Why "sh" pronunciation in "sugar"?

[Mark A Mandel]

On Mon, 6 May 2002, Gerald Cohen wrote:

#   Today a student asked me why "sugar" and "sure" are pronounced with "sh"
#(vs. "super" with "s"). Would anyone know?

I suspect it's from older prons in which there was a palatal glide,
which would in turn have come from an English pronunciation of the
French front rounded vowel as [ju] ("yu"). But I'd rather here from
someone with more certainty. Cf. the palatalizations in "measure",
"fissure", and "feature".

-- Mark A. Mandel