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Questions tagged [sibilants]

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4 votes
1 answer
309 views

Voicing of sibilants before liquids, after voiced vowels?

I just ran across an in­ter­est­ing ques­tion from a friend about the voic­ing of sibi­lants in English. She was ask­ing why English speak­ers pro­nounce the word mus­lim as muZlim (with a voiced sibi­...
Greg Church's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
989 views

Pronunciation of words ending with “-tion” [duplicate]

As far as I can recall there are just a few words in the English language which end with the spelling -tion after an 'S' which have a pronunciation ending as 'chan'. But in South Asia, 99% of the ...
Alwyn DSa's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
49k views

What's the rule for pronouncing “’s” as /z/ or /s/?

Is there a hard rule for what sound the 's makes? In words like John's, Dave's, man's, lord's, etc. it makes a /z/ sound, but in words like that's, it's, ship's, poet's, etc., it makes an /s/ sound.
John Fehr's user avatar
  • 103
3 votes
3 answers
6k views

Is "question" pronounced with an "s" or with an "sh" sound?

In all dictionaries the word question is pronounced /ˈkwɛst͡ʃən/, with the sound /t͡ʃ/ (like the ch in church) corresponding to the written ‹ti›. I wanted to know if any phonological change happens ...
Englishfreak's user avatar
  • 1,808
35 votes
8 answers
3k views

Can a statement be "hissed" without any sibilants?

Is using hissed as a replacement for said technically acceptable in dialogue without the presence of any sibilants? "You fool!" she hissed. I understand that hissed could be used to indicate a ...
samuelesque's user avatar