coffin pronunciation

[Scot LaFaive]

>"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 <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> 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.
> >
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