/zh/ replacing /dzh/?

[Peter A. McGraw]

I don't get it.  You would laugh and point at a Chinese pronouncing the
name of the Chinese capital correctly?  ("Ha ha!  What do those Chinese
know, anyway?  Can't even pronounce their own language.") The spelling of
Beijing is a Chinese representation of the name of their capital as it is
currently pronounced there.  It isn't an English word subject to evolution
and regional variation by speakers of American English.  The fricative
pronunciation of the j by Americans is a misinterpretation of the Chinese
spelling, pure and simple.

Peter Mc.

--On Tuesday, September 24, 2002 9:27 PM -0400 Douglas Bigham
<TlhovwI at AOL.COM> wrote:

> "Beijing" and "Elijah" with /dzh/ sound as funny to me as "garage" does
> with it.  I would laugh and point.



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