southmore

[AAllan at AOL.COM]

Speaking of ph- words, just this past weekend at Commencement time I heard an
educated (well, he went to law school) alumnus of a small liberal arts
college in central Illinois (not my college) speak of second-year college
students as
"southmores."
  There's a colleague in the history department at my small college who has
that same pronunciation. One man is in his 50s and one in his 60s, and both
came from well-educated families in central Illinois.
  I had thought my colleague's pronunciation was idiosyncratic till I head
the second instance. Anybody know about this?
- Allan Metcalf