Re: Graphemes defined

Peter T. Daniels scripsit:

> "For /S/ : /Z/, minimal pairs are even rarer, and only the following are
> known in my speech: dilution : delusion, glacier : glazier, and Aleutian
> : allusion.

All three analyzable as /zj/.

> ... In English /Z/ is a rare phoneme, and particularly so in
> monosyllables.

I don't know what monosyllables have to do with it.

> 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/.

> Now, what was the original problem?

1) Whether in some dialects all instances of /Z/ are analyzable as /zj/.

2) Whether there is any dialect in which /Z/ is *not* analyzable as /zj/
apart from limited lexical exceptions without minimal pairs.

--
John Cowan jcowan@... http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Does anybody want any flotsam? / I've gotsam.
Does anybody want any jetsam? / I can getsam.
--Ogden Nash, No Doctors Today, Thank You