"Business takes Vi[z]a"

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:31 PM -0400 8/17/08, Wilson Gray wrote:
>"Visa" as pronounced by their current voice-over guy. I'd been
>beginning to fear that I would never hear the correct, i.e. the one
>that I use, pronunciation, again. BTW, what's up with these
>mirror-image pronunciations?
>
>My wife and probably millions of other Easterners says Vi[s]a,
>Eli[s]e, Li[s]a, We[z]ley, but Le[s]ley, etc., whereas I say, with
>many millions of non-Easterners, Vi[z]a, Eli[z]e, Li[z]a, We[s]ley,
>but Le[z]ley, etc.
>
>-Wilson

I'm not sure these pattern as a class.  They certainly do for me.
For this Easterner, it is indeed [viz@] (for both the credit card and
the document) but Eli[s]e, [lis@] (or [layz@], a depending on whether
we're talking about "Lisa" or "Liza"), We[z]ley (and We[z]leyan), and
Le[z]ley/Le[z]lie.

LH

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