coffin pronunciation

[Tom Zurinskas]

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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