/zh/ replacing /dzh/?

[Dennis R. Preston]

>I've noticed it for "garage" too.

dInIs

>I've noticed for some time that many of my students and a lot of
>newsreaders and sports announcers, local, cable, and network, are
>replacing certain cases of /dzh/ with /zh/.  I first noticed it with
>proper nouns like Beijing and Elijah, which are now regularly
>pronounced with palato-alveolar fricatives rather than affricates.
>This evening a newsreader on MSNBC did the same replacement with
>"siege".  That's the first case I've noticed in a word that wasn't a
>name and/or foreign sounding.
>
>Herb Stahlke

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
      Asian & African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
e-mail: preston at msu.edu
phone: (517) 353-9290