hard words on TV! Part deux

[James Harbeck]

>Of interest here is that Pres. Bush pronounces plural words ending in the
>letter "s" as ~s, instead of ~z.  A lot of this is going on.

Although I don't have data on GWB's pronunciation of "Jesus," I know
that in many more conservative and evangelical Christian circles
(such as he often frequents), it is pronounced with the final
fricative voiceless, rather than voiced as most other Anglophones
would have it. That's not a plural, of course, but a separate
phenomenon with the same result. I don't know just why this is the
case.

Also, I am aware that some words that in Canada are pronounced with
[z] are apparently more common in the US with [s], such as "Visa"
(other examples escape me, but I have a nebulous recollection of
there being others); I've often wondered whether the difference has
to do with the influence of the respective second languages of the
countries, Canada with French, which voices in that position, and
Spanish, which is voiceless there.

So, all this only formally similar stuff is leading to a wondering a)
what the source of Bush's devoicing of the final s's is, and b)
whether it has any relation to one, the other, or both of the above.
I wouldn't run out and put money on it, but I can't help muse, if
briefly.
--
Ciao, James.
james at harbeck.ca
http://www.harbeck.ca/James
"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before
breakfast!" -Through the Looking-glass, Lewis Carroll

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