Why are there almost no words in English containing the letter combination “zh”, despite the fact that that the sound is quite common, e.g. “measure”?
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The only one I can think of is “zhuzh”.
Definitely zhuzhed up the comment section with this one.
Cyrillic is surprisingly easy. From my limited understanding, things are written how they sound (for the most part). Instead of letter combinations like zh, sh, or ch, there are single letters: ж, ш, ч.
Even vowel sounds are more obvious: ee=и, eh=э, oo=у, and yoo=ю. (FYI, it’s “Pootin” not “Pyootin”)
The only one I can think of is “zhuzh”.
Definitely zhuzhed up the comment section with this one.
The only one I can think of is “zhuzh”.
Definitely zhuzhed up the comment section with this one.
Cyrillic is surprisingly easy. From my limited understanding, things are written how they sound (for the most part). Instead of letter combinations like zh, sh, or ch, there are single letters: ж, ш, ч.
Even vowel sounds are more obvious: ee=и, eh=э, oo=у, and yoo=ю. (FYI, it’s “Pootin” not “Pyootin”)
Cyrillic is surprisingly easy. From my limited understanding, things are written how they sound (for the most part). Instead of letter combinations like zh, sh, or ch, there are single letters: ж, ш, ч.
Even vowel sounds are more obvious: ee=и, eh=э, oo=у, and yoo=ю. (FYI, it’s “Pootin” not “Pyootin”)
Since I was a little kid, I’ve wished there was a ‘zh’ consonant blend in the English language. Would make so much sense, not to mention languages like Chinese would be be much, much easier to speak/read using pinyin characters that included the ‘zh’ blend.
Since I was a little kid, I’ve wished there was a ‘zh’ consonant blend in the English language. Would make so much sense, not to mention languages like Chinese would be be much, much easier to speak/read using pinyin characters that included the ‘zh’ blend.
I’m probably biased from reading translations of Chinese names, but my coworker surnamed Zhang is pronounced Zh-ang with a notable zz buzz rolling into the h followed by any as the second syllable. Whether it’s technically incorrect “Zh” is a lot more accurate than writing it as Shang
There is no standard cross-linguistic connection between letters/letter combinations written in the Latin alphabet and sounds. Look at Irish, with all those vowel combos that are completely unpronounceable if you’re relying on English language conventions. In English, we tend to use different letters to make the sound for which uou use “zh” here as a standard. Most words with “zh” in English are loan words as far as I know.
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