s > z

[Dennis R. Preston]

Seems to me we are a little off track here. The US dialectal/sociolectal
pronunciation "zink" is a lexical feature like "greazy."  (E.g., I say
"greazy," but for me clouds are not "fleezy.") The England West Country (or
Long John Silver) voicing rule ("Zomerzet") is a general one, stretching
across the entire lexicon and extends to other fricatives (e.g., f ----->
v, sh ----> zh).

Trudgill's The Dialects of England (2nd ed.) cites such forms for the "West
Southwest" but notes their earlier spread across the entire south coast of
England. They are no longer there in the eastern (e.g., Kent) areas.

dInIs (who has no patch and parrot)

>I think this is also a feature of West Country UK dialects -
>Somerset, Cornwall, perhaps Dorset. I remember stereotypical
>rustics from the West Country in radio serials like "The Archers
>of Ambridge" (ever went to air in the US?) talking about the
>"zons of the zoil".  Should be in the Trudgill and Hannah book
>on "International English".
>
>Roly Sussex
>The University of Queensland

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736