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

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:41 AM -0400 10/26/08, Wilson Gray wrote:
>I've never been able to come up with an explanation for "souphmore,"
>because it's pretty much universal and isn't used just by people who
>say "souf" for "south." But I wouldn't be surprised to by a claim that
>that's how it started.
>

Well, putting on my Jerry Cohen hat (which sometimes, although not
always, fits), I might propose a blend of "south" and "soph(o)more",
with the vowel imported from the former and the consonant retained
from the latter, as opposed to those who actually say "southmore".
I'm reminded (a bit) of our discussion of the "nucular"
prononciation, which we (or some of us) claimed was influenced by the
phonological (but not semantic) association with other -Vcular words
(spectacular, ocular, vernacular,,...) or the related case of
"pedilogical" (for "pedagogical").  Since "soph"/"sof" doesn't exist
elsewhere while "south" does (including cases where it's opaque, as
in "southpaw"), that may be all it takes.  Maybe the "souphmore"
speakers (tacitly) figure that the underlying /T/ assimilates to [f]
before the labiovelar.

LH

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