coffin pronunciation

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:53 PM -0500 3/13/08, Matthew Gordon wrote:
>I was listening to a podcast featuring 2 thirty-something New Yorkers. One
>of them pronounced 'coffin' with an open-o, and the other ridiculed him,
>saying something about how it's not 'coughin'.
>
>My question for those of you who maintain the distinction between /a/ and
>open-o: Do you all have /a/ for 'coffin'?

I maintain the distinction and I have open-o for "coffin".   (This
from a sixty-something New Yorker.)

>I'm wondering whether this is
>another example of a word that varies in its phonemic assignment.
>
Evidently so.

LH

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