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

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Jan 22, 2008 5:54 PM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> > The five most common transcription systems are given here:
> > http://www.blahedo.org/ascii-ipa.html
>
> Thanks for this site.
> Which of the five does the US Government use?  I know the VOA uses none of these.  I call their
> type of phonetic spelling VOAspel.  No one has given me another name for it.

Those are just IPA-to-ASCII transcription systems. VOA uses a phonetic
respelling that has nothing to do with IPA.

If you're looking for a name, Larry Urdang likes to call this type of
phonetic respelling the Moo Goo Gai Pan System.


--Ben Zimmer

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