Click here to play

ae pronunciation: When is the 't' silent in "often"?

   Share on Facebook  
Mosca  #494404  Sat, 29 Mar 08 10:02 PM

 

  
Not Ranked
Joined on Wed, Jun 20 2007
New Member (40)
------- "It's your language, I'm just trying to use it... ", Victor Borge
Mister Micawber  #494442  Sun, 30 Mar 08 04:19 AM
.
It depends on the speaker.  From Random House:

'Often' was pronounced with a t-sound until the 17th century, when a pronunciation without the Telephone came to predominate in the speech of the educated, in both North America and Great Britain, and the earlier pronunciation fell into disfavor. Common use of a spelling pronunciation has since restored the [t] for many speakers, and today  /ˈɔfən/[aw-fuhn] and  /ˈɔftən/[awf-tuhn] or /ˈɒfən/[of-uhn] and [of-tuhn] exist side by side. Although it is still sometimes criticized, 'often' with a /t/[t] is now so widely heard from educated speakers that it has become fully standard once again.
  
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004
Yokohama
Veteran Member (21,213)
SystemAdministratorTeachers
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'
Anonymous  #494524  Sun, 30 Mar 08 12:15 PM

is it somehow related to east/west coast speaking?

  
Mosca  #494525  Sun, 30 Mar 08 12:22 PM

Ok, thanks for that reply .. but what about in daily speech? How do you yourself use it - and from what part of the country are you? Is it somehow related to the east or to the west?

  
Jadarite  #503490  Mon, 21 Apr 08 07:34 PM
I used to pronounce "often" like the word "soften", then when I lived in Japan I heard it pronounced like "off" + "tin".  This wasn't from Japanese, and I changed the way I pronounced the word.  Today, I used it, and the people I talked to didn't understand what I was saying.  So, I went to my electronic dictionary and it had a recorded wav of the word pronounced like the word "soften".  I went to www.m-w.com and the wav there also sounds like the word "soften".  So, now I am thinking maybe it shouldn't be pronounced like "off" + "tin".  What's the verdict, should the "t" be silent or pronounced? 
  
Not Ranked
Joined on Mon, May 7 2007
South Korea, but originally from Detroit
New Member (38)
http://jadarite.wikispaces.com
Grammar Geek  #503505  Mon, 21 Apr 08 08:12 PM

Hi Jadarite,

There is a long, long thread in the forums on this already, and views range from "both are equally acceptable" to "only the most uninformed ignoramus would use the pronunciation with the T." (To counter that latter point, one of the posts pointed out that it was only when the masses started learning to read and saw that there was a T in the word that the T started being pronounced - a sign of literacy, actually, and not illiteracy. But anyway...)

I say "offin" but I would certainly know what word you meant if you said oft-in.

  
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006
Pennsylvania, USA
Veteran Member (15,565)
ModeratorProficient Speaker
Barbara, who answers in American English.
Anonymous  #503988  Tue, 22 Apr 08 10:03 PM

the history lesson is very interesting.however,i do not understand why so many people believe it is incorrect to pronounce often with a silent "t".every dictionary i've checked states that the word is pronounced with no "t" sound.furthermore,if one believes we should pronounce the "t" just because it is there,shouldn't we also pronounce the "t" in soften?oddly,however,i've never heard anyone pronounce the "t" in frabric softener.

 

  
Grammar Geek  #504043  Wed, 23 Apr 08 12:16 AM

Hey, I hope you don't mind, but these threads appeared so close in time that I thought I'd merge them into one discussion.

  
AddThis Feed Button RSS Feed: English Audio: Speech and Pronunciation
© 2008 MediaCET Ltd.
Terms and Conditions & Terms of Service