OK, I guess it doesn’t track generation-wise after all. Maybe it was just a coincidence that I came across two twenty-somethings who use the spelling pronunciation. I reached an understanding with them that they’ll say it their way and I’ll say it my way.
For my part, it always seems strange to me that the L in almond isn’t supposed to be pronounced. I’ve got my own share of spelling pronunciations. I gather that the T in often is heard more in British pronunciation.
“Exactly - You said ‘often’, ‘frequently’, only once!”
I’d always pronounce it (but I might not if I were an errant member of the House of Lords), and I also pronounce the L in almond.
I’d never pronounce the T in soften, but that’s no guide on how to pronounce often - English doesn’t work like that, and there’s no etymology in common between the two words.
I grew up on the west coast of the US and I pronounce the t.
I teach my students to pronounce the t, too. (I teach EFL.) I figure the spelling in English is fucked up enough that when there’s a choice, I teach them to pronounce things phonetically. Just one less word that they have to remember is pronounced differently from the spelling.
Been beaten to the G&S stuff, I see…
“Offen” Late 30s, Sydney.
Twenty-nine, from the southern United States, offen.
You don’t want to hear me say “comfortable,” though.
49, Canadian. I leave out the ‘t’.
I pronounce the ‘t’, and I have a pretty thick southern accent.
Telperien, “comfortable” only has three syllables around here.
Here’s what the OED has to say: Often [offen] …the pronunciation [of-ten], which is not recognized in the dictionaries, is now frequent in the south of England, and is often used in singing. (I don’t know how to do IPA, so I’ve simplified the phonetic spelling.)
As a singer, I’ll say that I hate it when singers say [of-ten] because it just strikes me as wrong, and an unnecessary extra consonant that gets in the way. I imagine that singing it [of-ten] is a Britishism; I certainly would never expect it over here.
That’s how I say it unless I concentrate.
39 from SW lower Michigan. I pronounce it without the ‘t’ sound.
American (Michigan) 51. I was always taught that pronouncing the “t” was incorrect and a sign of a poor education. Never have, never will pronounce that “t”.
??? I assume you meant “L”.
21, F, Michigander. I pronounce it with the T. I was originally surprised that I’m in the minority, but then again I’ve been told by others that I have “interesting” speaking habits. 
That one confused me too.
It bugs me nearly as much as “accrost” and “heighth.”
33, Long Island NY
It’s more a matter of conventional vs formal speech for me. In normal conversation the T fades out, but if I were reading a poem out loud or something I might pronounce the T.
Offen.
26, grew up in Massachusetts.
35, white female grew up in Tennessee.
This is funny, because it is one of the few words that I pronounce both ways. There is no rhyme or reason to it, I just notice that sometimes I say the “t” others I don’t.
Due to having a very AR great-grand aunt who loathed badly pronounced words, I make a point of pronouncing the “wh” in words like “who, what, when, where and why” – it is never just “w.”
25, white, California- offen.
Northeast US, no T.
I honestly don’t know. I think I pronounce the T. But I’m not sure. It’s like breathing. When you think about doing it, it ceases to be natural. I’d have to catch myself off-guard somehow.
Ten years older, but same answer otherwise.