/zh/ replacing /dzh/?

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Ima stop pullin y'all's laigs.

dInIs

>On Tue, 24 Sep 2002, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>
>#>I've noticed it for "garage" too.
>
>That's been THE pronunciation of this word for me since always (~1950,
>~NYC). Not the other ones; those are newer.
>
>#
>#>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 and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736