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Its pronunciation is the same as that of the digraph rz , except that rz (unlike ż ) also undergoes devoicing when preceded by a voiceless obstruent. The difference in spelling comes from their historical pronunciations: ż originates from a palatalized /ɡ/ or /z/ , while rz evolved from a palatalized r .
This sound, sometimes transcribed /zh/, occurs in the pronunciation of si in vision / ˈ v ɪ ʒ ən / and precision / p r ɪ ˈ s ɪ ʒ ən /, the s in treasure / ˈ t r ɛ ʒ ər /, and the g in beige / b eɪ ʒ /. Ezh is also used as a letter in some orthographies of Laz and Skolt Sami, both by itself, and with a caron ( Ǯ ǯ ).
When suffixes are added to words ending with a hard or soft g (such as -ed, -ing, -er, -est, -ism, -ist, -edness, -ish(ness), -ily, -iness, -ier, -iest, -ingly, -edly, and -ishly), the sound is normally maintained. Sometimes the normal rules of spelling changes before suffixes can help signal whether the hard or soft sound is intended.
The words given as examples for two different symbols may sound the same to you. For example, you may pronounce cot and caught , do and dew , or marry and merry the same. This often happens because of dialect variation (see our articles English phonology and International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects ).
However, the Vulgar Latin spellings z or zi for earlier di and d before e, and the spellings di and dz for earlier z, suggest the pronunciation /dz/, as for example ziomedis for diomedis, and diaeta for zeta. [34] In ancient times V and I represented the approximant consonants /w/ and /j/, as well as the close vowels /u(ː)/ and /i(ː)/.
Some dialects still retain the original pronunciation (e.g., Horjul, Lower Carniolan, Inner Carniolan and Upper Savinja dialects. Shvapanye ( Slovene : švapanje ) is the pronunciation of /l/ and /ʋ/ as [w] or [u̯] before all back vowels, consonants and /a/ ( /ʌ/ ), which is present in the Carinthian dialects , Upper Carniolan dialect , some ...
A more likely explanation is that the /z/ sound that it probably represented had disappeared from Latin after turning into /r/ due to a rhotacism process [7], making the letter useless for spelling Latin words. [8] Whatever the case may be, Appius Claudius's distaste for the letter Z is today credited as the reason for its removal.
Words marked with subscript A or B are exceptions to this, and thus retains a full vowel in the (relatively) unstressed syllable of AmE or BrE. A subsequent asterisk, *, means that the full vowel is usually retained; a preceding * means that the full vowel is sometimes retained. Words with other points of difference are listed in a later table.