/Z/ and /dZ/

[Mai Kuha]

Maybe this isn't related to the issue of final /Z/, but I could have sworn I
heard Rumsfeld say "regime" with /dZ/ last night, and so I wonder if the
choice between /Z/ and /dZ/ might go beyond class: doesn't "regime" with
/dZ/ sound so much more patriotic?

-Mai

On 3/21/03 9:20 PM, Herbert Stahlke opined:

> It's pretty widely known that some English speakers have /Z/ only
> intervocalically and /dZ/ finally, initial /Z/ being educated usage and
> rare.  Last week I graded a phonetics project involving vowel tensing before
> alveo-palatals, and from the tapes and the demographic information the
> students had recorded it was the /Z/ vs. /dZ/ choice in final position was a
> class marker.  All of the speakers who had no final /Z/ were working class.
>
> This was a small sample, about 35 speakers in all, and nearly all drawn from
> the Muncie area, so I wouldn't want to generalize to readily, but does this
> choice serve as a class marker in other parts of the country too?
>
> Herb
>