Anyways Often

garage said:

First, is ‘anyways' a word?

Second, how is ‘often' pronounced?

My girlfriend always adds an S to the word "all" and it drives me nuts, e.g.: "Alls I want is a girlfriend who talks like I do." I presume this is regional (she grew up in Kansas), and related to the "anyways" problem, but I don't recall ever hearing anyone else do it, whereas I have heard "anyways" fairly commonly.

Further to the pronunciation of "often," Southwest Airlines had a billboard near Love Field in Dallas that played on this, bragging about the frequency of their flights to the state capital. It said, "Austin Auften." The one for New Orleans said, "Fly our gumbo jets."

Dan

In my experience "anyways" is a west coast thing, at least originally. I'm not sure how far it has spread, but most people I know who come from mid and east US don't say it as often.

Speaking of often, I hear it with the T pronounced just as often as with a silent T. My copy of "A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English" has both listed in there, with the silent T version first as the preferred pronunciation perhaps. This book was first published in 1953.

My copy of The Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation, first published in 2001 lists both as correct in American speech, and both correct in British English. I think that in the UK the T was not pronounced a century ago. Gilbert and Sullivan play on words in "Pirates of Penzance" by causing confusion between the words "Orphan" and "Often", which sound very similar if you drop the R in the former and the T in the latter.

In my experience, the word "often" is up to the user on how to pronounce it. Many I've talked to feel that using the T makes it sound affected or snobbish. Some use it for that reason to sound smarter. I don't think matters either way. But between squabbling friends I enjoy saying "You're both right!"

gedaly said:

In my experience “anyways” is a west coast thing, at least originally. I'm not sure how far it has spread, but most people I know who come from mid and east US don't say it as often.

The Dictionary of American Regional English says that "anyways" is chiefly found in the South and the South Midlands, the South Midlands being, basically, that part of the country east of the Mississippi from the Ohio River valley southward to the start of the true South. However, DARE's data may be dated at this point and it is possible that the use has spread. A large survey of thousands of people nationwide would have to be done to know for sure.

garage said:

Second, how is ‘often' pronounced? I pronounce without the ‘t' but I know many people stress it. Which was considered ‘correct' about 30 years ago and which is/are considered correct now?

We've answered this one on the show recently. Some authorities suggest that "often" should be pronounced "offen." However, pronouncing the T in the word is a standard feature of some Southern English-speakers and most authorities make little consideration for any dialect other than their own. Pronouncing the T is not wrong, it's simply less common and is a known, trackable dialect pronunciation.

I have it in my own idiolect, as a matter of fact, as do other Missourians. We occasionally receive letters to the show criticizing my pronunciation of the word, but those correspondents are never going to win this one. I think they should unclench their sphincters a little and accept that there's more than one perfectly good way to say the word. 🙂