Skip to main content

Post BB Housemate Antics - Part 3

Status
Not open for further replies.
edjlower
1 minute ago
~ Never been this excited for a 50th. On the way thanks to @uber_melbourne ~ @azzaedwards27@levi_greenwood@smacka17 #uber #melbourne #codge50th #pigsapie

10808706_381212862045451_184827006_n.jpg
 
Inigo Montoya said:
Wait what? You don't say the T in often? OMG, I have no idea on how to say it properly. Is it OF-EN?
Click to expand...
Offen would the 'correct' pronunciation (similar to how the T in Listen is omitted) but the alternate way of saying is totally acceptable as far as I know. This is after all the English language we're talking where there's no rhyme or reason why certain words are pronounced the way they are. I imagine that for most words a particular pronunciation gained popularity at some point in time and it stuck.

The 'ough' cluster would be the best example of how inconsistent and confusing English can be:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ough_(orthography)

Consuela said:
What the fuck is uber?
Click to expand...

That's old hat now. It's a German word for the 'ultimate' example of something, I've been using it for at least the past 6 or 7 years. lol
 
In some words there's a silent a T, like in soften,mortgage, listen,whistle and moisten etc.
I notice how H is often pronounced differently ie Aitch vs Haitch, and when people say somethink rather than something:)
also words like chance, castle, plant, dance etc
 
Last edited:
I ofTen thought I had an old soul... t's for the win! :)



The word often is a good example of the way our language goes round and round.

Old English had the word oft, meaning “frequently.” It also had the word seldan, which meant “rarely,” and is the source of our word seldom.

It is thought that oft morphed into often by analogy with seldan. Then seldan changed to seldum by analogy with another time word, hwilum, which meant “sometimes” or “once”. Over time, seldum came to be spelled seldom.

The t in often continued to be pronounced until some time in the 15th century when a consonant simplification occurred in some words that had two or more consonants in a row. It was at this time that speakers stopped pronouncing the d in handkerchief and handsome, the p in raspberry, and the t in chestnut and often.

John Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, published in 1791 and still available in a 2001 reprint of the 1838 edition, stipulates that “in often and soften the t is silent.”

By 1926, enough speakers were pronouncing the t in often to provoke this testy comment from H. W. Fowler in Modern English Usage:

[the pronunciation of the t in often] is practised by two oddly consorted classes—the academic speakers who affect a more precise enunciation than their neighbours…& the uneasy half-literates who like to prove that they can spell….”

In 1996, an editor of the OED2, R. W. Burchfield, avoided censuring the “t” pronunciation in this conciliatory comment:

Nowadays…many standard speakers use both [AWF-in] and [AWF-tin], but the former pronunciation is the more common of the two.

However, writer on language Charles Harrington Elster, in The Big Book Of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide For The Careful Speaker(1999), rejects such compromise:

I would caution those who might be consoled by the comments of … Burchfield to heed the admonitions of the past and avoid pronouncing the t.

Elster supports his position with an appeal to analogy:

analogy is entirely unsupportive: no one pronounces the t in soften, listen, fasten, moisten, hasten, chasten, christen, and Christmas—so, once and for all, let’s do away with the eccentric AWF-tin.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-do-you-pronounce-often/
 

  1. Leo Ryan Burke ‏@Leo_Ryan_Burke 2h
    Should I go out again....yessssir



    Gemma ‏@gemma6foot6 1h
    @Leo_Ryan_Burke that's exactly how I'm feeling ... Burning the candle at both ends


    Leo Ryan Burke ‏@Leo_Ryan_Burke 1h
    @gemma6foot6 you still on the coast?


    Gemma ‏@gemma6foot6 49m
    @Leo_Ryan_Burke yeah till the 11th.. I pulled an all nighter last night probably backing it up tonight #nosleep



    Leo Ryan Burke ‏@Leo_Ryan_Burke 47m
    @gemma6foot6 where you headed tonight?



    Gemma ‏@gemma6foot6 43m
    @Leo_Ryan_Burke not sure yet , starting at stingrays I think with skye and PRIYA and Ben Norris then will see how the night goes from there

....
must be more to their tweets lol

  1. Leo Ryan Burke ‏@Leo_Ryan_Burke 18m
    @BenjaminJNorris your on the Gold Coast and you don't even let me know I'm crushed
    1f648.png




    Gemma ‏@gemma6foot6 14m
    @Leo_Ryan_Burke @BenjaminJNorris oops that's my bad sorry
 
Mrs Butterface said:
I ofTen thought I had an old soul... t's for the win! :)



The word often is a good example of the way our language goes round and round.

Old English had the word oft, meaning “frequently.” It also had the word seldan, which meant “rarely,” and is the source of our word seldom.

It is thought that oft morphed into often by analogy with seldan. Then seldan changed to seldum by analogy with another time word, hwilum, which meant “sometimes” or “once”. Over time, seldum came to be spelled seldom.

The t in often continued to be pronounced until some time in the 15th century when a consonant simplification occurred in some words that had two or more consonants in a row. It was at this time that speakers stopped pronouncing the d in handkerchief and handsome, the p in raspberry, and the t in chestnut and often.

John Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, published in 1791 and still available in a 2001 reprint of the 1838 edition, stipulates that “in often and soften the t is silent.”

By 1926, enough speakers were pronouncing the t in often to provoke this testy comment from H. W. Fowler in Modern English Usage:

[the pronunciation of the t in often] is practised by two oddly consorted classes—the academic speakers who affect a more precise enunciation than their neighbours…& the uneasy half-literates who like to prove that they can spell….”

In 1996, an editor of the OED2, R. W. Burchfield, avoided censuring the “t” pronunciation in this conciliatory comment:

Nowadays…many standard speakers use both [AWF-in] and [AWF-tin], but the former pronunciation is the more common of the two.

However, writer on language Charles Harrington Elster, in The Big Book Of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide For The Careful Speaker(1999), rejects such compromise:

I would caution those who might be consoled by the comments of … Burchfield to heed the admonitions of the past and avoid pronouncing the t.

Elster supports his position with an appeal to analogy:

analogy is entirely unsupportive: no one pronounces the t in soften, listen, fasten, moisten, hasten, chasten, christen, and Christmas—so, once and for all, let’s do away with the eccentric AWF-tin.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-do-you-pronounce-often/
Click to expand...
I really LOVE the history and evolution of languages! Fascinating... Thanks for showing all sides to the story!!

I think Priya said of-Ten.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top