The phenomenon itself is known as “T-glottalization.” It occurs when a speaker swallows the T sound in a word rather than speaking it aloud. We hear it when words like “kitten” and “water” are pronounced like “KIH-en” and “WAH-er.”

A: The short answer is that the “t” in many words is silent because it’s too difficult or awkward to pronounce and has become assimilated into the surrounding consonants. Let’s start with a little etymology.

The “t” sound being pronounced as a “ch” sound in some British accents is a linguistic phenomenon known as “glottalization.” This occurs when the “t” sound is pronounced using the glottis, the space between the vocal cords, resulting in a sound similar to “ch.”