Subject: ADS-L Digest - 30 Nov 1997 to 1 Dec 1997 There are 34 messages totalling 845 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. of(t)en (2) 2. "Oh!" & "Ah!" 3. "Ich bin ein Berliner" (2) 4. TODAY'S NYTIMES (2) 5. english-spanish radio ad 6. transcription of talking in tongues 7. Berliner; pancake turners, spatulas, scrapers; slider (3) 8. V Not for Victory (2) 9. RE>english-spanish radio ad (3) 10. "Something Big Is Going to Happen" 11. At Their Web Site (4) 12. Re : 'Secret Languages' 13. Trouble Hunters on WHEELS (3) 14. goo 15. absquatulate/obsquatulate 16. Re[2]: Trouble Hunters on WHEELS 17. Re[2]: At Their Web Site 18. Mobelian (sp?) (2) 19. Mobelian (sp?) Mobilian -Reply 20. "Ich bin ein Berliner." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 00:04:01 -0500 From: Gregory {Greg} Downing Subject: Re: of(t)en At 04:05 PM 11/30/97 -0500, you wrote: > My impression is that often (with the /t/) is increasing in use, at >least among college students. I've considered it a spelling pronunciation, >given that for several hundred years (no OED handy) the standard pronuncia- >tion was without the /t/. But then, I'm still trying to figure out why one >of my own children pronounces the /l/ in calm and palm. > Re "no OED handy" -- OED2 has both t-pronunication and t-less (as well as more than one realization of the first vowel), giving the t-less one first which usually indicates some kind of priority/preference. But no comments are made on pronunciation that I saw in looking quickly. Without endorsing the analysis, I can point out that I recall being taught, in a relatively basic linguistics class in the late 1970s, that the t-pronunciation was a case of hypercorrection based on spelling, common among the culturally and linguistically insecure lower-middle and middle classes. So the theory went, anyway. Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu