"Business takes Vi[z]a"

[Mark Mandel]

(raises hand) Both "visa" (goes with passport) and "Visa" (goes with debt)
have [z] for me. Grew up NYC & environs (1950's, so I've known the lowercase
one a lot longer), both parents born and raised NYC.

Since when has spelling had anything to do with Eng. pronunciation, anyway?
;-)

m a m

On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 2:54 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> At 2:35 PM -0400 8/17/08, James Harbeck wrote:
> >In Canada, Vi[z]a is the standard everywhere, and it's always been a
> >bit odd to my ear to hear Vi[s]a as I do when in the US (generally if
> >I'm in the US I'm in the East, so I wasn't aware that it's [z] in
> >some parts of the country). I had wondered whether this is due to the
> >influence of French in Canada versus the influence of Spanish in the
> >US, but perhaps it's not so.
> >
> Are there other Easterners (besides me) who say Vi[z]a?  I'm sure the
> pattern isn't as straightforwardly regional as that for
> "greasy"/"greazy".
>
> LH
>

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