Originally Posted by
rsvman
Fixed it for you, although I think "catsup" is now the archaic spelling, and the phonetic spelling "ketchup" has become the official spelling. Millennials are so lame.
Speaking of phonetic versus non-phonetic spellings, I wanted to raise the issue of the word "often." Where I come from, and in the time in which I grew up, we pronounced this word with a silent "t." In other words, we said "OFF-un." Everybody said it this way.
Over time, I began to hear people pronounce the "t," and say it like this: "OFF-tun." It sounded absolutely ridiculous. It didn't even sound like English to me. Now, I hear it pronounced this way more and more. It seems like people saying it this way may now outnumber those of us who say it properly.
Interestingly, I don't hear those same people pronouncing soften "SOFF-tun." I don't hear them saying "LISS-tun." I don't hear "GLISS-tun." I hear "SOFF-un, LISS-un, and GLISS-un, appropriately. So, whence "OFF-tun"? I don't get it.
Interesting points about "often." I suppose the contrary notion is that "after" and "often" are frequently used and everyone says "AFF-ter." I s'pose I go back and forth on the pronunciation of "often." If I am giving a speech (some people say that all my conversations are "speeches") or leaving a phone message, I tend to focus on diction and say "OFF-ten."
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013