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

[Wilson Gray]

Now, Je-Anne really *is* odd! But maybe that's because it took a while
for me to realize that "Joanne" spells "Jo-Anne" and is not merely a
fancy respelling of "Joan."

-Wilson

On 1/25/08, David Bowie <db.list at pmpkn.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
> Subject:      Re: English words beginning with <j> pronounced [Z]?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>
> <snip>
>
> > Don't y'all find the pronunciation of the final /e/ in "Jeanne" at
> > all, let alone as /i/, somewhat odd?
>
> Well, i've known Jeanne [dZi.ni] for better than 15 years, and i *still*
> find it odd.
>
> Apparently a number of other people do, too--she often gets [dZin] as
> the reading pronunciation of her name, but interestingly [dZi.An] seems
> to be more common.
>
> --
> David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
>      Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>      house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>      chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>
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>


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