Rossians vs. Russians

[Mills Charles]

>Okay, speaking as a linguist, how will Americans pronounce 
>Rossians?

Sorry to add to the clutter in your in-box.  This strikes me as an excedingly 
esoteric discussion.  But, for what it's worth, in contrast to my distinguised 
colleagues, I would without hesitation pronounce "Rossians" ['ro.shuns].

First, note that there is no [s] in Russia or Russian, but rather a [sh].  Second, this 
is dictated not by the orthographic double-s (-ss-), but rather by the combination 
of word-initial accent in conjunction with a following -ia- which subjects the 
preceding coronal to palatalization, as numerous examples will show.
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