"fission" with -zh-?

[Joel S. Berson]

Yes, we few but happy and pretentious few.  For
me "fission" is "mission", not "vision", so that
"fusion" ['fyuZn] is two pairs away from "fission".

Joel

At 3/15/2011 08:25 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>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
>>>  >
>>>  > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  > 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."
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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