Americans and Pronouncing T's as D's

Americans And Pronouncing T’s as D's

My older sister brought to my knowledge that people in America don’t pronounce their T’s in words like butter, panties, metal, bitter, button, better, and with names like Peter. instead, most Americans pronounce the T’s in words like these and replace them with D’s. Instead of butter, most tend to say budder. Instead of metal, medal. Bitter, bidder. Peter, Peder. What I want to know is why most Americans do it. Now that I pay attention to how people I speak to pronounce these things incorrectly, I wonder if they ever think about the correct way of pronouncing them. I also catch myself saying the D’s and quickly stress the T’s. Immediately the person i may have been speaking to laughs or exchanges a humorous expression, usually the side tipping of the head with the added furrowed brows. An explanation always follows close behind. 

In the well known adult comedy cartoon show, Family Guy, the main character Peter, is always up to no good, his name always being called. Peder never pronounced Peter like how it is spelled.  Not only does the cartoon characters say it wrong, the people who does the voices for the characters most likely does the same as well.

Last week my uncle came over and wanted to make some toast. After he toasts his bread, he likes to put butter while the bread is still hot, so the butter would melt into the bread perfectly and smoothly. He asked me as i walked into the kitchen, “Wheres the budder?” I again stopped to explain to yet another person what was faulty about saying D’s in words where T’s are formally placed. 

So in conclusion, not many people know that they, on a daily basis say words that have incorrect pronunciation. It’s something that i think people should be aware of or try to notice. I even caught the president, Barack Obama, saying D instead of T word, and didn’t seem like he noticed. Why is it that Americans don’t pronounce these things. Is it that it takes to long to pronounce all the way?