Date:  Wed, 1 Dec 1993 07:28:08 EST

From:  Robert Kelly <kelly[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LEVY.BARD.EDU>

Subject: Re: Mail Order / Pin-Pen / LAGS



I think I once heard an unvoiced medial /s/ appear in my own pronunciation of

"houses" --- a feature that irritates. Has anyone charted the (apparently)

progressive replacement of houZes by houSSes? I hear it more and more in

new college students.



If this feature is on the march, it seems a more radical change than the

gradual assimilation of front vowels of the pen/pin sort--- though the s/z

difference does not have any American isogloss to support it. It seems,

in other words, a floating feature. Does anyone have any references on

this matter?



RK