Date:  Sun, 30 Nov 1997 23:38:47 -0000
From:  Muhammed Suleiman <xtr08[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
Subject: Re: of(t)en and "is all"

Dear Beverly,

it has to be remembered that Britain was, and to a large extent still is, a
class society, and therefore we should think in terms of class-graded as
well as age-graded distinctions.The Upper Classes for instance used to
pronounce the initial <o> of the word as a long (back) vowel, a
pronunciation which is still relatively common among them but which is
certainly dying out ; the middle and lower classes would invariably find
this affected.

With regard to the presence or absence of <t> in the word _often_, however,
people seem less critical.I think you are right in suggesting that the <t>
is basically a spelling pronunciation.

Regards,

Dr M. Suleiman
>
>   BTW, a visiting colleague (about 64) from London via Africa also says
>   'often' with a /t/. He claims he speaks not RP ("oh heavens no") but
>   Educated Standard (London) English--learned in school, not in his
>   London home neighborhood. How does this jibe with Mr. Suleiman's
>   observation? Is it age-graded?