southmore

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:01 PM +0000 9/20/07, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>w-m.com has
>
>Main Entry: 1soph·o·more
>Pronunciation: 'säf-"mor also 'sof- or 'sä-f&- or 'so-f&-
>and the speaker says ~saafmor (~ = truespel) which is the first notation above
>
>To me this is an awe-dropping mispronunciation.
>To me the pronunciation has always been ~saufmor
>(the second notation above).   In UK I assume it
>would be ~saufmau.  UK folks tend to foespel
>"more" as ~maur, and then they tend to drop the
>~r when they speak it.
>
>If you listen to the word "awe" on m-w.com it's
>pronounced "ah".  The folks doing this are
>dropping the sound "awe" completely from their
>foenubet (list of sounds in a language).  This
>makes USA different from other English speaking
>nations.  Not good.  The language should be
>coming together not moving apart.  Sounds should
>be included not excluded.  The text strings "au"
>and "aw" and "all" need be preserved as "awe"
>sounds.  We need a "save the awe sound society>"
>
>Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus
>"Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

FWIW, I don't pronounce "awe" and "soph(omore)"
with the same vowel.  For me, the former is
open-o, the latter is /a/.  I knew that made me
non-British, but I didn't know until you pointed
it out that made me wrong, or not good.  I stand
corrected.

LH

>  > Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:08:08 -0500
>>  From: gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU
>>  Subject: Re: southmore
>>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the
>>mail header -----------------------
>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>  Poster: Matthew Gordon
>>  Subject: Re: southmore
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  Do all of you who distinguish /a/ and 'open o' (cot vs. caught) have the
>>  former vowel in 'sophomore'? I'd expect some speakers to have 'open o' here
>>  by analogy to other pre-/f/ words (e.g. off, soft).
>>
>>  -Matt
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org