trawf (was Re: southmore)

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 20, 2007, at 9:15 AM, i wrote:

> i've now found a possible
> intermediate stage between "soph(o)more" and "southmore", namely "soth
> (o)more" (presumably with [T] rather than [f]).  modest number of
> hits, e.g.:
>
> and i've heard the Promo For Craig David's Sothomore LP, "Slicker
> than your Average", and its totally Brilliant
> http://macosx.com/forums/archive/t-23712.html
>
> Most of our family is being supportive of our homeschooling
> adventure. WE also have a 19 sothmore in college. We would like to
> hear from others .
> http://forums.about.com/dir-app/acx/ACDispatch.aspx?
> action=message&webtag=ab-homeschool&msg=11079

now a Language Log reader tells me that

   ... the [television] weather reporters seem to say "trawth"
instead of trough   ("trawf ")

another [T] for standard [f].  i see that dictionary.com lists
pronunciations with [T] for "trough" "sometimes".  has the
distribution of this pronunciation for this item been studied?  has
the variant been reported for any roughly similar words: tough,
enough, rough, cough?

[f] for [T] is, of course, a lenition/simplification.  can/should [T]
for [f] be seen as a kind of strengthening?

arnold

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