coffin pronunciation

[David Bergdahl]

Here's a thought abt coughin'/coffin/coughing....

My 'native' pronunciation of law, coffee,moss, wrong &c. is /U@/ but
ridicule in college 'cleaned me up' to /O/.  I could never get to where
Don=Dawn (except in a few words which vary: forest, Florida, orange).  Is it
possible that the vowel difference between {aw} before the alveolar and
velar nasal is that the former is the casual, 'native' pronunciation and the
latter is the learned, 'proper' vowel?  That would explain coffin = coughing
but not coughin'
-db

On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 7:35 AM, Rowan McMullin <tryxchange at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Rowan McMullin <tryxchange at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: coffin pronunciation
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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