Heard on The Judges: "mother dear," "souphomore"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Sat Oct 25 05:09:53 UTC 2008


I'm not at all surprised that you would feel that way, Mark. Do you
also consider your native dialect to be "standard"?

-Wilson

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 4:48 PM, Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges: "mother dear," "souphomore"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From what I hear, "sophmore" seems the standard pronunciation, while
> "sophomore" would strike me as hypercorrect, and rare.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 4:37 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Heard on The Judges: "mother dear," "souphomore"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Judge Joe Brown addressed the mother of a litigant as "mother dear":
>>
>> "_Mother dear_, step forward!"
>>
>> In  addition, he referred to a college student multiple times as a
>> "souphmore" [sawfmowr].
>>
>>
>> I was mildly surprised to hear "mother dear" used as a term of address
>> for someone else's mother. I thought that that that usage had pretty
>> much died out. Obviously, I just haven't heard it used, because I've
>> been living Boston's Back Bay for the past twenty years.
>>
>> OTOH, "souphmore," "souphmo'," etc. are pretty much "standard" in BE.
>> Only people like me who've made the effort to learn sE say
>> "sophomore," which is felt to be a hypercorrection in the 'hood.
>>
>> -Wilson
>> -
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> -----
>> -Mark Twain
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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