"fission" with -zh-?

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:05 PM -0400 3/15/11, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>"Fizhion" is what they've been saying on the news for years and years. I
>suppose some still say "fission," but they must be a real minority.
>
>JL

We're a proud minority, we happy few.  Besides,
we can pun on "Gone Fission", which those fizhion
folks can't.

LH

>
>On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 3:58 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: "fission" with -zh-?
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>>  wrote:
>>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  > Poster: Â  Â  Â  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>  > Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: "fission" with -zh-?
>>  >
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  >
>>  > 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". Â Something there is that likes a
>>  > minimal pair. Â (Then there's the pronunciation of "transition" to
>>  > rhyme with "incision"...)
>>  >
>>  > LH
>>  >
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>>  > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>  >
>>
>>  Are speakers of BrE still under the impre[Z]ion that "equation" is
>>  pronounced "equa[S]ion"?
>>
>>  --
>>  -Wilson
>>  -----
>>  All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>>  to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>  -Mark Twain
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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