s > z

[Laurence Horn]

>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".
>
It probably SHOULD be, on the deontic reading, but I don't believe it is.
I just paged through the third edition, and there's actually very little on
regional variation within England; mostly a small bit on RP vowels and a
smaller one on RP consonants.  The index lists /s/ and /z/, but only to
mention a merger of fricatives in East African English.

Larry