coffin pronunciation

[Tom Zurinskas]

Actually it's the reverse.  See Bert Vaux’s American Dialect study at
http://www4.uwm.edu//FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html
It has maps of dialect areas.  Number 28 is the caught/cot question.  It shows western prevalence for pronouncing cot/caught the same.

The data show that 61% of Americans pronounce cot/caught differently.  How the merger is getting so much play in the media is baffling to me.  Must be a westernbroadcast export.  It is not a good thing.  It needlessly creates homonyms which interfere with clearest communications.  I hope no one is teaching that dropping "awe" for "ah" is a good thing.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.



> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Rowan McMullin
> Subject: Re: coffin pronunciation
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the midwest, most of the people I've heard (who make a distinction, that
> is, between /a/ and open-o) still pronounce "coffin" with an open-o. To me,
> pronouncing it with an /a/ sounds like an east-coast thing.
>
> -Rowan
>
> On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 10:27 PM, Tom Zurinskas
> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Tom Zurinskas
>> Subject: Re: coffin pronunciation
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Is that your usual, Scot? Beating people. How old are you?
>>
>> I would think that the pronunciation of the vowel in words with "off" in
>> it as "ah" is a recent phonomenon. In fact if "on" and "off" have the same
>> "ah" sound, it could be confusing if the second phoneme is said softly or
>> drops out. "Turn it ah..." could be interpreted either way.
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>> See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at
>> authorhouse.com.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Scot LaFaive
>>> Subject: Re: coffin pronunciation
>>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>>"Coffee" has always been ~kaufee. But not anymore. The "awe-droppers"
>>>>refuse to say the sound ~au, and are dropping it out of the American
>>> English>foenubet. Not good.
>>>
>>> A friend of mine says [kah-fi] for "coffee." Shall I beat him
>> unmercifully
>>> until he submits to the proper pronunciation? The bastard does *refuse*
>> to
>>> say [kaw-fi].
>>>
>>> Scot
>>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 9:52 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>>>
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>> -----------------------
>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>> Poster: Tom Zurinskas
>>>> Subject: Re: coffin pronunciation
>>>>
>>>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> It's an "open o" or "backward c" or whatever other visual description
>> you
>>>> want to give the IPA symbol for the vowel sound "awe" (which in
>> truespel is
>>>> ~au). So it's ~kaufin. Always has been. The word "off" has always been
>>>> ~auf. "Coffee" has always been ~kaufee. But not anymore. The
>>>> "awe-droppers" refuse to say the sound ~au, and are dropping it out of
>> the
>>>> American English foenubet. Not good.
>>>>
>>>> Data show that American folks still prefer ~au at least for "caught"
>>>> instead of pronouncing it "cot". But many newscaster in FL are
>> replacing
>>>> "awe" with "ah". In fact some say "cloddy" instead of "cloudy".
>>>>
>>>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>>>> See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at
>>>> authorhouse.com.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>> -----------------------
>>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>> Poster: Matthew Gordon
>>>>> Subject: coffin pronunciation
>>>>>
>>>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> 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'm wondering whether this
>> is
>>>>> another example of a word that varies in its phonemic assignment.
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
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>
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