Re: Woody or tinny?

On Tue, May 22, 2001 at 01:33:08PM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> Frank George Valoczy wrote:
>
>
> > Our now thankfully departed ex-Premier goes by the name of Ujjal Dosanjh,
> > with the /j/ supposed to be pronounced as in English, namely as [dZ]. Why
> > then, do most people say [u:Z@l do"sA:nZ] instead of [udZ:al dosandZ] or
> > [u:dZ@l do"sA:ndZ] even? I've noticed this often when whites here
> > pronounce Punjabi names, that they pronounce the /j/ as [Z] instead of
> > [dZ]. Would anyone have any ideas as to why?
>
>
> Same reason that "Beijing" [beidZiN] is commonly pronounced with [Z]:
> "All non-English languages are essentially French."
And I was wondering the other day if Americans are inclined to pronounce
unfamiliar words *in English* with /Z/ instead of /dZ/. My curiosity was
sparked when I noticed a friend of mine said <mage> [meiZ], but now that I
think about it, the suffix <-phage> seems to be commonly [feiZ] too.

--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo