coffin pronunciation

[Rowan McMullin]

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 <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
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
> >>>
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> >>
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