I think that the reason Americans pronounce so many words wrongly is because in the early days many non-English speaking settlers learnt (or at least "improved" their English) by reading books or dictionaries. This meant that they learnt many new words by pronouncing them how they were spelled with no one to correct them. Words like Squirrel which is Squi-rrel not Squir-rel. As for the T thing ... well thats just lazy speech. To say things like wader or innernational is just appalling. Is there an outernational too? How on earth call you tell the difference between inner city and inter city if you cant speak properly? ... clean up yout act over there!!