hard words on TV! Part deux

James Harbeck jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA
Mon May 14 00:31:38 UTC 2007


>Is "Jesus" spoken in flowing speech mainly ~Jeezus or ~Jeezis?  I would say
>~Jeezis.  But when the word is said alone, usually ~Jeezus

I think I normally make the unstressed vowel a high-mid vowel,
phonemically a schwa but realized as higher than the average schwa.
With [-Iz] it would sound more like the plural of "geez" or "cheese";
the citation form for me would be with the schwa. And of course the
voiced final fricative.

James Harbeck.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list