Which accents have a clear T in the middle of “bottle”?

Modern RP / Standard Southern British, Bristol / Southwest English, West Country English, Multicultural London English, Birmingham / West Midlands English, Mancunian English, South Yorkshire English, West Yorkshire English, Geordie / Tyneside English, Central Scottish English, Highland Scottish English, South Wales English, Northern Irish English, Cork English, East Irish English, Newfoundland English, Jamaican English / Patwa continuum, Bajan English, Queensland Australian English, New Zealand English, Johannesburg South African English, Delhi Indian English.

Which accents have a glottal stop in “bottle” — “bo’le”?

Bristol / Southwest English, London / Estuary English, Multicultural London English, Birmingham / West Midlands English, Mancunian English, South Yorkshire English, West Yorkshire English, Geordie / Tyneside English, Central Scottish English, New York City English, Boston / Eastern New England English.

Which accents have a quick D-like tap in “bottle” — T-flapping?

Southern Appalachian English, New York City English, California English, Texas English, Boston / Eastern New England English, Chicago / Inland North English, Queensland Australian English, New Zealand English, Toronto Canadian English.

Pronunciation

Bottle, Bo'le or Boddle? The T in the Middle of a Word

A T between two vowels behaves differently almost everywhere. North America taps it into a quick D — “boddle”. London, Glasgow and most younger British speakers replace it with a catch in the throat — “bo'le”. Ireland, Wales, the Highlands and India keep a clear T, and Liverpool turns it into a hiss.

The question, as everyone in the survey sees it

What usually happens to the middle consonant when you say “bottle”?
Choose your relaxed everyday pronunciation.

A clear T sound
A catch/stop in the throat
A quick D-like tap
A hissy or TS-like T
I use more than one
I cannot tell

Answer it yourself and see where you land on the map →

Which accents do what

Each accent profile in the survey has an expected answer to this question. Where a profile allows more than one answer, the region genuinely varies.

A clear T sound

In these profiles, a clear T in the middle of “bottle”.

A catch/stop in the throat

In these profiles, a glottal stop in “bottle” — “bo’le”.

A quick D-like tap

In these profiles, a quick D-like tap in “bottle” — T-flapping.

A hissy or TS-like T

In these profiles, a hissy, TS-like T in “bottle”.

Scouse

I use more than one

In these profiles, more than one pronunciation of the T in “bottle”.

Why this question is in the survey

Pronunciation questions carry more weight in the scoring than vocabulary questions do, because they are much harder to change deliberately. People move house and pick up new words; the vowel system learned in childhood tends to stay. Every answer is stored with a coarse map cell for the town you grew up in, and a region is coloured in once at least five people there have answered.

See the full question bank, the accent profiles these answers feed, or how the scoring works.