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Native USA English speakers frequently skip (or elide?) certain letters, like the t in water, and modify others.

What is a term for someone who (self-consciously?) pronounces every voiceable letter?

P.S. My apologies if I've asked this before. I thought I had and cannot find it.

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    Well, you’ve got it tagged as over-enunciation. Conscious enunciation may also work. You need more?
    – Xanne
    Commented Jun 3 at 22:11
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    American speakers do pronounce the 't' in water; it's just that that 't' makes a [ɾ] sound, rather than a [t] sound. (Just like how the 't' in "tip" makes a [tʰ] sound rather than a [t] sound.) Nobody pronounces the every phoneme the same way in every context.
    – alphabet
    Commented Jun 3 at 23:16
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    It’s a form of “affected speech.”
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Jun 4 at 3:10
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    Why stop at affected when there's the chance to be pedantic and pretentious?
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Jun 4 at 4:14
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    It could be classed as speaking clearly, but definitely can be pedantic depending on exactly how you do it. If you pronounce the /d/ in every "and" and the /t/ in every "to", you might just be a non-native speaker.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jun 4 at 8:55

3 Answers 3

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Overarticulation and hyperarticulation are terms used to describe this deliberate and exaggerated speech, often observed in infants or language learners. These terms can also apply to specific dialectal speech patterns. Wiktionary provides similar definitions for both terms:

exaggerated articulation
   the hyperarticulation of child-directed speech

hyperarticulation/Wiktionary

excessive articulation

overarticulation/Wiktionary

These terms are also used in academic publications in the field of linguistics. For example:

The ability of speakers to exaggerate speech sounds ("hyperarticulation") has led to the theory that the targets themselves must be hyperspace hyperarticulated.

Whalen DH, Magen HS, Pouplier M, Kang AM, Iskarous K.
Vowel production and perception: hyperarticulation without a hyperspace effect. Lang Speech. 2004;47(Pt 2):155-74.
doi: 10.1177/00238309040470020301. PMID: 15581190.

When discussing language orthography, this phenomenon can be related to phonemic orthography. English, for instance, is highly non-phonemic compared to many languages but was mostly phonemic during the Middle English period. Languages such as Serbo-Croatian and Esperanto are often cited as examples of employing ideally phonemic orthography.

A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond consistently to the language's phonemes (the smallest units of speech that can differentiate words).

Wikipedia

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  • This does not answer the question. The OP is not asking an academic question. It's about good diction.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jun 15 at 15:39
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    @Lambie Surely not, because pronouncing every letter results in bad diction, not good diction.
    – alphabet
    Commented Jun 15 at 19:01
  • @alphabet Questions can be naive when people don't know exactly how to say something. That's the case here. So rather than go off on tangents and over the moon, it's best in my view to help them say what they really mean but don't know how to say. Obviously, no one pronounces every letter in English. We all know that that is inaccurate. The OP does not. Getting into the phonetic weeds is not what he is looking for (which can be seen from the rest of his question.).
    – Lambie
    Commented Jun 15 at 19:21
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The term would be "articulate."

M-W gives as one of the definitions:

intransitive verb
1 : to utter clear and understandable sounds

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    Yes, but your answer is too short and has no back-up stuff. :)
    – Lambie
    Commented Jun 15 at 15:39
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Merriam Webster:

enunciate transitive verb

2: articulate, pronounce - enunciate all the syllables

Yoshioka, as well, has always striven to make sure that her vowels are enunciated and the melody shines through clearly. — Billboard Japan, Billboard, 13 Nov. 2023

Collins on line

enunciate (ɪnʌnsieɪt)

  1. verb When you enunciate a word or part of a word, you pronounce it clearly.

[formal] His voice was harsh as he enunciated each word carefully.

She enunciates very slowly and carefully.

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