quest for info/suggestions. re: dialects

[Beverly Flanigan]

>Alternatively, maybe our classroom informant was hearing something that
>wasn't there.  If Hungarian spelling reflects vowel harmony, it might
>have opted for consistency by writing as if one low back vowel could be
>treated as if it had two phonetic variants. Our well-educated informant,
>aware that Hungarian spelling makes use of two graphs, might have been
>doing a Hungarian equivalent of pronouncing the "t" that should be
>silent in "often" or the "c" that should be silent in arctic.
>
>I can't even come close to settling that one.  Dennis?


'c' should be silent in 'arctic'?  I hear both variants all the time but
always thought the 'c' "should" be there (it is for me)!  What is the
source of the absent 'c'?  BTW, I have come, after some time, to realize
that for many native speakers the 't' in 'often' IS natural and not a
bookish affectation, so I'm much more cautious now about proclaiming it
artificial.