How do you pronounce "what did you" in "So what did you dream about?" and other similar questions?

Tina: I had a strange dream last night.
Jack: Well, dreams are always strange. I've never had an absolutely "normal" dream. So what did you dream about?
Tina: I dreamed about a skyscraper devouring a small "Starbucks".

How would you pronounce "So what did you dream about?" here? I am especially interested about the did you part. Is it like di you or d'you or what?

(In case my example is poor, please think of any question then that would start with "So what did you…"—the most important thing for me is that this question must not be simply one separate question, but should rather be a part of someone's dialogue line—it should therefore be pronounced quicker than if it were just a question on its own.)


Solution 1:

A native American speaker, slurring words, would have several pronunciations:

So, whatcha dream about? [wutcha]

So, what'dya dream about? [wuttedya or wuddedya]

So, whadja dream about? [wudja]

So whadjoo dream about? [wudjoo]

There are other minor variations, but these are the main ones you'd hear. Other dialectical variations would include replacing "you" with "y'all" [chiefly Southern] or "youse" or "yas" or "yins" [various] for second person plural.

Solution 2:

I do pronounce every syllable of it, so you would really hear “did you”. I tried to look up video examples, and could find one of Sarah Palin, who I believe as a public speaker tends to eat half of her words. See 11:12 here and you'll see you can hear all syllables.

Solution 3:

When spoken the t in what and the d in did can sound merged, so that it sounds more like wha tid you, but other than that the words are pronounced completely.

If you want to make a contraction out of it, it would be wha'd'ya dream about. As this contraction could be either what did you or what do you, the rest of the sentence (or the situation where it's used) would have to provide enough context to determine what it means.

Solution 4:

This is actually a question about register. In my idiolect, "what did you" is standard in formal contexts. "Whuh-ju" is familiar.