At 11:32 -0400 2004-05-31, John Cowan wrote:

> > ... In English /Z/ is a rare phoneme, and particularly so in
>> monosyllables.
>
>I don't know what monosyllables have to do with it.

Rouge can't be analyzed as /zj/

> > The author knows only three such words, loge, beige, and
>> rouge. The odds are against finding contrasts with only three words with
>> which to work."
>
>I will bet there are dialects in which all three of these show /dZ/.

Wentworth's American Dialect dictionary attests [rudZ] in
northwestern Virginia (Shenandoah Valley). Not the other two though.
I didn't know the word "loge" myself.
--
Michael Everson * * Everson Typography * * http://www.evertype.com