southmore

Thu Sep 20 17:35:59 UTC 2007

On Sep 20, 2007, at 10:21 AM, Larry Horn wrote:

> At 12:08 PM -0500 9/20/07, Matthew Gordon wrote:
>> 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
> I definitely have /a/ in both "sophomore" (bisyllabic) and its
> trunc-form "soph"; "soph" rhymes with "prof" and not with "off".

same for me.  i know i've heard the open-o pronunciation, but i don't
recall what the vowel systems of the speakers were like.

arnold

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