'Zh' sound in English
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 10:47 am
The 'zh' sound (voiced 'sh') occurs relatively rarely in native English words, and only in the middle of them. For example:
vision and its compounds, leisure, pleasure, measure, seizure, treasure, exposure, closure, lesion, plosion and its compounds, occasion, casual.
It is not a difficult sound for an English speaker to produce, and the fact that it occurs at all raises the question of why it has not arisen more widely in all the chaotic history of the English language (especially in place names, whose early development was particularly free).
I wonder if there are parallels in other languages, i.e. sounds which do occur in native words, but uncommonly.
vision and its compounds, leisure, pleasure, measure, seizure, treasure, exposure, closure, lesion, plosion and its compounds, occasion, casual.
It is not a difficult sound for an English speaker to produce, and the fact that it occurs at all raises the question of why it has not arisen more widely in all the chaotic history of the English language (especially in place names, whose early development was particularly free).
I wonder if there are parallels in other languages, i.e. sounds which do occur in native words, but uncommonly.