"fission" with -zh-?

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:11 PM -0700 3/15/11, geoffrey nunberg wrote:
>Listening to some nuclear energy experts talking about Japan on the
>radio this morning, I was led to wonder whether  "fission" is the
>only English word in which orthographic [Vssion] can be pronounced
>with a voiced fricative. When I checked with my graduate students, I
>was surprised to find that that's the pronunciation used by all but
>one of them (and the one is from S. Africa). If so, it must be by
>analogy with "fusion," right?
>
>Geoff
>
>
So I've always assumed, as with the shift from penult to ult stress
in "covert" on the model of "overt".  Something there is that likes a
minimal pair.  (Then there's the pronunciation of "transition" to
rhyme with "incision"...)

LH

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