/zh/ replacing /dzh/?

[Mai Kuha]

On Fri, 27 Sep 2002, I wrote:

> #I've heard "homage" with /zh/ (stress on the second syllable, rhyming with
> #"fromage" as pronounced in French) recently (...)

On 9/27/02 9:08 AM, Mark A Mandel wrote:

> That one's not surprising, the word coming as it does from French
> "hommage" [o'maZ] (...)

Sure. None of the previously mentioned zh-items have been profoundly
shocking either, right? I thought the point of this thread has been to
consider whether there is a  /dzh/  >  /zh/  *process* (as discussed,
possibly motivated by speakers' unsurprising efforts to find appropriately
strange pronunciations for words that are perceived to be non-English). That
would be more interesting than (unsystematic) variation in the pronunciation
of one lexical item.

-Mai