ZH phoneme /ʒ/

The zh phoneme /ʒ/ is a consonant phoneme that’s one of the standard English phonemes.

It forms a voiced-unvoiced pair with phoneme /ʃ/.

Pronunciation

Standard pronunciation is as a voiced palato-alveolar sibilant [ʒ].

Phonotactics

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/.

Spelling

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" or "the uzhe.”

Common words

Some common words which practise the pronunciation of /ʒ/ include the following:

• equation, usually
• ending in "-sion": conclusion - confusion - decision - division - occasion - provision - television - vision, collision - exclusion - explosion - fusion - illusion - inclusion - invasion - lesion - persuasion - precision - revision
• ending in -sual(ly): casual(ly), usual(ly) - visual(ly)
• ending in "-sure": exposure - measure - pleasure, disclosure - enclosure - leisure /ˈleʒər,^BrE ˈliːʒər/^AmE - treasure

Less common words

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

Variant pronunciations

• anaesthesia,^BrE anesthesia^AmE /ænəsˈθiːziə,^BrE ænəsˈθiːʒə^AmE/
• coercion /kəʊˈɜːrʃən,^BrE kəʊˈɜːrʒən^AmE/
• garage /ˈɡærɑːʒ,^BrE ˈɡærɑːdʒ,^BrE ˈɡærɪdʒ,^BrE ɡəˈrɑːʒ,^AmE ɡəˈrɑːdʒ^AmE/
• lingerie /ˈlænʒəri,^BrE lɑːndʒəˈreɪ,^AmE lɑːnʒəˈreɪ^AmE/
• massage /ˈmæsɑːʒ,^BrE məˈsɑːʒ^AmE/

Difficulties

Chinese

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, often pronouncing it rather like “urually.”

Spanish

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/.