laura (07/12/82)
In Toronto, Ontario, I was taught to say 'often' with the 't'. Since my parents both pronounce the 't' this wasnt very hard for me, but I remember some of the other new-comers to the 'proper' school i went to had a horrible time until they learned to say 'ofTen', at least within the teacher's hearing! I remember one girl solved the problem by switching to the word 'usually'...but that didnt help her in reading, where she got rather picked upon... We also all had to say goverNment...so there ought to be a lot of 'N' pronouncers around here at any rate... Next question: How do you pronounce 'toward(s)'? Do you spell it with the 's'? Most Canadians do, and most Americans dont. I say to-ward, and not tord...but I hear a lot of 'tord' and have some strange memory that it is the preferred pronounciation. There are other ones ... 'route' to me rhymes with 'out' and not 'boot'... and I DONT pronounce the d in judge, and have tried to and doubt I could to save my life. Are there any other weird words out there which come to mind? laura creighton decvax!utzoo!laura
thomas (07/13/82)
But, on the other hand, I had a colleague who was from Montreal and said a-boot for about. We always used to kid him aboot it. =Spencer
kdh (07/13/82)
Another class of silent/not silent lettered words are the infamous "lm" words, i.e. "palm" and "calm". Having been brought up by parents from the Middle Atlantic area (oh all right, New Jersey), I pronounce the "l"'s. Imagine the trauma when, having moved to southern Virginia during grammer school, I received an "F" on a test whose object was to circle words with silent letters. The word list included those above, plus "often" and a few others. Add to this the additional confusion when my all-powerful and all-knowing parents (I was quite young at the time) didn't think I was wrong. Perhaps this early trauma accounts for my usual state of confusion today..... SAVE THE MINDS OF OUR CHILDREN!!!! (Send money today) Kevin Hunter (houti!kdh) P.S. Please, no flames from NJ'ians who don't pronounce the 'l's. P.P.S. I pronounce it "twords" (How's that for middle of the road!)