Sibilant voicing in American English

[Cathy Popkin]

Oh, dear.
I wish you hadn't started me thinking about this, because now I can't stop.

I've heard 'perzist' for persist.
Also, I went to Wesleyan University, but it turns out I'm an alumna of 
Wezleyan.
Oh--and some people I know in Philadelphia say 'zip' for sip.

And now I'd better dezist.
CP

--On Wednesday, December 03, 2008 12:17 AM -0500 "Paul B. Gallagher" 
<paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM> wrote:

> Dear friends,
>
> I've been putting together a collection of words where the sibilants /s/
> and /ʃ/ ("sh") have recently become voiced in American English.
>
> Here are a few examples (sorry if they make you wince):
> 	cazhmere (wool)
> 	(nuclear) fision
>
> Obviously, "possess" (cf. French posseder) has had a /z/ for a long time,
> but I don't know how long; I'm interested in 20th-century or later shifts.
>
> Isolated morphemes seem to be more susceptible; paradigms like
> fishes/fished/fishing are apparently immune.
>
> Can anyone add to my collection?
>
> Private replies welcome, all replies accepted.
>
> --
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
>
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