On 2009-03-01 06:12, Rick McCallister wrote:
> I've often wondered if the aberrant pronunciation of <often> with a /t/
> sprang from Midwestern Germans who learned English from hyper-corrective
> schoolmarms.
And who's responsible for its spread in Britain? Spelling pronunciations
are a common phenomenon everywhere in literate societies. Perhaps the
linguistically insecure (say, people speaking an adoptive standard
accent) use the spelling as a guide whenever in doubt. Sorry about
referring to my own article again, but it will save me a longer exposition:
http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/sap/files/34/02gasiorowski.pdf
Piotr