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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 10
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 10 |
What's the consensus on the pronunciation of the word often? Is the letter T silent? Do you make an assumption about the speaker if you hear the T? Trying to sound upper class, or being too correct? Is the T more often audible in certain dialects or geographic areas? Any relation the the slightly poetic and maybe older form, oft?
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
As I have stated in other posts, I tend to pronounce things a bit different than most Buffalonians, but hey...that's me!
I say the T. Though not many round here do!
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I take pleasure in being inconsistent. Sometimes it sounds better to pronounce the "t", so I do.
My dictionary gives both pronunciations.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
That's a T I never cross when I come to it.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
oftenWhen I say often my T is soft, which rhymes with oft, where my T is hard again, but then I soften it for soften, an oft repeated contradiction, but there you are...I think. 
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Greetings reed
I recall a previous thread on this at this site???
Anyway, I think "off-en" is the dominant form in Australia. I believe many here would regard "off-ten" as old fashioned - and don't believe that there are any "class" connotations with either pronunciation. (After all, one's social standing is pretty irrelevant in this country - any divisions seem moreso related to one's job). I am also unaware whether the pronunciation is "regionalised" here.
stales
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I seem to remember reading somewhere (Fowler?) that the traditional pronunication was in fact offen, but it was spelt with a t to show the link with oft. Then in the 19th century some people started thinking that if there's a written t there should be a spoken one as well, but this writing pronunciation was never completely accepted.
Bingley
Bingley
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
I agree that /oftn/ is probably a spelling pronunciation, i.e. a revival, not a survival of the original. The loss of T between other consonants is normal, e.g. soften, castle, whistle; probably also 'postman' for most of us; though without access to the OED I have no idea what century the T was lost in.
I say /ofn/, and always regarded /oftn/ as substandard (until I become a proper linguist who doesn't make such pernicious judgements hem-hem). Middle class perhaps. On the increase, possibly. I couldn't say which is more commonly used.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
The loss of T between other consonants is normal ... probably also 'postman' for most of us
Really? I've never heard "postman" pronounced without the "t." Poll please - is this regional? How do you pronounce it, everybody?
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, but there is no question as to the other.
