Ummm… I do. It’s not a hard b sound, but it is there. It sort of moves the location of the “t” sound down towards a “b.” It defiantly does not sound like “det”.
And I distinctly pronounce the “b” in “plumber” (another example in the article.
And I distinctly pronounce the “b” in “plumber” (another example in the article.
There is also no "t" sound in "often", never was. Some officious busybody thought "offen" and "oft" ought to be related. so put "often" in a dictionary. Now people who don't know any better pronounce it. But it's rare to find anybody trying, foolishly, to say the "b" in debt and doubt.
I doubt anybody tries to pronounce the "l" in "could". That one appears to be the product of busybody typesetters, imagining some parallel with "should" and "would" (related to "shall" and "will"), which also do not get any "l" sound; but "could" is related to "can".
In some times and places it becomes normal.
> Often has a medial /t/ that, like similar words such has "hasten" and "soften," was once pronounced and is now typically silent.
Hmm? The etymology dictionaries don't appear to back you up on this.
> often (adv.): "repeatedly, again and again, many times, under many circumstances," mid-13c., an extended form of oft, in Middle English typically before vowels and h-, probably by influence of its opposite, seldom (Middle English selden).
( https://www.etymonline.com/word/often )
> From Middle English often, alteration (with final -n added due to analogy with Middle English selden (“seldom”)) of Middle English ofte, oft, from Old English oft (“oft; often”)
( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/often )
Where did you get the idea that they weren't related?
You just said they weren't...?
same, I woulnd't pronounce "debt" the same way I would pronounce "dette" in French, and likewise for "doubt", which would turn in French "doute" ...
The English t is also aspirated a lot of the time (though not as consistently at the end of a word as at the beginning), while the French t is never aspirated.
There could be differences between the two short e sounds as well, but that depends more on which particular accents of English/French you're talking about.