Date:  Mon, 6 Mar 1995 05:21:00 EDT

From:  "David A. Johns" <DJOHNS[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UFPINE.BITNET>

Subject: Re: AWFUL OFFAL



# I was browsing a book for reading teachers the other day and it

# contained a list of homophones. Among them was the set of words

# "awful" and "offal."

#

# I was just wondering if these are homophones for anyone else

# besides the folks in Englewood Cliffs NJ.

#

# The thought of these being homophones to me is just awful.



They're homophones for me (grew up in western Massachusetts). Both

have [O].



In fact, all the words spelled with _off_ have [O] rather than [a]:

_off_, _office_, _offense_ (sports), _offer_, etc. I only get [af] in

words with foreign spelling, like _mafia_ or in abbreviations like

_prof_.



David Johns