I could make this a very short post: It doesn’t matter how you pronounce it.

But I won’t do that. Some explanation is necessary.

The question, of course, is whether or not the t is silent. I checked eight online dictionaries. Three of them gave only one pronunciation — the silent t version, (aw-fin). The other three listed the silent-t version first and the “spelling version” (awf-tin) as a secondary, or alternative pronunciation.

That’s about what I expected. Some outspoken experts on such matters insist that pronouncing the t is either pretentious or ignorant. This includes the controversial titan of usage, H.W. Fowler, and, more recently, Charles Harrington Elster. Most grammarians and dictionaries these days, while preferring the silent-t, are willing to accept the hard-t version.

The history of the word can support either side. According to Maeve Maddox on Daily Writing Tips,

The t in often continued to be pronounced until some time in the 15th century when a consonant simplification occurred in some words that had two or more consonants in a row. It was at this time that speakers stopped pronouncing the d in handkerchief and handsome, the p in raspberry, and the t in chestnut and often.

Pronunciation guides since the 18th century insist that the t is silent, but as literacy became more widespread, people more commonly assumed the correct pronunciation conformed to the spelling. Today, folks pronounce it both ways, usually without giving it much thought.

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Sticklers point to similar words like soften, fasten, listen, moisten, hasten and christen — where the t is silent — as analogous. But that, of course, assumes that English pronunciations conform to predictable patterns, which is clearly not the case.

This much is true: no one insists on an enunciated t. The argument is between those insisting on a strictly silent t and those who accept either pronunciation. Personally, I take the latter position, but if you want to avoid bugging those poor souls who fret about such matters, leave out the t.

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