/zh/ replacing /dzh/?

[Laurence Horn]

>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.
>
Same as yours; I was just surmising that the "Elijah" fricative may
be an extension of the hyperforeignism you're describing, while the
one in "siege" is more likely to be something else (I was suggesting
analogy/spelling pron. based on "liege", "beige", "rouge", etc.).
How many words actually rhyme with "siege" (with affricate)?  I'd be
MUCH more surprised to find the shift to a fricative in e.g. "edge"
or "pledge".

L