Voiced palato-alveolar sibilant
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vision /ˈvɪʒən/ |
In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /ʒ/ corresponds to the consonant sound spelled "s" in words like "pleasure", and "usually". There aren't actually many words which have this sound on its own. The related phoneme /dʒ/, as in "job", is far more common.
Very few English words begin with /ʒ/, and those few that do tend to be loanwords from French that are pronounced in a somewhat French manner, the most common being the word genre /ʒɒnrə/.
This sound doesn't have its own letter, and the digraph "zh" was invented to represent it in some foreign transliterations. For example Solzhenitsyn is pronounced in English as /soʊlʒəˈniːtsɪn/. Even in English "zh" has been used, in the slang term "the /ju:ʒ/" (the usual) spelled "the yoozh"[1] or "the uzhe".[2]
/ʒ/ is a voiced consonant; its unvoiced counterpart is IPA phoneme /ʃ/.
/ʒ/ is a fricative; its affricate counterpart is IPA phoneme /dʒ/.
Note that in Chinese "zh" stands for [tʂ], a sound similar to /ts/ or /tʃ/ according to Wikipedia[3] or to /dʒ/ according to the very well known linguist John Wells.[4]
Common words[edit | edit source]
Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /ʒ/ include the following:
- equation - usually
- ending in "sion": conclusion - confusion - decision - division - occasion - provision - television - vision
- ending in "sual": usual - visual
- ending in "sure": exposure - measure - pleasure
Less common words[edit | edit source]
Some less common words which practise the pronunciation of /ʒ/ include the following:
- beginning with /ʒ/ - genre /ʒɒnrə/, gendarme (a French policeman) /ʒɒndɑ:m/, Georges /ʒɔ:ʒ/
- amnesia - luxurious /lʌɡˈʒʊərɪəs/ - seizure
- ending in "ge": beige - collage - massage - mirage - rouge - sabotage
- ending in "sual": casual
- ending in "sion": collision - exclusion - explosion - fusion - illusion - inclusion - invasion - lesion - persuasion - precision - revision (note: ʃ for "ssion": concussion - impression - mission)
- ending in "sure": disclosure - enclosure - leisure /ˈleʒər,BrE ˈliːʒər/AmE - treasure (note: ʃ for "ssure": pressure - fissure)
Variant pronunciations[edit | edit source]
- anaesthesia,BrE anesthesiaAmE /ænəsˈθiːziə,BrE ænəsˈθiːʒəAmE/
- coercion /kəʊˈɜːrʃən,BrE kəʊˈɜːrʒənAmE/
- garage /ˈɡærɑːʒ,BrE ˈɡærɑːdʒ,BrE ˈɡærɪdʒ,BrE ɡəˈrɑːʒ,AmE ɡəˈrɑːdʒAmE/
- lingerie /ˈlænʒəri,BrE lɑːndʒəˈreɪ,AmE lɑːnʒəˈreɪAmE/
- massage /ˈmæsɑːʒ,BrE məˈsɑːʒAmE/
See also Pronunciation exercises: /ʒ/ vs /ʃ/ § Variant pronunciations.
Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1[edit | edit source]
Preconceived ideas and other interferences from L1 obviously interfere in many cases with how students perceive - and pronounce - sounds/words in English. The following sections aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.
Chinese[edit | edit source]
In Mandarin Chinese "r" actually stands for [ɻ ~ ʐ], two speech sounds similar to [ɹ ~ ʒ]. For many speakers of Chinese, it may be difficult to distinguish the differences between /ʒ/ and /r/. They have particular difficulty with the common word "usually", being pronounced rather like "urually".
Spanish[edit | edit source]
Many teachers don't teach the phoneme /ʒ/ explicitly in the belief that students will imitate the teacher. However most Spanish speakers can't hear the difference between /ʒ/ and /ʃ/ and they are not aware that vision /ˈvɪʒən/ and mission /ˈmɪʃən/ don't rhyme.
Once they learn the sound, since it doesn't exist in Spanish, many Spanish speakers tend to pronounce it like /dʒ/.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Urban Dictionary, yoozh
- ↑ The Economist, The abbrevs are my plezh, 23rd Jan 2012
- ↑ Wikipedia, Voiceless retroflex affricate
- ↑ John Wells’s phonetic blog, the digraph zh, 29 September 2010.
