Why "sh" pronunciation in "sugar"?

Mark A Mandel mam at THEWORLD.COM
Tue May 7 15:31:21 UTC 2002


On Fri, 1 Jan 1904, Donald M Lance wrote:

#on 5/6/02 9:26 PM, Mark A Mandel at mam at THEWORLD.COM wrote:
#> 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".

#Right.  And if you listen carefully to some British actors speaking
#especially carefully, you will hear something like me-zi-ur for 'measure'
#etc.  But no -iu- glide in sure and sugar.

Not today, but I'm guessing Once Upon A Time.

-- Mark A. Mandel, Ph.D., d/b/a Dr. Whom
   editing, proofreading, and linguistic consultation



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