Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Complaints about my pronunciation of "often" come in a dozen a week. They are tiresome. As I wrote last year in the Malaysia Star, there's nothing wrong with my pronunciation of "often." The article:

Because I do a radio show in the United States about language, my pronunciation of English is often under scrutiny.

Listeners expect that I will pronounce every word in the most traditional, most formal, most conservative way. Of course, I don't. That means I receive lots of e-mail and phone calls reprimanding me for setting a bad example.

This criticism, is, in my opinion, a big load of hooey (rubbish, nonsense). Judge not unless ye be hired to do the judging (which I am!).

It's one of those situations in which I am quite certain that each one of my correspondents pronounces some part of the language in a way that is considered something other than highly formal or traditional. I can know this with certainty because we all do. All of us!

The number one complaint about my pronunciation is the word “often.” I pronounce the T, so it does not sound like “offen.”

While I readily admit that “offen” is the most common pronunciation “ofTen” with a pronounced T isn't wrong, it's just less common. Any claims that it's more correct or more sophisticated are unsupportable and insufferable.

Both pronunciations have existed in English as long as there are records of the pronunciation of the word. There was a time, however, when certain consonant clusters, such as “ft” started to be less pronounced. This was before there was such a thing as American English.

So, the T-ful pronunciation — ofTen — is older than the T-less pronunciation — offen. That doesn't make it right, it's just a fact.

Now, some historical linguists have suggested that the T-ful often pronunciation had a resurgence after more people became literate. They could see the T in the word so they pronounced it, assuming that the T-less offen pronunciation was something to be corrected. This sort of thing happens in Eng ­ ­lish all the time, but usually on a one-on-one or personal level, not as a widespread trend.

To me, the facts are stronger behind the idea that the T-full often pronunciation simply just kept persisting among certain groups who migrated to the New World and brought the pronunciation with them. (The ofTen pronunciation does still exist in places in Britain, too).

Now, as to my particular case, I claim heritage as to the reason why I pronounce it as ofTen. As far back as the 1920s you can find language researchers reporting, and I quote, that “the Ozarker nearly always pronounces the T in ofTen.” My father's family is from the Eastern Ozarks Mountain region (which is in Missouri and Arkansas in the centre of the United States). He talks a bit of hillbilly (meaning, he talks like a rustic or a rural person) and I have a feature of such language here and there in my own speech.

So, you can call it unsophisticated, but I call it roots and blood.