coffin pronunciation

[Dan Goodman]

Lynne Murphy wrote:

> Raised in a funeral home in NYS, therefore I pronounce it 'casket'.
> ('Coffin' is for people who say 'undertaker', 'funeral parlor' and 'wake'
> instead of 'funeral director', 'funeral home' and 'calling hours'.)
>
> But I also have a caught/cot distinction and would use the open-o when
> obnoxiously 'correcting' people on this matter--which I felt much need to
> do as a child...

Born (1943) and raised in Ulster County, NY, which at that time was part
  of the Hudson Valley Dialect region.  (I'm told that Kingston has been
annexed by the New York Metropolitan Area dialect; my part of Ulster
County will probably take a while longer.)

I definitely have the cot/caught distinction.  (I now live in the Twin
Cities, and don't need a dialect map to remind me that it isn't native
here.)

For me:  "coffin" and "coughin'" have the same first-syllable vowel.
"Coffin" and "coughing" do not.

--
Dan Goodman
"I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers."
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
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