/zh/ replacing /dzh/?

[Peter A. McGraw]

The j Beijing is the pinyin spelling for an alveolar or alveopalatal
affricate, not a fricative (which Mandarin Chinese doesn't have).  I don't
think there is a change in progress in this case--just an assumption on the
part of many Americans that any foreign language should sound as much like
French as possible.

As for the other two, I personally don't recall ever hearing Elijah with a
fricative, and I heard one in seige for the first time this morning on NPR.
I don't know what others' observations may have been.

Peter Mc.

--On Tuesday, September 24, 2002 6:31 AM -0400 Terry Irons
<t-irons at MOREHEAD-ST.EDU> wrote:

> I have always used a fricative in Beijing, Elijah, and seige.  Where is
> the evidence that this is a change in progress, as opposed to variants of
> a variable?
>
>
> **************************
> Terry Lynn Irons



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu