[General] /ʒ/ sound

[maiabulela]

Dear all,

Are there words in English that begins with the /ʒ/ sound? All I have found is /dʒ/ sound, and it seems to me that there is no /ʒ/ at the begining.

I will be waiting for your reply.

Thanks a lot.

 

[nyota]

genre can be pronounced with /ʒ/

 

[Coolfootluke]

Dear all,

Are there words in English that begins with the /ʒ/ sound? All I have found is /dʒ/ sound, and it seems to me that there is no /ʒ/ at the begining.

I will be waiting for your reply.

Thanks a lot.

I am not a teacher.

English has some French words and terms in it that have retained their French pronunciation to some extent. "Mot juste" is one, and the "juste" starts that way. Zsa Zsa Gabor, too. I can't think of any regular English word that begins with that sound.

 

[5jj]

I can't think of any regular English word that begins with that sound.

I don't think there are any. The only other reasonably common word I can think of from French is gigolo. I did find gigue, a lively piece of music, and jabot, a frill on the front of a shirt, but these are not very common.

 

[probus]

From French we also have "au jus".

 

[BobK]

I don't think there are any [CFL: 'regular English word']. The only other reasonably common word I can think of from French is gigolo. I did find gigue, a lively piece of music, and jabot, a frill on the front of a shirt, but these are not very common.

It depends what you mean by 'English word'. We've already had 'genre'. (I know that's French, but where do you draw the line? If you define 'regular' as 'conforming to the rules' [regula = 'rule] then what...? But it remains true that if you did a Wug test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia with nonsense words starting with a g or a j you'd never hear a /ð/ - or at least very rarely {if the nonsense word looked as though it might be foreign ;-)})

b

 

[Coolfootluke]

It depends what you mean by 'English word'. We've already had 'genre'. (I know that's French, but where do you draw the line? If you define 'regular' as 'conforming to the rules' [regula = 'rule] then what...? But it remains true that if you did a Wug test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia with nonsense words starting with a g or a j you'd never hear a /ð/ - or at least very rarely {if the nonsense word looked as though it might be foreign ;-)})

b

I am not a teacher, nor am I a linguist.

OK, "regular" isn't cutting it---I was shooting from the hip. How about "fully anglicized"? I pronounce nyota's "genre" with the soft "j", and that is fully anglicized. The others, like "gigolo" get the hard "j" from me.

 

[BobK]

:up: 'Fully anglicized' works for me ;-)

b

 

[madziekD]

hey! I've got a question. few weeks ago I had had a test in English phonetics and phonology, I was asked about "ʒ" distibution and had no idea what to say, I tried to find some info on Internet but I failed and haven't found anything.

 

[madziekD]

is it
Free variation

Complementary distribution

Contrastive distribution

and why
(I continued researching, found this

 

[5jj]

The /dʒ/ and/ʒ/ sounds at the end of garage are said to be in free variation. Either can be used with no change of meaning.
The 'dark /l/' at the end of pill and the 'clear /l/' at the beginning of 'lip' are in complementary distribution in my dialect. We recognise the two as being one phoneme, but native speakers will never use one allophone where the other is natural - even if they are not aware that they are using different allophones.

 

[mara_ce]

hey! I've got a question. few weeks ago I had had a test in English phonetics and phonology, I was asked about "ʒ" distibution and had no idea what to say, I tried to find some info on Internet but I failed and haven't found anything.

I studied Phonetics and Phonology some years ago, and I think that the question refers to the position of the sound /ʒ/. (I might be wrong)

Gimson gives detailed information about it.

"word-initial _ (in French loan words) gigolo, gigue, jabot, genre

word-medial _ pleasure, leisure, usual, confusion, decision

word-final _ (only in French loan words; an alternative pronunciation with /dʒ/ is possible) _ prestige, barrage, rouge, beige, garage

in word-initial clusters _ does not occur

in word-final clusters _ /ʒn(z)/ vision(s), in French words, when said with final /ʒ/, the cluster /ʒd/ is possible, e.g. camouflaged. Moreover for those who use final /ʒ/, rather than /dʒ/, after /n/, e.g. in arrange (d), the clusters /nʒ(d)/ may occur."

I also found this.