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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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.
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.
As an English person I don’t think I would describe the sound in those words as zh.
Measure would be Meh sure don’t know phonetic sounds but basically it’s definitely an sh sound to me
Ration is a different sound to me but it’s difficult to explain maybe more like a longer shhhh sound.
I think to a British English speaker we don’t hear it as a z sound.
I hear it as a sh sound, so spelling it zh feels counter intuitive to me.
If a word was spelled meazhure I would be inclined to read it as mezz-hure my brain would separate the z and the h. They are two letters that do not work together.
The historical reason will almost certainly be related to Latin and french and I’m sure some people can add more but I just wanted how 9dd it sounds to me to describe it as a zh sound I do not hear a z sound in those words.
Maybe it’s an American English thing?
As an English person I don’t think I would describe the sound in those words as zh.
Measure would be Meh sure don’t know phonetic sounds but basically it’s definitely an sh sound to me
Ration is a different sound to me but it’s difficult to explain maybe more like a longer shhhh sound.
I think to a British English speaker we don’t hear it as a z sound.
I hear it as a sh sound, so spelling it zh feels counter intuitive to me.
If a word was spelled meazhure I would be inclined to read it as mezz-hure my brain would separate the z and the h. They are two letters that do not work together.
The historical reason will almost certainly be related to Latin and french and I’m sure some people can add more but I just wanted how 9dd it sounds to me to describe it as a zh sound I do not hear a z sound in those words.
Maybe it’s an American English thing?
As an English person I don’t think I would describe the sound in those words as zh.
Measure would be Meh sure don’t know phonetic sounds but basically it’s definitely an sh sound to me
Ration is a different sound to me but it’s difficult to explain maybe more like a longer shhhh sound.
I think to a British English speaker we don’t hear it as a z sound.
I hear it as a sh sound, so spelling it zh feels counter intuitive to me.
If a word was spelled meazhure I would be inclined to read it as mezz-hure my brain would separate the z and the h. They are two letters that do not work together.
The historical reason will almost certainly be related to Latin and french and I’m sure some people can add more but I just wanted how 9dd it sounds to me to describe it as a zh sound I do not hear a z sound in those words.
Maybe it’s an American English thing?
Do you think that we chose to spell words the way they sound, or that people mispronounced or change the pronunciation of some words? Why don’t you see if you can handle this one yourself. I believe in you.
Do you think that we chose to spell words the way they sound, or that people mispronounced or change the pronunciation of some words? Why don’t you see if you can handle this one yourself. I believe in you.
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