'noose' = news

[Herb Stahlke]

My colleague is from Connecticut.


On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 9:48 AM, Yagoda, Ben <byagoda at udel.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Yagoda, Ben" <byagoda at UDEL.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: 'noose' = news
>
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>
> Where is your colleague from? The first time I was aware of hearing
> "Japane=
> se" and "Chinese" pronounced that way was from my mother-in-law, born
> (pre-=
> 1920) and raised in Chicago.
>
> On Aug 12, 2014, at 9:43 AM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:
> ADS-L=
> @LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>>
> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM<mailto:
> hfwstahlke at GMAIL.CO=
> M>>
> Subject:      Re: 'noose' =3D news
>
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> ----
>
> What you might be hearing is a lack of lengthening in the vowel as we would
> expect before a syllable-final lenis consonant.  Unless followed by a
> voiced segment, the /z/ of news would devoice anyway.  Without the vowel
> length, we would hear devoiced /z/ as [s].  I have a colleague who shortens
> the vowel regularly in the suffix -ese, so that "Japanese" and "Chinese"
> sound like they end in /-is/.
>
> Herb
>
>
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