Voicing of (written) "sibilants" in English

[Prof Steven P Hill]

Dear colleagues:

My impresson is that there can be some differences between British 
and American English.

In American pronunciation the common suffix "-sion" is often 
articulated with ZH; e.g., "decision," "incision" = [ dee-SIZH-un ], 
[ in-SIZH -un ].  Whereas I've gotten the impression that in British 
pronunciation that same suffix can sound as SH; e.g.,  perhaps  
[dee-SISH-un], [in-SISH-un] ?

On the contrary, Gallagher's example "fission" to my American ear 
still sounds as SH in American English: [ FISH - un ].  Maybe some 
Yanks already render it with ZH?  And I admit I don't know how 
"fission" is rendered in British pronunciation.

I once had a US-raised student who had grown up in the home 
of parents who were native speakers of German.  Even in a US 
(Illinois) college, she still did not distinguish between the sounds 
SH and ZH, either in English or in "Russian 101" (which I was 
teaching)...

Best wishes to all,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
_____________________________________________________________

Date: Wed 3 Dec 01:41:56 CST 2008
From: <LISTSERV at bama.ua.edu> 
Subject: Re: GETPOST SEELANGS 
To: "Steven P. Hill" <s-hill4 at ILLINOIS.EDU>  

Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 00:17:42 -0500
From: "Paul B. Gallagher" <paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM> 
Subject: Sibilant voicing in American English 

Dear friends,
I've been putting together a collection of words where the sibilants /s/ 
and /ʃ/ ("sh") have recently become voiced in American English.
Here are a few examples (sorry if they make you wince):
	cazhmere (wool)
	(nuclear) fision
Obviously, "possess" (cf. French posseder) has had a /z/ for a long 
time, but I don't know how long; I'm interested in 20th-century or later 
shifts.
Isolated morphemes seem to be more susceptible; paradigms like 
fishes/fished/fishing are apparently immune.
Can anyone add to my collection?
Private replies welcome, all replies accepted.

Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com
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