English words beginning with <j> pronounced [Z]?

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:20 AM -0500 1/22/08, Dennis Preston wrote:
>LH,
>
>I believe the recommended Shakespearian version was /Jekwiz/ not /Jakwiz/.
>
>dInIs

Right; I knew mine didn't sound quite right vocalically, but I was
focusing on the consonants.

LH

>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>Subject:      Re: English words beginning with <j> pronounced [Z]?
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>At 4:20 AM +0000 1/22/08, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
>>>Borrowed French words like genre ~zhaanru, (where ~aa sounds like
>>>"ah" and ~u like "uh".)  Also Jacques, ~zhaaks.
>>
>>Seems like if someone is going to bother with the /Z/ for "Jacques",
>>they'll go the whole hog:  /Zak/, not /Zaks/.  (For Shakespeare, I
>>believe it was anglicized to something like /Jakwiz/.) And the riddle
>>posed by Nadia Gabriel below originally specified an initial <j>, not
>><g>, FWIW.
>>
>>LH
>>
>>>
>>>Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>>>See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems"
>>>at authorhouse.com.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>   Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:42:43 -0500
>>>>   From: laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
>>>>   Subject: Re: English words beginning with  pronounced [Z]?
>>>>   To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>>
>>>>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>-----------------------
>>>>   Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>   Poster: Laurence Horn
>>>>   Subject: Re: English words beginning with  pronounced [Z]?
>>>>
>>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>   At 1:56 PM -0500 1/21/08, Charles Doyle wrote:
>>>>>A while back, didn't we discuss a word pronounced [ZUZ], a noun
>>>>>referring to a quick shake given to something? I have no idea how
>>>>>the word might be spelled!
>>>>>
>>>>>--Charlie
>>>>
>>>>   Most posters who seemed to know (or at least seemed to be confident)
>>>>   had it as "zhuzh", and cited Queer Eye for the Straight Guy as the
>>>>   vector. (Steve Kleinedler may have nominated it for one of the WOTY
>>>>   categories a couple of years ago.)
>>>>
>>>>   LH
>>>>
>>>>>_____________________________________________________________
>>>>>
>>>>>---- Original message ----
>>>>>>Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:19:07 -0500
>>>>>>From: Dennis Preston >
>>>>>>In LIN 101 we teach students that /Z/ (the second sound in 'azure'
>>>>>>the last sound in 'garage') is a silly sound (like ng) which can
>>>>>>occur internally and finally but never initially. In final position
>>>>>>it is giving way to /dZ/, and here in good-talking and linguistically
>>>>>>secure Michigan, people surveyed were not sensitive to the final /dZ/
>>>>>>pronunciation as nonstandard.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>dInIs
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>>>>-----------------------
>>>>>>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>>>>Poster: Nadia Gabriel
>>>>>>>Subject: English words beginning with  pronounced [Z]?
>>>>>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Dear all,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>A question out of a friend's curious brain - he is French,
>>>>>>>currently taking
>>>>>>>lessons to improve his English:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Do you know of words, common word or proper names, in the
>>>>>>>English language
>>>>>>>that begin with the letter  but that are pronounced without the [d]
>>>>>>>sound, just the [Z] sound?
>>>>>>>Or, to put it another way, words where the initial  is pronounced as in
>>>>>>>French?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I can't think of any!
>>>>>>>An advanced search in the OED Online ("Entries containing Z
>>>>>>>in Pronunciations") retrieves only one word: jinricksha, jinrikisha,
>>>>>>>*n.*,
>>>>>>>from Japanese.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I'd be grateful for any comments!
>>>>>>>   (I must add I didn't read all the article under the entry for
>>>>>>>the letter J,
>>>>>>>which also appeared in the results of my search - Wonderful OED)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Thank you,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>   Nadia Gabriel
>>>>>>>   Librarian & Translator
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>  >>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>--
>>>>>>Dennis R. Preston
>>>>>>University Distinguished Professor
>>>>>>Department of English
>>>>>>Morrill Hall 15-C
>>>>>>Michigan State University
>>>>>>East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>>>>>>
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>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>Morrill Hall 15-C
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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