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It is indeed pronounced as a glottal stop and maybe what would be best, in terms of writing it, would be a t with some form of of accent ( I’ve often envisaged a t with a circle on top, like Danish å )...As for placement, Shaun, I think “goin' to t’flicks” is preferable to “goin’ to’t flicks*, as t’ is the definite article of the next word, and the ‘ denotes an abbreviation of the missing “he” in “the”. How did the Brontës write it? Can’t now remember....
Just stumbled across this interesting thread. Emily Bronte has Joseph talking about 'pailin t'guilp off t'porridge' in "Wuthering Heights" but I suspect she was merely following (or being made to follow) an already established typographical convention. Perhaps the best way of reproducing the sound orthographically would be to isolate the t' when it precedes a consonant, because there is always a hiatus, however slight, between t' and the following consonant e.g. pailin t' guilp AND off t' porridge, though read aloud it would sound more like 'pailint' guilp' and 'offt' porridge', and maybe that's a better way of reproducing it? But when it comes to the t' before a vowel neither of the above quite works and would need to be amended e.g. he were up ont'horse OR even upont'horse; OR e.g. am thinkint'only thing is...
You might be onto something there, Doug. The apostrophe in your stand alone t' acts as an accent to denote the glo t' t' al stop! Scots Gaelic does something similar: Tha mi a' bruidhinn means I talk, or literally Am I at talking. A' is an abbreviation of aig = at. Not many KBGS folk know that. And why should they?
Has anyone caffled recently? I also know it as tinned. I don't agree with the Urban Dictionary or Merriam Webster's definition. My understanding of the verb is "To give in." Or maybe avoid.