devine@asgb.UUCP (09/07/84)
More and more often I hear people pronounce the word 'often' as 'OFF-TEN' rather than 'OFF-FEN'. There seems to be no strong regional preference here in the US. Oftentimes, usage seems random, varying by individual choice not background. The use of off-ten distracts me away from what the person is saying! How do you pronounce it? Mail me your choice and some indication where you were brought up and are now living. I'll post the results in a few weeks. Bob Devine (..!ihnp4!sdcrdcf!bmcg!asgb!devine) Burroughs Advance Systems Group in Boulder, CO.
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (09/12/84)
Have you ever considered what it's like being an Orphan? Didn't Gilbert and Sullivan do enough of this for you. -Ron
steiny@scc.UUCP (09/14/84)
***
> How do you pronounce "often"?
I pronounce it "awf^n" and here's why:
"A knowledge of spelling has been responsible for changing the
pronounciation of certain words whose written from for one reason
or another do not indicate pronounciations which had become
traditional. For instance, simply because it occurs in writing
the "t" in "often" has come to be pronounced again, as it was
in earlier days and well into the seventeeth century, though
the pronounciation with the "t" is not yet recorded by all
current dictionaries.
Thomas Pyles
The Origins and Development of the English Langauge
1971
p. 74
Either use is perfectly correct. The prediction is that
eventually it will change so that the version with the "t" will
be the main one. On the other hand, when I was learning to talk
30 years ago, the version without the "t" was preferred.
--
"When the going gets weird, the weird get going."
Don Steiny - Personetics @ (408) 425-0382
109 Torrey Pine Terr.
Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
ihnp4!pesnta -\
fortune!idsvax -> scc!steiny
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