Why "sh" pronunciation in "sugar"?

[Michael B Quinion]

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

A subscriber asked me about this a little time ago. I'm no expert on
sound changes in English, but I cobbled together a piece, which is
archived at

  <http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/sug1.htm>.

If anyone would care to comment, I'd be interested to hear!


--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <editor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>