Pronuncations

[joseph]

Dear Robert,

In my own experience, all of the people I know who pronounce
the 't' do it consciously. I honestly speculate that it
indicates a modulation into a speech context, but I like to
look at it from a performative perspective. Or in plain
English, those who use ofTen choose to do it because they
think it's cute, but they _know_ that it is a distinguishing
quality. Perhaps this has caught on.

Joseph King

On Thu, 15 Jan 2009, Robert Lawless wrote:

> For all you guys who teach college-age students and (if you're listening) 
> hear them talk:  Is the pronunciation of often with "t" becoming more common 
> with the younger generation? (I think most of us old foggies don't pronounce 
> the "t".) I believe linguists refer to this as "spelling pronunciation."