might called 'linguistic innovation'. When I finally heard the example of the baby-talk 'important' that you, I thought to myself "this ABSOLUTELY sounds like a baby". Just to let you know know that it's odd to me too.
@RecDiffs The linguistic training I have makes me want to say that it's I don't think it's the glottalized t sound alone, which is very common, but that this happens alongside the schwa which sounds really very low and back to me, like maybe a weird combination of these fairly recent phenomena:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_English#California_vowel_shift
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_close_front_vowels#Pin–pen_merger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_close_front_vowels#Weak_vowel_merger
I can't explain why it makes them sound like a baby though, but it really does.